Comment by gruseom
12 years ago
I'm talking about what the HN policy has always been. This is a factual question, and it's not as you describe it.
What's interesting is how the opposite gets repeated far more often, usually in an authoritative tone, as if the speaker had just consulted a rulebook.
TBH that's the only use of votes I've seen agreed on as valid here.
Despite your relative long-standing I'll bow to your claim of factuality and request citation of that fact?
Do the first two links I listed here count? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7451438
I wouldn't say it's ever been agreed on; I'm pretty sure people disagreed about this from day one. And downvoted each other about it :)
Both of those links (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=658683) appear to be simply pg saying people do downvote when they disagree rather than him endorsing that activity.
Indeed the first link says in part:
>"I think it's ok to use the up and down arrows to express agreement."
Which reads to me as having an implicit "also to express agreement" especially in the context of the thread. The thread consensus appears to favour not downvoting for mere disagreement (but I would say that !).
In the past when we had votes visible we'd have been able to tell better the general consensus from that information.
So, I upvoted you for making your point well; presumably you downvoted me as you disagreed.
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