The value of downvoting, or, how Hacker News gets it wrong (2009)

Post by amznthrwaway » Wed, Apr 14, 2021, 9:03 PM UTC

klyrs wrote: post #43

dang wrote: post #23

Getting it wrong for 12 years now: The Value of Downvoting, Or, How Hacker News Gets It Wrong (2009) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25633668 - Jan 2021 (1 comment) 10 Years In, Was He Right? “Value of Downvoting; How HN Gets It Wrong” - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23409231 - June 2020 (1 comment) The Value of Downvoting, or, How Hacker News Gets It Wrong (2009) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=…

The value of downvoting, or how Stackexchange gets it wrong about HN's voting system. It's hilarious that they start with some misconceptions about downvoting, notice that they're wrong, and forge boldly ahead without updating their understanding. If my hottest takes are any indication, the reputation floor -4 for a comment, not zero as they suggest. I haven't noticed a ceiling on upvotes. Upvotes help stories rise t…

Post by blargpls » Wed, Apr 14, 2021, 9:05 PM UTC

jasode wrote: post #65

I think a critical missing context of reposting an old 2009 article is that a newer post in 2011 makes downvotes free instead of costing reputation: >Jeff Atwood announced change of policy -- "Downvotes on questions no longer cost the casting user 1 reputation, so they are effectively “free”. [...] So, it’s imperative the question list have a high signal-to-noise ratio, and removing the penalty for those users who do…

Post by clairity » Wed, Apr 14, 2021, 9:05 PM UTC

teach wrote: post #80

clairity wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "If I downvote a misinformed post the original poster won't know where they went wrong, and people who see a grayed post won't necessarily understand what's wrong with it either." that's ok, the onus is on the downvoted poster to figure it out for themselves. usually that requires seeing a pattern over the course of a few downvoted posts rather than pinpointing it exactly from a given post. most downvoted posts bre…

I find it sort-of ironic that at the time I am writing this reply, _your_ comment has been downvoted and I'm not sure why. Presumably the onus is on you to figure that out, but good luck, since I'm not sure either and usually I can tell.

Post by oehpr » Wed, Apr 14, 2021, 9:07 PM UTC

Scottopherson wrote: post #75

I don't have the ability to downvote. Is it possible to undo an upvote? I sometimes upvote a comment by accident when viewing HN on mobile.

Post by latortuga » Wed, Apr 14, 2021, 9:07 PM UTC

gwbas1c wrote: post #74

I don't know if these are popular opinions or not: 1: I really wish I could downvote Hacker News articles. 2: I really wish there was some friction to downvoting. Perhaps something like choosing among: disagree, factually wrong, mean, incoherent Regarding the downvoting of articles: For awhile I used to see a regular pattern of weird articles on the front page. The discussion would then predictably involve a mod defe…