I think you’re over thinking it, frankly. In an ordinary discourse, sometimes ‘negative’ points will arise, and if you aren’t specifically averse to addressing such points then there’s no specific reason to avoid it.

Essentially, there are a great many people who don’t even consider such issues the same way that you do.

You seem to say it as if being negative is the goal. I don’t set out to leave a negative opinion, I just want to give my opinion. Sometimes, my opinion is negative. That’s just as valid as if my opinion was positive.

https://xkcd.com/386/

If someone is asking for opinions or there’s a general discussion then surely negative opinions are just as valid as positive ones

What do you mean by negative? In the sense that the response is insulting, or a personal attack? Generally, well adjusted people on forums websites try to avoid those, those who don’t are just assholes.

But if you mean negative as in the reply merely disagrees with your point of view, then isn’t that the point of a forums website? Short of echochambers, memes, and porn, the biggest thing on forums is two way discussions. You post a question, maybe with an idea of how people might respond, and you could get a varying degree of different responses. Some of which may offer fresh insights that you may not have had the perspective for before. Do you consider the responses in this thread to be negative?

Probably mostly to warn others. Sometimes to point out information I believe is wrong. Mostly I’m trying to keep the ship on course.

Two reasons:

1. I value frankness above tact, discourse (what is said) over tone (how it’s said).
2. I have little to no tolerance towards some types of irrationality and bullshit, and I enjoy calling them out.

I like complaining

Depends on how you take the situation. I’d say on one side I hope to warn others with my cautionary tale. I also feel understood when I see others reply they shared my pain through similar experiences after reading mine, so I guess you can call that cathartic? Not sure. It also helps me calibrate myself socially, as I can measure how much others agree or disagree with my hate of whatever.

Because I’m a negative nancy

It really depends on the matter at hand. I think sometimes it feels cathartic, other times it’s just questionable rambling because I feel like getting it off my chest.

If there’s a post already complaining about something I may join in on it, because who doesn’t love a good complain?

If someone is posting positive things about something they like I try to avoid being overly or only negative about it. The internet is too big for me to go around bothering everyone with conflicting tastes to mine.

I really hate begged questions. You know the thing: “Why do Americans buy groceries at Walmart?” The premise is wrong, and needs to be corrected to get an accurate and representative answer. “Most Americans buy groceries at dedicated grocery stores. I never shop at Walmart at all.”

Or: “Who’s your favorite character in Final Fantasy 7?” “I don’t have one, I tried FF7 but couldn’t get into it.” followed by OP saying some bullshit like “Then I wasn’t asking you.”

A clear sign someone’s looking for confirmation, not understanding.

its just part of the conversation. If all these communities were just rah rah, preach to the choir, I would likely stop participating. I am in no way saying all comments should be negative or such but I expect discourse and different points of view. Positive or negative I prefer the comments and posts to be as thoughtful and informative as possible.

Screaming into the void is cathartic, and sometimes is the only thing that keeps you somewhat sane.

It probably started from browsing reddit and seeing the site change into every comment section being a predictable mono culture. I could read the thread header and know exactly what the first few pages of comments would be like. This is mostly because anyone who disagrees gets downvoted and no one sees the comment.

If i agreed with the post then it felt like there was no reason to add another comment to the sea of agreement. So I ended up with most of my comments being negative or disagreeing except in the smaller communities.

Then I started getting banned for comments that were unreasonably tame which pissed me off and then I started commenting with the intention of dragging people into endlessly dumb arguments where I would try get them to say something that would get then banned.

Lemmy doesn’t have this issue of comments being buried and there is no incentive not to get downvoted so I feel like I can post normally here with minimal trolling.