Kinda mean to downvote somebody for breaking a rule that don’t exist (yet), don’t you think?
Not especially. It’s using downvotes exactly as intended. It would be fine even if there was an explicit endorsement of HPMoR quotes as being sufficiently external to qualify for the thread, if tgb just happened personally not to like them.
Incidentally, I down-voted a quote of Eliezer from TDT a week ago and just didn’t think it was worth making a comment about it. Really, Eliezer making one of his essays slightly longer than the others and publishing it in a very slightly more formal form doesn’t change the nature or role significantly. (Mind you, I would likely have ignored it or upvoted if the specific quote was sufficiently impressive to make up for it.)
EDIT: It could actually be mean, denotatively but if so it does not have the features that some other mean things do that make them not an acceptable and sometimes virtuous thing to do.
Not especially. It’s using downvotes exactly as intended. It would be fine even if there was an explicit endorsement of HPMoR quotes as being sufficiently external to qualify for the thread, if tgb just happened personally not to like them.
Incidentally, I down-voted a quote of Eliezer from TDT a week ago and just didn’t think it was worth making a comment about it. Really, Eliezer making one of his essays slightly longer than the others and publishing it in a very slightly more formal form doesn’t change the nature or role significantly. (Mind you, I would likely have ignored it or upvoted if the specific quote was sufficiently impressive to make up for it.)
EDIT: It could actually be mean, denotatively but if so it does not have the features that some other mean things do that make them not an acceptable and sometimes virtuous thing to do.