> I think it's totally fair to call the top comment (most upvoted) the "prevailing opinion".
I don't think that's fair at all. Moderation/voting isn't a perfect reflection of a site's tastes. HN's seems to be better than most at reflecting that, but sometimes a post gets popular long-term because it got popular initially, and sometimes that's just luck of the draw.
> don't down vote because you disagree
This is repeated a lot, but isn't true or correct. A lot of people do downvote because they disagree (myself included, though I try not to downvote when I disagree but also think it's a substantive, thought-provoking comment), and there's a comment from pg from many years ago (can't seem to find it) where he says that's a perfectly acceptable reason to downvote.
I don't think that's fair at all. Moderation/voting isn't a perfect reflection of a site's tastes. HN's seems to be better than most at reflecting that, but sometimes a post gets popular long-term because it got popular initially, and sometimes that's just luck of the draw.
> don't down vote because you disagree
This is repeated a lot, but isn't true or correct. A lot of people do downvote because they disagree (myself included, though I try not to downvote when I disagree but also think it's a substantive, thought-provoking comment), and there's a comment from pg from many years ago (can't seem to find it) where he says that's a perfectly acceptable reason to downvote.