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Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores

#41

Post by thekevan »

I don't usually want to post, "me too" posts but...

I really miss the comment scores.

Sometimes I am not totally familiar with whatever the original post is talking about, often the top rated couple of comments give me some good insight or jumping off points to look into it further.

I respect the HN community and have learned a lot here. I generally trust their judgement and I have found if a comment is rated highly, it most likely adds a lot of value to the discussion.

Sometimes I disagree with the highest rated comment(s). I then see my opinion is in a minority and maybe I re-examine it or stand firm and make a comment to the contrary.

Re: Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores

#42

Post by ignifero »

blhack wrote: post #25

People can be wrong about things, and comment scores are useful information that helps us know if they are. "that is not how mysql works" with 2 Points And "that is not how mysql works" with 102 points Are not the same piece of info. I don't see any benefit to hiding this from people. It also helps newbies understand the customs here (they can get feedback on other people's comments) edit now that I'm not on my phone…

Start with the assumption all comments are wrong; after all there's no absolute truth. The scores are a measure of popularity, which is often right and sometimes wrong. Plus everyone is entitled to an opinion. I don't think scores help anything, it's a measure of someones self-righteousness that i 'd rather not have. It's enough that unpopular opinions float to the bottom, where they belong.

If anything i'd suggest that comment scores should also have minimal impact in karma, except for questions, where an answer is a valuable contribution. Otherwise, everyone's entitled to an opinion.

Re: Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores

#44

Post by jasonlotito »

iterationx wrote: post #6

I like the new system. It discourages winning an argument with numbers. 20 people upvoted the previous comment so that guy must be right.

Do not confuse highlight quality comments with displaying scores. And while numbers shouldn't be the ultimate arbitrator, knowing that 20 people found X's arguments to be better then Y's arguments lends some weight to someone's arguments. Having been on both sides of this, I feel it's fair. It's important to understand when your view runs contrary to the community wisdom of HN. It doesn't mean you have to give in, but it's still good to know where your ideas stand.

Re: Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores

#45

Post by lwhi »

raganwald wrote: post #11
jplewicke wrote: post #8

The only place I really miss having them is in older articles and on searchyc.com. I feel a much greater compulsion to engage each comment on its merit when voting and when reading, and I feel like reading HN has become more intellectually stimulating. However, this is more of a problem when I'm trying to assess information in areas that I'm not already familiar with. If I'm searching for information on which DNS pro…

ABSOLUTELY. Comment scores in the midst of an active discussion narrow thinking. Comment scores on historical artifacts are useful for research.

Research into what?

Re: Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores

#46

Post by patrickk »

My initial reaction was also "just bring em back".

With reflection, I think a good idea might be to show the score after you vote.

This way you get the feeling of making some difference i.e. immediate feedback, but also the knowledge that your vote wasn't subconsciously affected by a visible score beforehand.

The main downside of this would be people voting out of curiosity to see what a comments current score is. Perhaps displaying the score of a comment once it reaches a certain age (maybe three or four days old) would mitigate against this.

Re: Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores

#47

Post by vinhboy »

lwhi wrote: post #38
blhack wrote: post #25

People can be wrong about things, and comment scores are useful information that helps us know if they are. "that is not how mysql works" with 2 Points And "that is not how mysql works" with 102 points Are not the same piece of info. I don't see any benefit to hiding this from people. It also helps newbies understand the customs here (they can get feedback on other people's comments) edit now that I'm not on my phone…

You can see how agreeable a comment is by how far up the page it is. I think having the scores hidden is a good decision. It means that we concentrate on content rather than a 'karma game'. " "that is not how mysql works" with 2 Points And "that is not how mysql works" with 102 points Are not the same piece of info. " In my opinion, both of those comments are bad comments unless they further qualify the statement. I…

lol... ok.. then it is agreed.. we should bring back comment score because the top comment is ----- "bring back comment score"... =)

Re: Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores

#48

Post by alanfalcon »

tuhin wrote: post #40
lwhi wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can see how agreeable a comment is by how far up the page it is. I think having the scores hidden is a good decision. It means that we concentrate on content rather than a 'karma game'. " "that is not how mysql works" with 2 Points And "that is not how mysql works" with 102 points Are not the same piece of info. " In my opinion, both of those comments are bad comments unless they further qualify the statement. I…

Does not work that way if a reply has 100 upvotes, does it? Also I love the discussion in this post since, when with Georgify ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2410195 ) I had tried first to seperate the upvotes with points of a comment, everyone (and yes a blanket term) had said it was a wrong thing to the extent that I had to make changes. Of course it is not my site to make decisions for the users of the site,…

His opinion is that such a bad comment would never reach +100 upvotes since, the post being devoid of additional information, people like him might downvote if they saw the numbers getting "too high".

Re: Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores

#49

Post by losvedir »

Nah, I like not seeing the comment scores.

But today I did think of a different improvement I'd like to see, which for lack of better place to put it, will say here:

When I click on "reply" to a comment, it takes you to a page with just that comment and a text box. I'd like to see that comment's parents all the way to the OP, to give me some more context as I frame my reply.

I think it would improve discussion as you'll see the context in which the person you're replying to replied, and might interpret their words a little differently.

Re: Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores

#50

Post by tolmasky »

lwhi wrote: post #38
blhack wrote: post #25

People can be wrong about things, and comment scores are useful information that helps us know if they are. "that is not how mysql works" with 2 Points And "that is not how mysql works" with 102 points Are not the same piece of info. I don't see any benefit to hiding this from people. It also helps newbies understand the customs here (they can get feedback on other people's comments) edit now that I'm not on my phone…

You can see how agreeable a comment is by how far up the page it is. I think having the scores hidden is a good decision. It means that we concentrate on content rather than a 'karma game'. " "that is not how mysql works" with 2 Points And "that is not how mysql works" with 102 points Are not the same piece of info. " In my opinion, both of those comments are bad comments unless they further qualify the statement. I…

Just expand the example: pretend it was "that is not the way mysql works blah blah explanation". I agree that I don't want to read this if it has 2 points but I do if it has 100.
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