Upvoting is not for agreement. Upvote if you feel that the comment is well thought out, puts forward interesting points, or is otherwise worthy of the attention of fellow HNers. "Upvote" == "I want to see more comments like this".
Do not upvote just because you agree. I agree with the comment nominally, but I downvoted it, because it is a waste of space.
Simple test: if there were more comments like this, would HN be a better place? If yes, upvote. If no, downvote. If indifferent/not sure, move on to next comment.
> Simple test: if there were more comments like this, would HN be a better place? If yes, upvote. If no, downvote. If indifferent/not sure, move on to next comment.
I agree with you here. The problem is that this is not directly obvious by only observing the upvote arrow. It might communicate more things than this, like "I agree with this comment." So, unless you tell them (and keep reinforcing this meaning), different people will read it differently.
I would even argue that it would be a good idea replacing the upvote arrow with a link named "I want to see more comments like this". That would stimulate more well thought, relevant comments, while agreeable/funny comments would still be there, but at the bottom of the page. These might be harmless, but they don't deserve lots of upvotes.
Usually I read HN comments before the actual article, and as a result I was unaware of the blog's title before reading his comment. It provided value to me, at least.
