I deleted it because it had about -5 points. :) If anyone's curious I just said that sometimes the only "likes" I get on facebook are from my mom. Ever since I accepted her friend request, my mom likes every single damn thing I post. I am experiencing Facebook Like Inflation from my mother.
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The comment had -1 points (two downvotes). Usually those situations self-correct after a while, since other users see there is nothing wrong with the comment and bring it back to par.
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10830311 and marked it off-topic.
> "only" got 15 likes.... and were considering deleting it!
> I deleted it because it had about -5 points.
I wonder if you're the one more concerned with the feedback and likes than your niece, and you're what caused her to delete it. Why are you worrying about the negative comments they receive and bothering them about your worries, which they then respond to by deleting what worries you? I can see an alternative view where from their perspective it was more like, "Gah, my uncle is stalking my IG and freaking out on me; deleting to make this drama go away!"
That a pretty funny irony you pointed out.
Usually when I delete a strongly downvoted comment it's because I realize that I've failed completely at expressing myself. People are getting a harsh message where I intended to say something valuable.
It's not that I need validation, I use social networks to help me understand how to negotiate difficult topics. If I re-read a downvoted post and I think I did a good job of expressing an idea people just don't like, I'll leave it up.
There are consequences of being downvoted enough on HN. You get rate-limited, hell-banned, etc
HN becomes really unpleasant to use when you get enough downvotes, daily post throttling, etc.
I was surprised to see it downvoted so much, there was nothing bad about the comment, I found it rather charming.