There are always going to be people who confuse "I disagree with you" with "You're wrong."
Generally, HN trends towards the former, and that's one of the things I love about it! You can make a good point and I can disagree with you!
One of the most counter-intuitive tenets of forum community management is the only winning move is not to engage with bad behavior.
A downvote + not replying to a poorly behaving commenter is orders of magnitude more powerful and instructive than any reply.
(And also, the distinction between "downvote because I disagree" & "downvote because you're breaking forum norms." We're at our best when we promote healthy debate, and disincentivize bad behavior, instead of "bad thoughts.")
Generally, HN trends towards the former, and that's one of the things I love about it! You can make a good point and I can disagree with you!
One of the most counter-intuitive tenets of forum community management is the only winning move is not to engage with bad behavior.
A downvote + not replying to a poorly behaving commenter is orders of magnitude more powerful and instructive than any reply.
(And also, the distinction between "downvote because I disagree" & "downvote because you're breaking forum norms." We're at our best when we promote healthy debate, and disincentivize bad behavior, instead of "bad thoughts.")