That’s true, but downvoting without comment is especially harmful to new contributors, who might conclude goodness knows what from it. (“Does Less Wrong hate me? Do they regard all meditation as woo? What’s going on?”)
EDIT: Oh, apparently this happened while the article was in Main, and in that case I’d have approved of the downvotes even so. I only came across it in Discussion, though.
Careless downvoting (and upvoting) is something one can expect from new members.
Veterans know that voting is serious thing that is done after deep deliberation and soul searching, but for a newbie, it is just click.
Speaking from my own experience (not that I would dare to call myself veteran)
Not sure why there are downvotes, by the way.
I downvoted because it’s (1) a link with no discussion, the kind of presentation I wish to discourage, and (2) link to an article behind a paywall.
Making this explicit as a comment seems more constructive in general.
Yes, but it takes more effort, which is a significant motivation for the mechanism of voting.
That’s true, but downvoting without comment is especially harmful to new contributors, who might conclude goodness knows what from it. (“Does Less Wrong hate me? Do they regard all meditation as woo? What’s going on?”)
EDIT: Oh, apparently this happened while the article was in Main, and in that case I’d have approved of the downvotes even so. I only came across it in Discussion, though.
Careless downvoting (and upvoting) is something one can expect from new members. Veterans know that voting is serious thing that is done after deep deliberation and soul searching, but for a newbie, it is just click.
Speaking from my own experience (not that I would dare to call myself veteran)