Add to the list: Keep HACKER NEWS FOR AND BY HACKERS..stop posting other useless content. I want this place to learn and read about new coding practices, api's, only technically relavent stuff.
A Proposal To Improve Hacker News
31–40 of 193 posts
Re: A Proposal To Improve Hacker News
#32Reward users for browsing "New" This is an interesting suggestion. I think of looking at new submissions as a kind of "service to the community"-- more specifically, to the community I want HN to be. If the front page is filled with links I don't value, then it's partly my fault if I've failed to upvote submissions I would rather see on the front page (this, of course, means browsing "new" is a reward unto itself, bu…
How about a mathematical reward system for new threads? Something like:
Vote Value = (Log[base:Median(AvgUserKarma)](AvgUserKarma)) * (Log[base:(25)](ThreadTop50Rank + 1))
That way if you contribute something great in a new thread and someone upvotes you, you'll get more karma from it.
A warning though, this reward system would encourage equal distribution of comments, versus the typical 80/20 rule. Not sure if that is what is best for the community.
Re: A Proposal To Improve Hacker News
#33Please boycott ycmmbinator and hackernews for their misogynistic policy of shadow banning all female participants.
Re: A Proposal To Improve Hacker News
#34I think this lays the real issue out but buries it: > The only way to guarantee any visibility is to time very carefully using HNPickup, be a celebrity like John Gruber or Dustin Curtis, organize an up vote cabal, or write sensationalist content. HN has become mainstream and it's subject to all the spam, pandering, submission strategies, power users and all the other bullshit that comes with that territory. I'd start…
> HN has become mainstream and it's subject to all the spam, pandering, submission strategies, power users and all the other bullshit that comes with that territory.
I think this article falls exactly under the heading of a pandering submission strategy. It's link bait. It's a semi-controversial topic trending on HN, better jump in and vomit up a blog entry to get some traffic! Nevermind that it says nothing at all.
Here's a thought for improving your image of HN: Read less of it.
Read a few submissions with interesting titles, post a comment or two and go back to doing something worthwhile. I know I waste too much time on HN as it is but many HN'ers spend way more time on here than me. With some topics pushing 200+ comments who has the free time to read everything? Don't. You'll have less noise to signal. You also won't get so emotionally caught up in the drama that inevitably accompanies human interaction.
Stop crying. HN is fine.
EDIT: 'Stop crying.' isn't directed at Benologist. Just realized it may come off that way.
Re: A Proposal To Improve Hacker News
#35I think "reward for browsing New" could be a good idea yet very difficult to implement it well. What I'd like to see is a front page with various lists of submissions according to different criteria, some ideas: 1st| most votes this month - this week, 2nd| "Hot today" (this'd be similar to the current front page I believe), 3rd | "Promising" (Posts from New section that begin their momentum), 4rd | Most commented month / week. Basically a bit of filtering.
Re: A Proposal To Improve Hacker News
#36I'm an algorithm designer, so I don't know about all of these changes but I do have a mathematical solution to PG's vote value problem: before edit: Value of vote = Log[base:TotalUserKarma](UserAvgKarmaPerComment) after edit: Vote Value = (Log[base:TotalUserKarma](AvgUserKarma)) * (Log[base:(25)](ThreadTop50Rank)) another edit: Vote Value = (Log[base:Median(AvgUserKarma)](AvgUserKarma)) * (Log[base:(25)](ThreadTop50R…
The problem with average karma is stat it strongly discourages people from posting replies to less popular or older messages. I've made a conscious choice to ignore my average karma. I dont think it is conducive to good conversation, as it tends to be heavily biased towards the first few posts. I wonder if we should go the other way -- I always liked slashdot's system of a 5 point cap on any post. Is a 500 point post…
Good point, I adjusted it to reward "New" threads.
Re: A Proposal To Improve Hacker News
#37Please boycott ycmmbinator and hackernews for their misogynistic policy of shadow banning all female participants.
Re: A Proposal To Improve Hacker News
#38Reward users for browsing "New" This is an interesting suggestion. I think of looking at new submissions as a kind of "service to the community"-- more specifically, to the community I want HN to be. If the front page is filled with links I don't value, then it's partly my fault if I've failed to upvote submissions I would rather see on the front page (this, of course, means browsing "new" is a reward unto itself, bu…
I'm someone else who refrains from commenting in order to protect my average karma. The thing is, that it isn't as irrational as you are making it out to be. Posts from users with higher average karma are sorted higher. Presumably you are posting because you want your post to be read. Either you want it to influence people or you want your question answered, or whatever. If you didn't want it to be read, you wouldn't…
I thought the sorting of comments was based on the votes for that comment in that thread, not based on the average karma of the poster. Is that not the case?
Re: A Proposal To Improve Hacker News
#39I'm an algorithm designer, so I don't know about all of these changes but I do have a mathematical solution to PG's vote value problem: before edit: Value of vote = Log[base:TotalUserKarma](UserAvgKarmaPerComment) after edit: Vote Value = (Log[base:TotalUserKarma](AvgUserKarma)) * (Log[base:(25)](ThreadTop50Rank)) another edit: Vote Value = (Log[base:Median(AvgUserKarma)](AvgUserKarma)) * (Log[base:(25)](ThreadTop50R…
The problem here is that someone who consistently provides high-quality (or at least frequently-upvoted) comments / submissions will likely have less of a contribution than someone with significantly lower karma. For instance: you would have (slightly) more influence than someone with 3000 karma and an average of 5.
You're right but because it's logarithmic, the difference is nominal and evaporates as a new member makes more posts.
Plus, what is the downside to encouraging new members to post?
Re: A Proposal To Improve Hacker News
#40Please boycott ycmmbinator and hackernews for their misogynistic policy of shadow banning all female participants.