capote - Don't take it personally. I would read the guidelines; it's just the nature of this community and has been for a long time.
If your comment won't contribute the conversation (in an intellectual sense) don't post it. Some people do post useless comments but generally they are voted down; also, the standard is not the worst comments.
Thanks for the level-headed verbal answer. I guess I just feel like a downvote is a slap, rather than a more appropriate simple response that states the issue, or just being ignored.
Slaps should be for when people are offensive/racist/rude/wrong--I understand my comment contributed nothing, but why would I get the same treatment as someone who contributes negatively?
Shouldn't we be aiming for positivity => upvote, negativity => downvote, neutrality => no vote?
It's not; that's all I can say. I've gotten plenty of them. Note that nobody else knows the score of your comment unless it's < 1.
> why would I get the same treatment as someone who contributes negatively
FWIW, comments that don't contribute do have a negative impact. They encourage more of the same, reducing signal-to-noise. The behavior spreads like a virus.
This link may explain some of the ideas behind how HN works:
I worry that if we expand the definition of acceptable humor on HN, then HN would become something more like reddit. Not that reddit is bad, but I appreciate that the expectation here is to hold comments to a strict standard.
Humor is allowed of course, and sometimes it's highly upvoted, but it tends to be humor that is on topic (and so usually about tech or the tech industry) and also as a part of personal stories. People especially have their guard up here because this thread is tangentially related to politics. And like anywhere else, you have to make the right joke for the room, as in your joke needs to be somewhat harmonious with the mindset of the majority (especially if it's off topic, not related to tech, or inflammatory).
You should aim for substance. Comments going on about downvotes are the antithesis of substance, which is why we have not one but two guidelines asking you not to do this: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
Your original problem was that glib comments aren't substantive either, so they're deprecated here, especially when they have an uncivil tinge.
With all the attention they got, roughly 30 downvotes, flagging, your attention, you'd think I posted the most substantive posts this site has ever seen.
If your comment won't contribute the conversation (in an intellectual sense) don't post it. Some people do post useless comments but generally they are voted down; also, the standard is not the worst comments.