[sanderjd]

Abusive comments should be flagged. Bad comments should be downvoted. There are lots of comments that are bad because they are not constructive, or are off topic, or are arguing in bad faith. These don't deserve to be flagged. They deserve to be downvoted. And there are lots of comments that are constructive and in good faith, but just reasonable to disagree with. These don't deserve downvotes, they deserve a comment disagreeing, or an upvote on an existing comment disagreeing with them.

For what it's worth, I contend that - notwithstanding what pg and dang said many years ago, this is the revealed preference of most HN users, because it's quite rare to see a comment that is downvoted, just because lots of people disagree with it.

[unmole]

> revealed preference of most HN users, because it's quite rare to see a comment that is downvoted, just because lots of people disagree with it.

This does not match my experience at all.

[sanderjd]

Outside of this thread, which seems to have brought "downvotes are for disagreement!" crusaders out of the woodwork, I essentially never see grayed out comments that are in good faith but just wrong. That may be because there are roughly the same number of people who agree with the wrong take as disagree, but I doubt it. I also get five to twenty upvotes on a comment every once in awhile, but I don't think I've ever seen more than about two downvotes on a comment, including on ones that get strong disagreement in replies. People don't just agree with me a lot more than they disagree with me, it's that most people aren't using the votes in this symmetrical agreement/disagreement way. Which I think is a good thing, even if it's not what the site's powers that be intended.