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Wait - I thought downvoting was for the quality of the comment and not the content? Is downvoting for when people disagree? Wouldn't that hide dissension?


This has been widely hashed out over the years. You can use downvotes to express disagreement.

I have no problem with that generally because I would rather see downvotes than see every single person who disagrees feel compelled to pile on with petty BS. But in this case, the comment called attention to a defect in my earlier comment -- my failure to specify which SimCity -- and allowed me to add the missing information.

Since my reply with the additional info has substantial upvotes, I think it's wrong to punish the comment that elicited that reply from me. It has too much of that "you win an argument by making the other guy lose" vibe.

I hesitate to say this explicitly, because past experience suggests it will result in a temporary pile-on of everyone and their brother nitpicking the hell out of my comments, but I really don't want to discourage good faith comments that nudge me to address defects or omissions in my comments. I don't think that improves discussion here. I think it makes things worse.

"Don't shoot the messenger."


You can down-vote for whatever reason you like. You are trusted to justify it only to yourself.




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