I'm not saying that I personally vote this way. I've never actually downvoted one of merlyns nodes but I can see why someone would. It's not a matter of personality; it's a matter of perception. To say that someone doesn't have a legitimate reason to downvote a node is to say that your view of the node is the only one that's accurate. If someone reads one of his nodes and infers it as scaracstic and condicending, they might downvote it. Terse (brief, factual) comments often come across that way, especially in a textual context.

And what really matters; what the author meant or what the reader infers?.

Rich

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