I don’t like clarifications of voting decisions, or requests for clarification of voting decisions. I’d prefer replies that address the content directly, when they are appropriate, which is generally independent of when voting is appropriate.
Votes and replies are separate forms of feedback. Voting is cheap and unobtrusive, comments are harder and influence signal/noise ratio. Creating comments that are low on content primarily for the purpose of classification of votes hurts the quality of discussion. Discussing votes in comments introduces an irrelevant element in discussion, which is annoying. Making formulaic comments about votes with “pros/cons” lists is ugly. Requesting clarification of voting endorses a norm that makes votes more costly and comments about votes more frequent, thus possibly reducing feedback through votes and increasing the number of comments lean on content.
I don’t like clarifications of voting decisions, or requests for clarification of voting decisions. I’d prefer replies that address the content directly, when they are appropriate, which is generally independent of when voting is appropriate.
Votes and replies are separate forms of feedback. Voting is cheap and unobtrusive, comments are harder and influence signal/noise ratio. Creating comments that are low on content primarily for the purpose of classification of votes hurts the quality of discussion. Discussing votes in comments introduces an irrelevant element in discussion, which is annoying. Making formulaic comments about votes with “pros/cons” lists is ugly. Requesting clarification of voting endorses a norm that makes votes more costly and comments about votes more frequent, thus possibly reducing feedback through votes and increasing the number of comments lean on content.