Fact of the matter is that websites like this breed hivemind behavior. The behavior may only be on a per thread basis, but when people see a lot of upvotes and positive praise, the natural response to a challenging post seems to be, &quot;You&#x27;re just going against the grain. Stop being an asshole.&quot; This is also true for comments that get downvoted.<p>As an example, I had a post where I said the concept of payday loans is not a bad one while simultaneously denouncing the predatory practices that payday loan companies employ. You borrow a small money for 15 days, pay back the loan plus 20% ($200 + 20% in fees and interest = $240), and call it a day. All it took was one post to say that I&#x27;m siding with the payday loan companies. The highest I saw was +3. It&#x27;s currently sitting at -7. I think prefacing the post would have helped the vote count.<p>Prefacing a post acknowledging possible downvotes is a forewarning to readers that the poster is going against the grain - contrarian if you will - but not in way that&#x27;s purely devil&#x27;s advocate. It says to me, &quot;I know what I&#x27;m about to say disagrees with you guys, but please hear me out.&quot; It&#x27;s probably not the most eloquent way to express that idea. I have never seen it as a challenge though.