It's not fear that motivates me. It's simply desire.
I desire to read thoughtful, insightful commentary, and I don't want to get bogged down reading boring garbage. Therefore, I upvote comments that I find thoughtful or isnightful (even if I disagree with them) and I downvote anything I think detracts from that.
I don't have anything against snarky one-liners, memes, or silliness per se. They just have to be remarkably clever or insightful in order to meet my standards. The "nerds have no sex life" comment that triggered this subthread was a boring retread of a tired joke, and the whining about downvotes that followed it was even more boring.
Don't think you can't be silly or snarky or post memes on HN. Just understand, the bar is set a lot higher here -- your silly/snarky/meme-filled comment needs to provide a lot more value than on other sites.
I desire to read thoughtful, insightful commentary, and I don't want to get bogged down reading boring garbage. Therefore, I upvote comments that I find thoughtful or isnightful (even if I disagree with them) and I downvote anything I think detracts from that.
I don't have anything against snarky one-liners, memes, or silliness per se. They just have to be remarkably clever or insightful in order to meet my standards. The "nerds have no sex life" comment that triggered this subthread was a boring retread of a tired joke, and the whining about downvotes that followed it was even more boring.
Don't think you can't be silly or snarky or post memes on HN. Just understand, the bar is set a lot higher here -- your silly/snarky/meme-filled comment needs to provide a lot more value than on other sites.