[DoctorOetker]

I wish HN would have a downvote penalty mechanism, where the number of replies on comments you downvote should be at least x percent, say 50%.

Oh no the burden of actually explaining why you want to de-emphasize a comment.

[Rexxar]

Maybe because your tone is needlessly aggressive and lot's of people don't want HN turns into Reddit/Twitter. There is enough people raging on everything on all social networks maybe we are here hopping to have more civilised discussions.

[DoctorOetker]

Or maybe because people don't know basic physics principles, and dislike "reality based communities" from forming in their midst?

[quickthrowman]

> Oh no the burden of actually explaining why you want to de-emphasize a comment.

One single square meter of land in direct sunlight receives a constant 6kW (21MJ) of energy. The heat rejected by industrial and other processes is absolutely minuscule in comparison, a rounding error.

Comments that are incorrect but posted in an authoritative voice get downvoted, for good reason.

[DoctorOetker]

>One single square meter of land in direct sunlight receives a constant 6kW (21MJ) of energy. The heat rejected by industrial and other processes is absolutely minuscule in comparison, a rounding error.

This is incorrect, at ground level its about 1 kW of sunlight per square meter if that square meter is orthogonal to the line of sight to the sun, otherwise it gets diminished with cos(theta) where theta is the angle between the line of sight to the sun and the normal of the square meter of land, it can not receive 6 kW no matter the orientation. And 6 kW is a power, while 21 MJ is an energy.

> Comments that are incorrect but posted in an authoritative voice get downvoted, for good reason.

Indeed your incorrect comment in an authoritative voice might get downvoted, for good reason, but I won't be the one doing it...

[quickthrowman]

Welp, turns out I should verify information better. I thought 6kW seemed high when a 1 square meter solar panel that is ~25% efficient can generate 250W of electricity. My apologies.

[rsync]

Let me explain to you that I downvoted this comment because you complained about your downvotes.

Please don't interrupt the discussion to meta-discuss the scoring system.

[DoctorOetker]

look at the timestamps, when I wrote that comment there was no discussion at all, only the downvote and my request for discussion... which worked

but now you say I "interrupted" the back-then-non-existent discussion... whatever rsync, whatever...