[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.