| I believe it would be an interesting implementation for HN. I rarely comment, but when I do, I think it would be interesting to read the comments of users who upvoted or downvoted, potentially gauging the reaction behind their vote, especially if they choose not to reply. I don’t know of a website that does something similar, and flaws might exist, such as commenters retaliating against recurring downvotes from specific individuals. However, implementing something like a timeout for downvoting the person who has downvoted could be considered. Even seeing who is upvoting whom could be interesting, and I’m sure collecting and analyzing such data would be useful for mods to prevent abuse of the voting system if not already done. Another ideal situation is to have a comment field that could be required for downvoting to possibly inform why. |
Sometimes I upvote a post because I think the potential discussion has merit here, regardless of the link. I have either never downvoted, or only once, to something completely inane and not helpful to the discussion. I really try not to fall into voting based on agreement, since my opinions can and have changed as I learn more. Still, there's a fair amount of subjectivity behind my upvoting, coupled with often choosing to move on to the next dopamine hit rather than thoroughly dig in.
Data on our voting behavior would be interesting. Is it already collected and analyzed by a subset of people behind HN?
What is your motivation for this, beyond that it would be interesting, helpful to mods against abuse, and more transparency as to why the vote? That all may be enough, of course, especially the latter two reasons. More transparency and accountability might make discussions even less prone to devolving into emotional reactions?