There are also people on that page who disagree with pg. Downmodding tends to make people disengage. That may be undesirable if you want a healthy debate.
Correct, I rarely bother to start debates on topics I know will be controversial here any more. This one being an exception I now slightly regret. HN used to be able to debate without emotion but in the past few years it's more or less disappeared.
I am still open to having my mind changed but we rarely get far enough before the downvote brigade find these threads.
> Please don't post comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit. It's a semi-noob illusion, as old as the hills.
> Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, bots, brigading, foreign agents and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data.
"Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading. "
And I typically agree with that, except in this instance I decided to make a brief comment, because I disagreed with you somewhat strongly.
There's nothing in the actual guidelines about downvoting for disagreement; though the balance of the HN guidelines seem to be in favor of commenting in reply to a thoughtful comment. "Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive. " ... and ... "Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something. "
What can be less thoughtful, substantive, or deep than a naked downvote?
