This post is unlikely to be given much attention. And would guess that it is likely to be downvoted. The essential issue is that you gave a as your example of a downvoted comment one of your own comments. That comes across as defensive. It is going to make people less likely to take your point seriously.
As to your specific comment, while I have not downvoted it, I can easily see why someone would downvote it. It seems at the simplest level to misinterpret the parent comment in a fairly trivial fashion.
I don’t know if there are issues with people downvoting for bad reasons. I suspect that they exist. But, this is not at all useful evidence for it.
The essential issue is that you gave a as your example of a downvoted comment one of your own comments
Not doing that feels like deception. The downvotes on this comment are the reason I posted the thread. I don’t see why people should take me less seriously for being honest.
It seems at the simplest level to misinterpret the parent comment in a fairly trivial fashion.
This is what I am getting at. I think it would be better to say “this is a misinterpretation because ___” rather than downvoting it. I have been thinking about the issue we were talking about there over night and now that I come back to all the downvotes I’m embarrassed to discuss it further. I don’t want to talk about it with people who push me away.
this is not at all useful evidence for it.
OK I accept that.
(I’m scared to upvote your comment in case everyone sees it with a positive score and says “Ah we agree with this, let’s downvote and ignore this post.”)
Not doing that feels like deception. The downvotes on this comment are the reason I posted the thread. I don’t see why people should take me less seriously for being honest.
I wouldn’t have a problem with you citing it (and I do laud you for being honest) if you would put some effort to find some other posts that you think shouldn’t have been downvoted and were.
This is what I am getting at. I think it would be better to say “this is a misinterpretation because _” rather than downvoting it. I have been thinking about the issue we were talking about there over night and now that I come back to all the downvotes I’m embarrassed to discuss it further. I don’t want to talk about it with people who push me away.
I agree to a large degree, but would also like to raise the issue of new members/old members here—I think we, as a community should sparingly, if at all, vote down new members, and instead explain our reasoning to them. I know I was very intimidated when I finally stopped lurking, and the fear of beingdownvotedintooblivion was part of that, sometimes. Downvoting new members discourages their participation, and hinders our goals—it would be far more productive if we can politely and respectfully point out why we think they are wrong.
That being said, there are some users, obviously, who aren’t making a faithful attempt at rationality, and it’s entirely appropriate to downvote them to oblivion.
I don’t see why people should take me less seriously for being honest.
Because humans aren’t rational. If you wanted to make an optimal combination of honesty and getting your point listened to you could have found comments that had been downvoted that were not yours that you thought should have been not downvoted. Then you could have given those examples with your own comment and added an explicit disclaimer that although the downvotes to your own comments were what got you thinking of the issue there seemed to be a more general problem as given by those examples.
I don’t want to talk about it with people who push me away.
People aren’t pushing you away. When comments are at −2 or −3 there’s a weak consensus that something is wrong with the comment. But you should’t take it personally.
(Ok. I’m now thoroughly sick of karma discussions which seem to have taken a lot of stuff the last few days. I hereby resolve to not make any comments about karma until the end of the month. Seriously. It just isn’t that important.)
This post is unlikely to be given much attention. And would guess that it is likely to be downvoted. The essential issue is that you gave a as your example of a downvoted comment one of your own comments. That comes across as defensive. It is going to make people less likely to take your point seriously.
As to your specific comment, while I have not downvoted it, I can easily see why someone would downvote it. It seems at the simplest level to misinterpret the parent comment in a fairly trivial fashion.
I don’t know if there are issues with people downvoting for bad reasons. I suspect that they exist. But, this is not at all useful evidence for it.
Not doing that feels like deception. The downvotes on this comment are the reason I posted the thread. I don’t see why people should take me less seriously for being honest.
This is what I am getting at. I think it would be better to say “this is a misinterpretation because ___” rather than downvoting it. I have been thinking about the issue we were talking about there over night and now that I come back to all the downvotes I’m embarrassed to discuss it further. I don’t want to talk about it with people who push me away.
OK I accept that.
(I’m scared to upvote your comment in case everyone sees it with a positive score and says “Ah we agree with this, let’s downvote and ignore this post.”)
I wouldn’t have a problem with you citing it (and I do laud you for being honest) if you would put some effort to find some other posts that you think shouldn’t have been downvoted and were.
I agree to a large degree, but would also like to raise the issue of new members/old members here—I think we, as a community should sparingly, if at all, vote down new members, and instead explain our reasoning to them. I know I was very intimidated when I finally stopped lurking, and the fear of being downvoted into oblivion was part of that, sometimes. Downvoting new members discourages their participation, and hinders our goals—it would be far more productive if we can politely and respectfully point out why we think they are wrong.
That being said, there are some users, obviously, who aren’t making a faithful attempt at rationality, and it’s entirely appropriate to downvote them to oblivion.
Because humans aren’t rational. If you wanted to make an optimal combination of honesty and getting your point listened to you could have found comments that had been downvoted that were not yours that you thought should have been not downvoted. Then you could have given those examples with your own comment and added an explicit disclaimer that although the downvotes to your own comments were what got you thinking of the issue there seemed to be a more general problem as given by those examples.
People aren’t pushing you away. When comments are at −2 or −3 there’s a weak consensus that something is wrong with the comment. But you should’t take it personally.
(Ok. I’m now thoroughly sick of karma discussions which seem to have taken a lot of stuff the last few days. I hereby resolve to not make any comments about karma until the end of the month. Seriously. It just isn’t that important.)