Some people like to receive comments of the form "Good post!", even when these comments contain no other engagement with the post. If you post on LW, I'd like to know (a) whether you like receiving these comments, and (b) whether you like receiving these comments more than you would like receiving a strong upvote by their authors.
I'm not sure how to interpret this. Do they "create a buffer" in the sense of discouraging critics, or "create a buffer" in the sense of a psychological buffer to the demoralization that harsh criticism would otherwise cause?