At this point I'm actively looking for a replacement community that focuses much more on ML and Linux, and not on the social issues associated with machine learning, or social justice warriors messing up tech firms, or people who seem to get their "science" from Fox News.
2. Just because others make bad comments, it doesn't mean you should, too.
3. Your type of bad comment is the one there's a rule against, while there's no explicit rule about being wrong.
Dead simple. Somehow it’s also emailed me minutes before the reply became visible on HN. I later realized that the user probably had a “delay” set in their profile, but HN likely publishes the comment to the API even if it remains hidden on the site for a few minutes. So it was funny to see a secret way to bypass the delay feature.
Upvotes are a terrible proxy for value, by the way. One wouldn’t say that a Reddit comment was valuable just because it was popular. The same standard seems true on HN — particularly for fluff, which tend to be upvote magnets.
If you word things in a confrontationally, overly partisan, or ignorant way, you'll get downvoted, even by people who technically agree with you. So, go out of your way to write more neutrally to reduce downvotes on tone.
If you propose an unpopular idea, or criticize one of HN's Holy Cows, you'll get a bunch of downvotes from people who disagree with you. Occasionally, I don't comment at all if I think my opinion is out of the mainstream and not justifiable.
Some folks just downvote people who state the truth because they don't like negative naysayers. Make it clear, if you're stating How the World Is, that you don't necessarily agree with it, but it's a structural problem.
Other folks don't like simple solutionism so avoid saying "It's easy. We can solve world hunger by <blahblahblah> idea" which will never work, because food production isn't the reason people are starving.
Another thing that can get you downvotes is invoking Expert Privilege. For example, HN will downvote you if you don't provide some sort of pseudo-rational sounding argument and instead just say you're an expert. OK, fine, ignore the fact that my PhD taught me how to read science papers and press releases.
Finally, and this is the most interesting thing, votes come in waves. I'll often get -2 on a comment right after I post and then it will trend upward for a whole day. I suppose my comments age well.
Ultimately, maxxing my karma is generally correlated roughly with making good contributions to the site, and I've calibrated well enough to interpret downvotes.
Perfect example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30246830&p=2#30247139
Write the one liner and then imagine you got a moderator scolding. Then write a comment defending your one liner from the charge of 'unsubstantiveness'. Finally, delete the one liner and post the defense.
I bet you'd almost never get scolded for these and the upvotes would be even bigger.
I went through months of your comment history with showdead:true, I could only find a handful of interactions between you and the moderation staff.
The most recent example is about 10 days ago and then one 36 days ago. Both comments were gray from being downvoted and one has been flagged.
There was another one about 40 days ago that had a bit more content to it but was simply you quoting yourself where you call a concept idiotic... on a post that had a pinned comment by Dang that said "If you're going to comment, please focus on specific, interesting things in the article that you're curious about."
Dang exchanged with you politely to explain the issues every times.
What more do you want?
Personally, I know that I don't want to see content such as your "y'all look like a cult" comment. <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29864386>
That's only one problem with collective moderation. Moderators are a trust and quality backstop.
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>>absolutely untrue covid vax denialism
Yeah, So a bit of background -- Both of my brothers are fully vax'd and what not. But take my elder brother:
- Personal physician (flight surgeon) to the joint chiefs at the pentagon
- Commander of the 10th medical wing in the USAF (80,000 servicemen and families)
- Director of the entire VA for the state of AK
- Now the CMO for a large hospital group
We have a LONG history in medicine. (i personally have built multiple hospitals (tech side) but my family has been in medicine for ~80 years at this point...
Yeah, I have a heart condition, and I will NEVER get a vax due to my fear of myocarditis... (inflamation of the tissue surrounding the heart) (exacerbated if you have any form of heart disease)
denialism as you call it, requires data, TRUSTED DATA - and medications require long-term review to determine their safety.
NONE of this applies to covid vax?
Nuremburg ring a bell at all? Consent is a word, no? Have you ever consented to rape? Shall you now be forced to accept something sans data, "because we tell you to"?
--
I absolutely detest the idea that people who are anti vax are somehow 'wrong'
It is a messy topic, but I am not vax denialist but here is a cool fact for you:
When my middle daughter was ~3 she got the chicken pox vaccine just before we flew to chicago to build out the Salesforce Office I was managing...
After arrival in Chicago, our intention was to go to the Zoo the next day...
Late in the envening my daughter was fussing...
She got the chicken pox FROM THE VACCINE
She spent over a week in the hotel room in a calamine bath and we had to extend our trip another week because she couldnt fly due to the pox.
I personally got the chicken pox TWICE (at 6 months and at 14 years) -- AND I WAS VACCINATED.
My elder brother also expresses I should not get the vaccine.