This is a common question from the new participants. First, there is no policy on downvoting. There can’t be, because there is no enforcement mechanism. There are, however, recommendations, like “downvote something you would like to see less of”, which is often mixed up with “downvote everything I disagree with”, or worse, with “downvote every comment by a user I dislike, regardless of content, to force them post less”. At least one prominent regular has been accused of this last one. Second, commenting on why you downvote tends to result in the comment being downvoted, which discourages such comments very effectively.
it’s frustrating and a poor feedback mechanism.
Yes, but only in the beginning. Once you have a few hundred karma, a downvote is just an indication that someone disliked your post, nothing more. And if all your comments are universally liked, you must be doing something wrong.
I’ve been here since the beginning of LW, off and on, actually. (This is sort of an alt account.) I just recall discussion on such a policy a while ago, but didn’t see a wikipage giving such recommendations.
It was frustrating because it was on the order of 5 or 15 downvotes, without a single reply. My initial reactions were surprise and then disappointment at the community. I’d rather not be disappointed, so I thought re-focusing on more beneficial norms would be more productive.
If the reply is thoughtful, then it’s much less discouraging (And if you, for rhetorical purposes, claim the downvote was from someone else, then do so), e.g. “This was probably downvoted because X and Y, what do you mean by N. Also here’s some relevant resources/links A and B.” I guess it’s a lot more work than just downvoting, but it’s hardly discourging of done non-patronizingly.
This is a common question from the new participants. First, there is no policy on downvoting. There can’t be, because there is no enforcement mechanism. There are, however, recommendations, like “downvote something you would like to see less of”, which is often mixed up with “downvote everything I disagree with”, or worse, with “downvote every comment by a user I dislike, regardless of content, to force them post less”. At least one prominent regular has been accused of this last one. Second, commenting on why you downvote tends to result in the comment being downvoted, which discourages such comments very effectively.
Yes, but only in the beginning. Once you have a few hundred karma, a downvote is just an indication that someone disliked your post, nothing more. And if all your comments are universally liked, you must be doing something wrong.
I’ve been here since the beginning of LW, off and on, actually. (This is sort of an alt account.) I just recall discussion on such a policy a while ago, but didn’t see a wikipage giving such recommendations.
It was frustrating because it was on the order of 5 or 15 downvotes, without a single reply. My initial reactions were surprise and then disappointment at the community. I’d rather not be disappointed, so I thought re-focusing on more beneficial norms would be more productive.
If the reply is thoughtful, then it’s much less discouraging (And if you, for rhetorical purposes, claim the downvote was from someone else, then do so), e.g. “This was probably downvoted because X and Y, what do you mean by N. Also here’s some relevant resources/links A and B.” I guess it’s a lot more work than just downvoting, but it’s hardly discourging of done non-patronizingly.
The goal of downvotes is to be discouraging.