I think the downvotes are because your comments do not make it clear who/what you are responding to or what you are trying to say, and seem tangential to the topic under discussion. Both of them impose extra mental load on readers without any obvious payoff.
There was 1 downvote (until now), the person I responded to got downvotes, plural.
It was obvious who I who responding to, surely. No idea why you say that. Ok.. It's not clear to me what type of comments I am allowed to make about people's posts if not the type I made. If you don't understand, ask. Telling me it's 'tangential' and referring to what I'm 'trying to say' are unfriendly moves that could be used in replying to most comments on HN. But I feel that whatever I could say wouldn't be welcome here so...bye.
I get downvoted quite regularly for expressing my opinion, you get used to it. Just try to make sure you're actually expressing a related opinion and not just tangentially responding in a way that doesn't foster more discussion.
