[drumhead]

You also see it with certain companies that have a very active presence on HN. Any negative comment is downvoted aggressively. Downvoting on HN is rather uncommon, people tend to tell you why they disagree with you rather than vote you down. When it happens with some of these companies you never see that.

[plugin-baby]

> people tend to tell you why they disagree with you rather than vote you down

I’m not sure I agree with this. HN is probably better than most sites, but I frequently see gray comments with no responses.

[marak830]

I'll agree with this. I'll generally downvote if I disagree, and hope someone with a better argument will say what I don't have time/verbage for.

[CaptainZapp]

I never downvote based on an opinion, even if I disagree violently, as long as the comment is well reasoned an in good faith.

On the other hand I reflexively downvote everything with even a slight wiff of shilling (especially crypto) or anything boot licking and fanboyism.

I may even upvote comments with which I disagree if I feel they're unfairly downvoted.

[gwbas1c]

I used to see it with cryptocurrency. I suffered a lot of downvotes for pointing out the (finally) well-known flaws with cryptocurrency, and how most of them are (finally other people realize) scams.