Ask HN: How Can We Help Make HN a Better Online Community?

Re: Bringing back points for individual comments

Pros:

* Saves the reader's time. This is incredibly important. I've been here pretty much since the beginning, mostly as a lurker. I've noticed that I used to look forward to the stories with the most comments, because the best comments in those threads were generally very good and generally easy to identify. Now I avoid stories that have received a lot of comments. I just don't have the time to read every comment, and the current ranking system seems too inexact.

* Simple, structural, code-based adjustment. Hacker News has a simple interface, simple rules, and a public code base. Bringing in a dedicated moderator might make some of us happier, but it would also be a tacit admission of defeat. I get the sense that PG would like to exhaust all simple, code-based solutions before getting to that point.

Cons:

* Unintended consequences: chasing after karma. IIRC, this is PG's primary concern about comment scores.

Solutions?

* Maybe it makes more sense to hide karma for individual users than to hide scores on comments. There would still be thresholds of positive karma that would enable users to have certain privileges, but users wouldn't have access to that information. Admittedly, I haven't given this much consideration, so I haven't thought through the consequences.

* Maybe there is another way to make comments easier to scan. This could be done visually, perhaps using color or s simple icon. It might also make sense to offer another sub-HN, kind of like /classic. Personally, I don't rely on HN for news; for me, the value is in the comments. So maybe a /comments sub-HN could feature submissions that generate the best discussions. Defining best might take some doing (highest value average score? highest value single comment?) and would probably require a check or two to prevent users from gaming the system. But for those of us who think HN's value is most closely associated with the value of its comments, it would be great to have an interface that offered a more efficient way to find the most interesting comments.

I'd like to see more people on the "New" page. I'm not sure how much attention it gets compared to the front page, but it seems like very few people are taking the time to wade through all of the submissions and upvoting the gems. Essentially, controversial topics are much more likely to garner the necessary upvotes to make it to the front page, and thus receive a lot of attention, while technical ones often fade into oblivion.

It's my understanding that HN's algorithm rewards articles that have lot of comments and discussion. I've observed that I typically enjoy articles that feature a high upvote to comment ratio, while I'm unlikely to enjoy articles with more comments than upvotes. I would be interested in seeing what the front page would look like if articles were penalized for having more comments than upvotes. Maybe this is just a personal quirk, I don't know.

I'd also like to see the community flag more comments than just those that are spam. Personally, I flag any very mean comments/ad hominems. I've been on the receiving end of such often enough that I know that those kind of comments can easily ruin somebody's day. I think, as a community, we should actively discourage comments that are mean. All criticism ought to be constructive, otherwise what value does it add to the discussion?

At day's end, though, the most effective way to influence the community is going to be leading by example. Long-time members of the community need to show newer members what is appropriate. pg needs to show the community "this is good" and "this is bad" and he has to participate. The entire tone of a community is decided by its most senior and most active members. The majority of a community will follow the lead set by those few.

I, too, am very interested in education and policy, but the devil hides here:

as long as we are honor-bound to seek facts and verifiable information about the subject of how XXXX works and how it can be improved

I like other political discussions (of XXXX) here- when the above is adhered to- because I seem to find the facts more quickly here than on any other site. The diverse points of view and contexts of experiences of the people here nearly always makes me realize something I hadn't previously considered. But I think the broader consensus is that too many people won't feel bound to adhere to the facts, and the conversation will tend to devolve as patio11 suggests.

Kinda similar here. I dislike "me too" responses, and tend to be the devil's advocate because that's the point of debating vs "commenting". The funniest is when my comments get downvoted, yet acquire tons of responses [1] [2]. It's kind of interesting to see how the votes fluctuate until they reach their final (usually low) score.

[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3116043 [2] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3125017