Why Lobste.rs Is Better Than Hacker News
kevquirk.com(2020) At the time (118 points, 165 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22146746
Better? I made a few posts about my work some years ago an met significantly more naggers and nitpickers than on HN; I didn't see a downvote function (in contrast to the author of the article), but flagging was obviously misused a lot.
"In order to vote something down, you need to give a reason."
THAT is what Hacker News needs ( and Reddit and Facebook and everywhere else ).
Because "Don't like the facts in your comment" is the reason for 90% of downvotes here.
Speaking as a regular HN downvotee, I'd say "don't like your facts" accounts for at most 25% of downvoting.
Sure, you can always make a moderation system more complex. At best, that will somewhat reduce the complaints. At the cost of both the added complexity, and all the new-and-undesirable ways in which humans users can interact with that shiny new complexity.
Rather remove the downvote function completely, because it is mostly misused and stimulates the "lower instincts" of people.