[NathanKP]

You are getting downvoted for tone. By tone I mean the polarizing terms like: "cesspool of stupid opinions" and "low-thinking idiots", etc.

When social communities allow the type of tone you are using, that is precisely how they end up worse over time.

Hacker News downvoting comments like yours is how it has maintained quite high quality over the last 16 years I've been on this website.

[hyperhello]

Downvotes are a tone. It’s the equivalent of yelling “shut up” and “stupid” at things that might require a little thought. That’s what makes the communities worse, not the odd comments that get dragged under by reflexive negativity.

[NathanKP]

So far in this thread the majority of Hacker News users have decided they don't like the tone of your comment, therefore they have downvoted your comment.

If you don't see the irony, let me point it out: this is a real time demonstration that your following statement is not an inevitable thing:

> eventually converges on the same thing in the end: a place to dump out ugly things

When a community has the tools for self governance, then it can resist influences that it does not appreciate. In the case of Bluesky in specific, you may not be familiar with how easy it is to subscribe to labelers and blocklists. This decentralized self governance model allows anyone to curate their Bluesky experience, and it allows sub communities to collectively govern in ways that filter the cesspool and remove the ugly things.

In short, the fact that you are complaining about downvotes while simultaneously saying that it is inevitable for communities to devolve into places to dump ugly things is highly ironic. One thing that you are complaining about, is the solution to the other thing that you are complaining about.

[zenethian]

You’re bringing a Reddit analogy to HN and they are not equivalents. On HN there is no downvote. Something unwelcome gets flagged for review. After sufficient flagging the content is removed not just buried. It’s not calling it “stupid” it’s saying “hey buddy maybe this isn’t the right place for this.”

You can’t seem to depolarize yourself from extremes. You call your original post “highly intelligent” and equate any disagreements as being shouted “stupid” at like those are the only two options here or something when they are not.