[blhack]

>I dislike large corporations of all stripes (especially smooth talking ones) that are trying to take over the web for their own financial good.

From you profile. You don't think that maybe this bias is showing through in some of your comments?

[threeseed]

So what if there is a bias ? EVERYONE has biases. It's what makes us different.

You shouldn't ever be downvoted for expressing an opposing position.

[crayola]

I'd call this an opinion rather than a bias.. A bias is where some exogenous factors (e.g. background, stakes..) are pushing opinions a certain direction.

[OGinparadise]

So what? People have biases, I never claimed to be unbiased and we're just sharing our opinions. I do not get paid by anyone for what I say. What I said about Google is heretic to some, only because they have this notion of an angelic Google. They'd believe it for Apple, most other companies and especially for Facebook and Microsoft.

Anyway, bed time is almost here.

[burntsushi]

> So what?

Unless I missed something, your OP was one big complaint about biases.

[pfortuny]

Not bias: abuse of power which is quite a different thing. On HN opinions only have interest, votes have power.

[burntsushi]

Abuse? Votes are influenced by bias. Abuse only happens when there is a large coordinated effort to snuff something out.

[pfortuny]

No: you abuse a vote when you vote not led by reason but by opinion. Downvotes are not for differences of opinion but for lack of interest, etc...

Downvoting affects directly the visibility of a message and this should not be based on opinion.

[burntsushi]

Since when is reason not influenced by bias?

You seem to be splitting hairs here. The OP complained about the bias of others but didn't like it when he had his own biases pointed out.

I'm suspicious of any claim that says "votes" somehow have more "power" than words. Words, opinions and ideas all have power too.