I strongly agree with Peter’s thoughts on this, and wrote up my own reasoning here. Basically, I read a downvote to mean either “I think you’re wrong” or “there’s a definite factual error here” and it’s frustrating to see lots of downvotes with no indication of what might be wrong.
Sometimes, I can guess pretty easily at why I think someone might have downvoted, but a post’s author might not be in the same position (very frustrating for them), and I don’t want to speak on a downvoter’s behalf by speculating about their hypothetical beliefs (which I may well get wrong).
It takes a long time to craft a response to posts like these. Even if there are clear problems with the post, given the sensitive topic you have to spend a lot of time on nuance, checking citations, and getting the tone right. That is a very high bar, one that I don’t think is reasonable to expect everyone to pass. In contrast, people who agree seem to get a pass for silently upvoting.
That’s a reasonable objection. I wouldn’t mind seeing even a non-nuanced response (e.g. “I think this post undervalues the utility of X compared to Y”) rather than no response, but many other readers don’t share my preferences and might take issue with that kind of comment (especially for this topic). And of course, mobile users are especially disadvantaged when it comes to comment-writing.
Still, if someone is a downvoter and wants to do something helpful for others in the same situation, creating one critical response that can then be upvoted (showing the relative popularity of objection X vs. objections Y, Z, etc.) seems unusually valuable.
I strongly agree with Peter’s thoughts on this, and wrote up my own reasoning here. Basically, I read a downvote to mean either “I think you’re wrong” or “there’s a definite factual error here” and it’s frustrating to see lots of downvotes with no indication of what might be wrong.
Sometimes, I can guess pretty easily at why I think someone might have downvoted, but a post’s author might not be in the same position (very frustrating for them), and I don’t want to speak on a downvoter’s behalf by speculating about their hypothetical beliefs (which I may well get wrong).
It takes a long time to craft a response to posts like these. Even if there are clear problems with the post, given the sensitive topic you have to spend a lot of time on nuance, checking citations, and getting the tone right. That is a very high bar, one that I don’t think is reasonable to expect everyone to pass. In contrast, people who agree seem to get a pass for silently upvoting.
That’s a reasonable objection. I wouldn’t mind seeing even a non-nuanced response (e.g. “I think this post undervalues the utility of X compared to Y”) rather than no response, but many other readers don’t share my preferences and might take issue with that kind of comment (especially for this topic). And of course, mobile users are especially disadvantaged when it comes to comment-writing.
Still, if someone is a downvoter and wants to do something helpful for others in the same situation, creating one critical response that can then be upvoted (showing the relative popularity of objection X vs. objections Y, Z, etc.) seems unusually valuable.