> I'm always tempted to downvote people who edit their comments, complaining about downvotes or demanding explanations.
Normally that happens because complaining about downvotes is in the guidelines. "Please resist commenting about being downvoted. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading." Personally I don't feel the need to police it, but the guidelines are clear.
> * They will almost certainly downvote this comment
Also in the guidelines: "Please don't bait other users by inviting them to downvote you or proclaim that you expect to get downvoted." You may get downvoted for ignoring the guidelines, rather than because of the negativity or speaking to culture.
> Gamification of conversation can be harmful to your mental well-being.
This is an interesting thought! I'd tend to agree, though I just stared to wonder if getting myself into arguments on Internet forums are the primary factor, and the gamification is secondary. Either way, my first thought is why participate in the gaming part if it's bad? I've never downvoted on HN yet, in part because getting downvotes makes me feel bad, so I don't like to inflict that on others. In part because they're unnecessary, I can upvote the things I like to make them bubble up, and I can use the [-] button to ignore threads I don't like. Anyway, "try not to troll" I agree with wholeheartedly, that's the main thing I learned during the period that I didn't have downvote privilege, and I imagine that was the intent.
That's why I made sure not to complain. I wasn't particularly angry, mostly just wondering what motivated people to downvote and expanding on my original comment based on the assumption that people actually disagreed or weren't aware of how decimal points work in different languages.
Normally that happens because complaining about downvotes is in the guidelines. "Please resist commenting about being downvoted. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading." Personally I don't feel the need to police it, but the guidelines are clear.
> * They will almost certainly downvote this comment
Also in the guidelines: "Please don't bait other users by inviting them to downvote you or proclaim that you expect to get downvoted." You may get downvoted for ignoring the guidelines, rather than because of the negativity or speaking to culture.
> Gamification of conversation can be harmful to your mental well-being.
This is an interesting thought! I'd tend to agree, though I just stared to wonder if getting myself into arguments on Internet forums are the primary factor, and the gamification is secondary. Either way, my first thought is why participate in the gaming part if it's bad? I've never downvoted on HN yet, in part because getting downvotes makes me feel bad, so I don't like to inflict that on others. In part because they're unnecessary, I can upvote the things I like to make them bubble up, and I can use the [-] button to ignore threads I don't like. Anyway, "try not to troll" I agree with wholeheartedly, that's the main thing I learned during the period that I didn't have downvote privilege, and I imagine that was the intent.