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Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores

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Re: Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores

#131

Post by newmediaclay »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #79
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…

Why aren't they the same piece of info? Scores just reflect popularity, not expert analysis. I find scoring systems like at reddit or slashdot just promote, usually wrong, group think (ZOMG OBAMA IS A COMMIE KENYAN!!) or whatever group values the majority accepts (GAYS SHOULDNT GET MARRIED!!). There's a lot of faith in the wisdom of crowds with these systems and that's not a faith I find particularly convincing. The…

I don't think you've been a member of the community long enough, then. On YC, I certainly find a correlation between the points for a certain comment and the thoughtfulness put into that comment. This isn't true on other systems (reddit, etc) where clever noise is preferred to depth, but I generally find the most helpful comments getting voted up here.

Re: Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores

#132

Post by ary »

Terretta wrote: post #116
tolmasky wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

So many of the discussions around these points here center around the "TL;DR" point of view. I wonder how these people ever managed to make it through a newspaper without scores telling them which articles are worth it. Learn to survey, skim, and dive in. All your endeavors will be the better for it. PS. Your method (don't read if don't like score) also ensures you won't be soiled by accidentally reading an unpopular…

You need to reword this as a top level comment and repost. Some will say that having to make such a request is proof that scores need to come back, but I'm just concerned that everyone on the "pro" comment score side will never see it.

Re: Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores

#133

Post by hernan7 »

awakeasleep wrote: post #30

I really like the lack of comment scores. Things are still sorted, so the cream floats to the top, and it made me realize I felt group-impulses based on the score. Now, there is little to no incentive to one-up someone, and I don't consider people refuted based on their score, but rather based on what I think of their comment. That last part has nurtured my curiosity, I find myself exploring thoughts I didn't on the…

Sorting works well enough for me too. I would even add a bit (10% or so) of randomness to the sorting, to give the less popular comments a bit of time in the spotlight.

Re: Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores

#134

Post by BoppreH »

Terretta wrote: post #116
tolmasky wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

So many of the discussions around these points here center around the "TL;DR" point of view. I wonder how these people ever managed to make it through a newspaper without scores telling them which articles are worth it. Learn to survey, skim, and dive in. All your endeavors will be the better for it. PS. Your method (don't read if don't like score) also ensures you won't be soiled by accidentally reading an unpopular…

A better example would be choosing which newspapers to read based on your friend's recommendations, versus choosing by yourself. All articles from the same newspaper share a source and it already ensures some quality.

Re: Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores

#135

Post by redler »

Terretta wrote: post #117
bruce511 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since I can't see your score, and you can't see mine, I honestly have no idea at this point whether more people agree with you than with me. Or indeed if no-one cares at all. When this thread is referenced to a week from now there is no way to see what sort of agreement occurred with either one of us. There are a bunch of "for" comments, and a bunch of "against" comments, but ultimately no resolution (that either of…

> Since I can't see your score, and you can't see mine, I honestly have no idea at this point whether more people agree with you than with me... When this thread is referenced to a week from now there is no way to see what sort of agreement occurred with either one of us. It's almost as though the future reader would need to form an opinion... for themselves.

The readers here tend toward the more sophisticated end of the spectrum, and of course the presence of scores doesn't preclude future readings in depth. We all understand that scores are blunt indicators, but why not have access to that information? Knowing how the community "graded" a particular comment is an interesting piece of meta-information, even if you believe the cognitive anchoring effect diminishes its value as an indicator of the relative quality of the comment. But given the quality of the audience, high scores are likely to be positively correlated with quality comments, don't you think?

Re: Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores

#136

Post by ambirex »

I would like it if the comment rating was only available in an html data attribute (eg data-rating="10"). That way my old user script would still be able to sort and high light comments.

You would have to go out of your way to see the score but could still be used by us hackers who like to customize our experience.

Re: Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores

#138

Post by edw »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #79
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…

Why aren't they the same piece of info? Scores just reflect popularity, not expert analysis. I find scoring systems like at reddit or slashdot just promote, usually wrong, group think (ZOMG OBAMA IS A COMMIE KENYAN!!) or whatever group values the majority accepts (GAYS SHOULDNT GET MARRIED!!). There's a lot of faith in the wisdom of crowds with these systems and that's not a faith I find particularly convincing. The…

I agree. I've almost forgotten how disappointed I am that sites like HN, Reddit, and so forth don't use my up votes as signals for a collaborative filter and suggest which comments and stories I might find interesting. (And by "interesting," I mean interesting, not something I agree with, a distinction too many people on HN don't seem to understand.)

Re: Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores

#139

Post by kristofferR »

temptemptemp13 wrote: post #82
JacobAldridge wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is my dilemma, and based on pg's recent poll may be part of why that vote was split. Basically, I feel that I'm interacting more intelligently but receiving less value from the conversation. I feeling that I am contributing differently, assessing comments more on merit and adding my own thoughts less. I'm certainly voting on comments less (both up and down). But I find I lack context in many of those discussions…

How do you vote down?

You must have 1000 karma

Re: Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores

#140

Post by detst »

brudgers wrote: post #121
bruce511 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since I can't see your score, and you can't see mine, I honestly have no idea at this point whether more people agree with you than with me. Or indeed if no-one cares at all. When this thread is referenced to a week from now there is no way to see what sort of agreement occurred with either one of us. There are a bunch of "for" comments, and a bunch of "against" comments, but ultimately no resolution (that either of…

> "When this thread is referenced to a week from now there is no way to see what sort of agreement occurred with either one of us." That just means that people will have to read the comments and decide for themselves based on the merits of the comments. One might argue that that is better than deciding based on points because some people interpret points as assent to the beliefs expressed in the comment while others…

But it's not necessarily about judging a comment for an upvote/downvote.

The number can be used to gauge whether you should stop and read something carefully. Maybe an expert comes along and makes an extremely informative comment and maybe I just scan it. Seeing a bunch of upvotes indicates that I should probably slow down and try to learn something from it.

Or maybe a well-reasoned debate has a large voting discrepancy. I value the collective judgement of the HN community and this information helps me learn from the arguments.

The value of this exceeds the more fair voting that we might have now.

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