Why is it always necessarily to add this? It's like "I apologize in advance but I'm going to insult you".
As an aside I was wondering this morning if people who down vote read an entire comment or downvote on the first negative thing they don't like, disagree with etc. If that is the case you would think that putting your last sentence (sans the bigdio) would suffice as a prophylactic statement?
Maybe I'm just too cynical, but I see that as a form of passive aggressive manipulation. The way I read that kind of comment is "I know the mob will downvote me instead of discussing the topic; you don't want to be part of the mob, do you now?"
Yes, but that is often justified and understandable. HackerNews has one of the better communities out there but I know that getting downvoted without an explanation annoys me. This happens even on HackerNews occassionally.
I guess I phrased the question incorrectly as I know the reason is is to avoid downvotes and the person is aware of what they are saying will get downvoted.
My feeling is that by saying "sorry if this is insulting" or "I apologize in advance" or "before you downvote me" you are rolling over on your belly and appearing vulnerable by acknowledging your vulnerability and trying to show some humility. And in a sense you are setting up the contrast principle because the belly in comparison to the crime just doesn't seem so bad.
"sorry if this is insulting" won't be effective if what you follow it with is truly insulting
we all know thin skinned people though, sometimes the best way to get them to hear a benign (or neutral, or even constructive critism) comment that they might dismiss is to procede it with "sorry if this is insulting"
so there are certain scenarios where I'd say those phrases are ok (this board with their sometimes quick downvoting, seems like an ok use to me)
putting a sentence about how your comment may be downvoted, is just a request not to have that small number reflexsively downvote, because sometimes that happens
I agree with you that the extra noise of the "downvote prophylactic" is annoying, however, I went ahead and downvoted your comment because the meta-complaining adds even more noise. I realize that my comment is meta-meta so feel free to downvote it also.
Why is it always necessarily to add this? It's like "I apologize in advance but I'm going to insult you".
As an aside I was wondering this morning if people who down vote read an entire comment or downvote on the first negative thing they don't like, disagree with etc. If that is the case you would think that putting your last sentence (sans the bigdio) would suffice as a prophylactic statement?