Except the entire point of allowing users to downvote comments is to promote civility. If someone is not being civil, then they should be downvoted. This is a clearer and less distracting means of telling someone what's not appreciated.
At least, this is my understanding of how pg intends the system to be used.
Yes, my understanding of the site culture is precisely that downvoting is to show that a comment doesn't contribute to the discussion, rather than to show factual disagreement with the comment. This thread here is a discussion about a submission that suggests not everyone is interpreting downvoting in the same way, and that is a legitimate issue to explore here, as long as we are all in metadiscussion mode.
Comments
Except the entire point of allowing users to downvote comments is to promote civility. If someone is not being civil, then they should be downvoted. This is a clearer and less distracting means of telling someone what's not appreciated.
At least, this is my understanding of how pg intends the system to be used.
Yes, my understanding of the site culture is precisely that downvoting is to show that a comment doesn't contribute to the discussion, rather than to show factual disagreement with the comment. This thread here is a discussion about a submission that suggests not everyone is interpreting downvoting in the same way, and that is a legitimate issue to explore here, as long as we are all in metadiscussion mode.
I invited explicit discussion the matter a while ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=361390