zlacker

My advise to anyone here is to not dismiss downvoted comments but independently read them and form your own opinion. If it sides with the majority, great. No harm. But if it doesn't, then you can add your voice by upvoting them and expanding on their comment with your own color. I actually gravitate towards downvoted comments to see if there is some treasure, usually not but sometimes you do find interesting but awkwardly worded ideas.

History has taught us, many great ideas go against the grain... and some ideas demand going against the grain before people can realize its value.

Of course there are univerally bad comments (violence and deep contemptful hatred).

>>system+(OP)
Everyone should browse with the "showdead" set to yes. I also would like to be able to comment on the dead posts, but I guess I'll just have to be happy with viewing them.

>>ratsma+07
If you vouch for it, you may be able to bring it back to life and then comment on it. I do this for dead comments that don't seem (to me) to be reasonably dead. Often it's someone who's been shadow banned for some reason (often a good one if you go through their comment history), but I'm willing to bring back their good comments when I find them.

>>ratsma+07
I’d stop short of saying “everyone should” do that, but I do, and I’ll upvote or vouch for posts that seem to me to be unfairly judged.

>>system+(OP)
> not dismiss downvoted comments but independently read them and form your own opinion

You can say that about pretty much any speech, but in this age of unlimited information available to you, you need heuristics if you want to make the most of it. Dismissing dead comments is a good one on HN in my experience. I'm more concerned about false positives (comments I choose to read because I falsely thought they would be thought-provoking) than false negatives (the comments you mention).