I don’t share your view about what a downvote means.
What does a downvote mean to you? If it means “you shouldn’t have written this”, what does a strong downvote mean to you? The same thing, but with more emphasis?
It’d be interesting to have some stats on how people on the forum interpret it.
Why not create a poll? I would, but I’m not sure exactly which question you’d want asked.
Most(?) readers won’t know who either of them is, not to mention their relationship.
Which brings up another question — to what extent should a comment be written for an author vs. the audience?
Max’s comment seemed very directed at Luke — it was mostly about the style of Luke’s writing and his way of drawing conclusions. Other comments feel more audience-directed.
Personally, I primarily downvote posts/comments where I generally think “reading this post/comment will on average make forum readers be worse at thinking about this problem than if they didn’t read this post/comment, assuming that the time spent reading this post/comment is free.”
I basically never strong downvote posts unless it’s obvious spam or otherwise an extremely bad offender in the “worsens thinking” direction.
It’s been over a week so I guess I should answer even if I don’t have time for a longer reply.
What does a downvote mean to you? If it means “you shouldn’t have written this”, what does a strong downvote mean to you? The same thing, but with more emphasis?
I think so, but I’m not very confident.
to what extent should a comment be written for an author vs. the audience?
I don’t think private conversations can exist on a public platform. If it’s not a DM, there’s always an audience, and in most contexts, I’d expect much of a comment’s impact to come from its effects on that audience.
Why not create a poll?
The polls in that specific group look like they have a very small and probably unrepresentative sample size. Though I don’t we’ll be able to get a much larger one on such a question, I guess.
What does a downvote mean to you? If it means “you shouldn’t have written this”, what does a strong downvote mean to you? The same thing, but with more emphasis?
Why not create a poll? I would, but I’m not sure exactly which question you’d want asked.
Which brings up another question — to what extent should a comment be written for an author vs. the audience?
Max’s comment seemed very directed at Luke — it was mostly about the style of Luke’s writing and his way of drawing conclusions. Other comments feel more audience-directed.
Personally, I primarily downvote posts/comments where I generally think “reading this post/comment will on average make forum readers be worse at thinking about this problem than if they didn’t read this post/comment, assuming that the time spent reading this post/comment is free.”
I basically never strong downvote posts unless it’s obvious spam or otherwise an extremely bad offender in the “worsens thinking” direction.
It’s been over a week so I guess I should answer even if I don’t have time for a longer reply.
I think so, but I’m not very confident.
I don’t think private conversations can exist on a public platform. If it’s not a DM, there’s always an audience, and in most contexts, I’d expect much of a comment’s impact to come from its effects on that audience.
The polls in that specific group look like they have a very small and probably unrepresentative sample size. Though I don’t we’ll be able to get a much larger one on such a question, I guess.