Thank you, Denise! I think this gives me a much better sense of some specific parts of the post that may be problematic. I still don’t think this post, on balance, is particularly “bad” discourse (my judgment might be too affected by what I see on other online discussion platforms—and maybe as I spend more time on the EA forum, I’ll raise my standards!). Nonetheless, your comment helped me see where you’re coming from.
I’ll add that I appreciated that you explained why you downvoted, and it seems like a good norm to me. I think some of the downvotes might just be people who disagree with you. However, I also think some people may be reacting to the way you articulated your explanation. I’ll explain what I mean below:
In the first comment, it seemed to me (and others) like you assumed Mark intentionally violated the norms. You also accused him of being unkind and uncurious without offering additional details.
In the second comment, you linked to the guidelines, but you didn’t engage with Mark’s claim (“I think this was kind and curious given the context.”). This seemed a bit dismissive to me (akin to when people assume that a genuine disagreement is simply due to a lack of information/education on the part of the person they disagree with).
In the third comment (which I upvoted), you explained some specific parts of the post that you found excessively unkind/uncivil. This was the first comment where I started to understand why you downvoted this post.
To me, this might explain why your most recent post has received a lot of upvotes. In terms of “what to make of this,” I hope you don’t conclude “users should not explain why they downvote.” Rather, I wonder if a conclusion like “users should explain why they downvote comments, and they should do so in ways that are kind & curious, ideally supported by specific examples when possible” would be accurate. Of course, the higher the bar to justify a downvote, the fewer people will do it, and I don’t think we should always expect downvote-explainers to write up a thorough essay on why they’re downvoting.
Finally, I’ll briefly add that upvotes/downvotes are useful metrics, but I wouldn’t place too much value in them. I’m guessing that upvotes/downvotes often correspond to “do I agree with this?” rather than “do I think this is a valuable contribution?” Even if your most recent comment had 99 downvotes, I would still find it helpful and appreciate it!
Thank you, Denise! I think this gives me a much better sense of some specific parts of the post that may be problematic. I still don’t think this post, on balance, is particularly “bad” discourse (my judgment might be too affected by what I see on other online discussion platforms—and maybe as I spend more time on the EA forum, I’ll raise my standards!). Nonetheless, your comment helped me see where you’re coming from.
I’ll add that I appreciated that you explained why you downvoted, and it seems like a good norm to me. I think some of the downvotes might just be people who disagree with you. However, I also think some people may be reacting to the way you articulated your explanation. I’ll explain what I mean below:
In the first comment, it seemed to me (and others) like you assumed Mark intentionally violated the norms. You also accused him of being unkind and uncurious without offering additional details.
In the second comment, you linked to the guidelines, but you didn’t engage with Mark’s claim (“I think this was kind and curious given the context.”). This seemed a bit dismissive to me (akin to when people assume that a genuine disagreement is simply due to a lack of information/education on the part of the person they disagree with).
In the third comment (which I upvoted), you explained some specific parts of the post that you found excessively unkind/uncivil. This was the first comment where I started to understand why you downvoted this post.
To me, this might explain why your most recent post has received a lot of upvotes. In terms of “what to make of this,” I hope you don’t conclude “users should not explain why they downvote.” Rather, I wonder if a conclusion like “users should explain why they downvote comments, and they should do so in ways that are kind & curious, ideally supported by specific examples when possible” would be accurate. Of course, the higher the bar to justify a downvote, the fewer people will do it, and I don’t think we should always expect downvote-explainers to write up a thorough essay on why they’re downvoting.
Finally, I’ll briefly add that upvotes/downvotes are useful metrics, but I wouldn’t place too much value in them. I’m guessing that upvotes/downvotes often correspond to “do I agree with this?” rather than “do I think this is a valuable contribution?” Even if your most recent comment had 99 downvotes, I would still find it helpful and appreciate it!