Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Is it time for HN to implement a form of captcha?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 150 posts

Re: Ask HN: Is it time for HN to implement a form of captcha?

#131

Post by SomeUserName432 »

rd wrote: post #5

I've always wished there was a "block comments from this user" feature that didn't rely on vibe-coding my own Chrome extension (and thus not work on Safari where I spent at least 50% of my HN time). I imagine it could even work like Sponsorblock does, and we could crowdsource people who's comments are inflammatory. I've also noticed that very obviously LLM-generated comments are called out, and the community tends to…

A whole extension? Seems like something any custom-css/custom-js plugin can handle. Stylus, or those monkey extensions.

.hnuser attr=href=?user?id=rd

.parent().parent().hide()

Though no idea if such a plugin exists for Safari.

Re: Ask HN: Is it time for HN to implement a form of captcha?

#132

Post by metadope »

sgentle wrote: post #109
metadope wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

And "picturing" is just a florid way of saying "imagining", no? The art of language lives in its redundancy; every unforced choice is a venue for self-expression.

Yes, I love the redundancy of English. Language makes a playground of our minds. And yes, "picturing" is another way of saying "imagining", but to me and my mind it carries more of a connotation of visualization. Imagining may have its root in "imaging", but encompasses more imho, describing the entire Reality Construction Kit.

"Unforced choice" is an interesting phrase. Perhaps another discussion, another time. End self-expression.

Re: Ask HN: Is it time for HN to implement a form of captcha?

#133

Post by SockThief »

ghssds wrote: post #116
SockThief wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That kind of feature would be welcome. Blocking domains would be nice too. Like substack or medium. I'm happy to just ignore them, but it sure would be nice to filter them out if possible. I get that it's complicating the system and keeping it simple is perhaps for the best.

Try Glider on F-Droid.

Great app! Thank you.

Anything you know that could help me on PC?

Re: Ask HN: Is it time for HN to implement a form of captcha?

#134

Post by chasebank »

_DeadFred_ wrote: post #63
chasebank wrote: post #60

We've always wanted to build a service which provides authentication through credit score verification. Whether its applied to dating apps, product review sites, HN. I'd sure love to filter by 650+ only. I'm certain it's illegal but it sure would help.

Hell yes! Not just a social credit score, but one that permanently locks in/enforces a class system. Tech bros even manage to enshittify social credit scores to be even more shitty. Amazing work.

Pick your poison, I suppose. All I know what we have now is a race to the bottom. Reviews, comments, dating sites, all a giant fabrication.

Re: Ask HN: Is it time for HN to implement a form of captcha?

#135

Post by chasebank »

al_borland wrote: post #76
chasebank wrote: post #60

We've always wanted to build a service which provides authentication through credit score verification. Whether its applied to dating apps, product review sites, HN. I'd sure love to filter by 650+ only. I'm certain it's illegal but it sure would help.

What happens if someone had no debt, and thus no score? Lenders see this as a negative (to drive more business), but is likely a positive sign, as it means they live within their means and can get their bills paid without leaning on debt.

I wasn't suggesting that people wouldn't be allowed to participate without a score, (which I think everyone has a score regardless of no debt?). I was suggesting that login / auth takes place by credit score verification. This would solve a couple problems. First, and most important, we know it's a real person commenting / participating. Second, systems could be designed to filter by score. For instance, if I'm researching products on reddit, I'd sure love to know A. it's a real person, and B. to filter by some score threshold. I'd wager people with higher scores have less incentive to get paid to shill some product online.

Anyways, from the little research I've done, it's certainly illegal and not a proper mechanism for authentication. One can dream though :)

Re: Ask HN: Is it time for HN to implement a form of captcha?

#136

Post by tempodox »

rd wrote: post #5

I've always wished there was a "block comments from this user" feature that didn't rely on vibe-coding my own Chrome extension (and thus not work on Safari where I spent at least 50% of my HN time). I imagine it could even work like Sponsorblock does, and we could crowdsource people who's comments are inflammatory. I've also noticed that very obviously LLM-generated comments are called out, and the community tends to…

Comments Owl for Hacker News has a block-this-user feature. Available for the major browsers.

https://github.com/insin/comments-owl-for-hacker-news/releas...

Re: Ask HN: Is it time for HN to implement a form of captcha?

#137

Post by caminante »

hananova wrote: post #120
caminante wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Preach it. I'm still amazed at how Reddit weaponized the block feature. If you block someone, you not only can't see their posts, but you ice them out from replying in the rest of the thread.

I don’t really enjoy block systems myself, but that is what block has shifted to mean. In the past “block” used to mean what “mute” means now: Hide from me. I believe it’s around the time Twitter became popular that the meaning has shifted to being a bi-directional mute. I find that the need for a blocking system as that just points to a broken moderation system, and a broken society at large.

At least for Reddit, these "broken" features (like making your comment history private) have clear financial motives to mask bots and bad actor detection.

Re: Ask HN: Is it time for HN to implement a form of captcha?

#138

Post by baxuz »

FloorEgg wrote: post #102
baxuz wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a solved problem with ZKPs

I studied ZKPs. You and I must have very different understandings of the actual scope of the problem. Like I said, everything that exists or is being worked on that makes a dent (including ZKPs) is incomplete or has ugly trade offs. Maybe you are thinking purely from a math / theoretical perspective, but I'm thinking of a compete solution that's practical to use to solve the problem for sites like HN and many others.

That is true, and I'm also working in the industry.

We are currently in dire need of ZKP providers / abstractions that will aggregate both eIDs and tradition IDV (scans).

However it's extremely important that the technical capability is there. The next step is to build upon it, and I think that it's a great time for something like this due to all the horrible implementations of identity verifications currently available — that is 3rd party companies collecting scans of documents and biometrics.

Re: Ask HN: Is it time for HN to implement a form of captcha?

#139

Post by gus_massa »

erelong wrote: post #113

Interesting question but my problem is... it sometimes feels like there are almost no users on this site to begin with, real or not! This post only has around 100 comments, and even a top page post around 1500. Reddit's front page posts have thousands of comments and for me they seem pretty readable (and we know there are plenty of bots there... but Reddit does use captchas a bit I guess). I guess I am focused on a d…

Upvote good comment to reward people with imaginary points

Go to /newest from time to time. You may find an undiscovered gem.

Post reply on HN