I don't think that line disagrees with your experience. It's not saying you'll get 10x admiration comments. Just that there are 10x admiring people.

It's a bit like HN comments, the discussion happens when someone disagrees, or adds more context. But if you like something you should just upvote instead of posting a trivial comment. Even the rules say so.

I guess if you publish something where you can see the traffic stats, it may be easier to see. So you get 5 comments how your content is dumb - check traffic stats - ah, it's 5 out of 500,000 visitors.

That's a good point. I guess most readers are like dark matter. It's a pity the minority who does interact tend to give a (presumably) biased perception.

Most people who like something will at most "like" it, or just say "Cool!" and move on to the next thing.

But disliking something seems to produce a disproportionate reaction, like leaving a negative comment or reporting the content.

Yeah, exactly this. I could've been more clear on that note, but I've often had conversations with people that have never interacted with me on Twitter and they'll say "oh I really love that [thing] you did" and I'm just like... you did? I didn't know that!

Most admiration is silent, whereas criticism is loud.

When people see something disagreeable online, they tend to interact (leave snarky comments).

When people see something neat? They go "neat" to themselves, and often don't comment.

Hence the somewhat common engagement hack where people post semi controversial takes to generate engagement.