Keep getting downvoted and it sucks

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8949781

by elberto34 • 11 years ago

2 12 11 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I'm trying to contribute in a constructive manner but I keep getting downvotes. Can we try to implement a way to make it easier to get upvotes, like Reddit? It's frustrating always being downvoted, especially when I try to contribute. I know that on Reddit it's fairly easy to keep a karma score positive but here it's impossible. It seems like to get an up vote your need to post something absolutely revolutionary like Euclid's elements, but people will down vote for the smallest reason, or no reason at all.

davidw3• 11 years ago

Try rereading and thinking about what you write before clicking 'add comment'. You've posted a number of things that are not very accurate in terms of the facts.

elberto342• 11 years ago

such as what? I got downvoted for posting that vitamins leave the body undigested, which is true http://www.collegecentral.com/Article.cfm?CatID=hlt&ArticleI...

other posts there isn't exactly a single correct answer, such as the one about Einstein.

Being downvoted all the time without any way of being able to redeem myself is frustrating.

davidw3• 11 years ago

Your comments on 'getting rich' seem to reflect a lack of knowledge on the subject. Nothing wrong with that offhand - we're all here to learn - but you might post with a bit less certainty.

Also, try writing correctly - not everyone here does, but it seems relatively common. I don't mean if you happen to make English mistakes, but proper capitalization and that kind of thing make for more pleasant reading.

greenyoda2• 11 years ago

Maybe your comment on vitamins[1] was considered to be inaccurate because it referred to vitamins in general rather than certain vitamin supplement products. The vitamins present in food seem to be absorbed well by the body in most cases. (I wasn't the one who downvoted you, so I'm just guessing.)

Also, citing a reference to back up your statements when you make them can never hurt.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8949665

Edit: On second reading, it also seems that your statement about vitamins was unrelated to the parent comment, which talked about dependence on increasing doses of amphetamines. As far as I know, vitamins don't have this effect.

deeviant• 11 years ago

Really, there are probably two elements to this:

1. Your posts could perhaps be a bit more thought out or inspiring.

2. You have correctly noticed that down-vote etiquette here is quite bad. People frequently down-vote posts that are constructive, but simply on the opposing side of the down-voter's position. This is bad, but I really don't see a way to change this behaviour.

As an aside, I'm curious why you want karma, it provides little benefit, the main of which, is the ability to down-vote. I'm am not at all saying this is the case, but it would be awfully ironic for you to want to gain karma to get the down-vote ability, only to add to the poor down-vote etiquette.

greenyoda2• 11 years ago

One more suggestion: If you haven't done so already, you might want to review the HN Guidelines, which cover both submissions and comments:

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

There's also a HN FAQ:

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html

(The links to these are at the bottom of every page.)

Keep getting downvoted and it sucks

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