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A Proposal To Improve Hacker News

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Re: A Proposal To Improve Hacker News

#141

Post by nandemo »

thaumaturgy wrote: post #51

This, and many of the suggestions in the original thread, and pg's default response, are all falling into the same trap: they are attempting to fix a people problem using technical solutions. Technology can make community management easier. Better algorithms and visual design and so on can improve the way that a community polices itself. But, I think eventually you'll run into vanishing returns from that kind of stuf…

> Eventually every community needs one or more managers, or gardeners (http://lesswrong.com/lw/c1/wellkept_gardens_die_by_pacifism/) -- people who have been around a long time, who embody the "spirit" of the site, and who have, not absolute, but special influence on the community.

1) Don't you think Wikipedia administrators and Stackoverflow mods fulfil that "gardener" role? (I think so).

2) Consider that above "gardeners" are often criticized harshly on HN (even though, in my opinion, they are a positive force on Wikipedia and Stackoverflow). Don't you think strong moderators would have a bad time on HN?

Re: A Proposal To Improve Hacker News

#142

Post by franzus »

aidenn0 wrote: post #85
benologist wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes high submissions with no or low involvement in the community. Either they really, really, really, really love submission karma or they're here to exploit the site.

Wouldn't that just cause a lot of spam comments?

It should be pretty hard to automate spam comments (without the comments getting downvoted to hell). Whereas automated submission of stories is super trivial.

Re: A Proposal To Improve Hacker News

#143

Post by franzus »

dwwoelfel wrote: post #8

While not all of us can spend the time to become an HN celebrity, there are many of us who have worked to get a high karma over time. HN should highlight the names of such users in purple, similar to the way it highlights newbies with green. PG tried that ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=467181 ), except with orange instead of purple.

> worked to get a high karma

Wow, why would anyone consider a score on any internet site so important? I certainly wouldn't "work hard" to get internet points.

Re: A Proposal To Improve Hacker News

#145

Post by Bvalmont »

Introduce a one-time fee of 10 dollars when creating an account. This account offers you the ability to comment.

Other contributions are rewarded for people not willing to pay the 10 dollar fine, for example; by submitting links.

Then use the generated money to pay moderators. Ban people who are not following the rules or penalty them with probation time.

This weeds out the bad apples, keeps the community relatively small and contained.

It also improves the maturity of any community.

It worked for something awful forums, I can see it working here.

Re: A Proposal To Improve Hacker News

#146

Post by [deleted] »

dhimes wrote: post #102
polyfractal wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, I had no idea average karma sorted people higher/lower. But you actively try to protect your karma? After my karma hit 1000 I basically stopped caring anymore. What incentive do you have to protect your karma (serious question, I'm not sure I understand why it matters)?

I didn't know this, either. This idea will only work if karma measures what we want it to measure. If karma isn't associated with quality but with site-gaming, or snarky commenting, or other bad stuff, this system creates a positive feedback loop for sending the site in the wrong direction. Yikes!

[deleted]

Re: A Proposal To Improve Hacker News

#147

Post by Bvalmont »

MartinCron wrote: post #68
misogynists wrote: post #40

Please boycott ycmmbinator and hackernews for their misogynistic policy of shadow banning all female participants.

I don't think this can possibly be true. Can you give us some proof of this assertion?

forums.somethingawful.com follows this model and it works incredibly well, I recommend you check it out.

Re: A Proposal To Improve Hacker News

#148

Post by yxhuvud »

Danieru wrote: post #92
thaumaturgy wrote: post #51

This, and many of the suggestions in the original thread, and pg's default response, are all falling into the same trap: they are attempting to fix a people problem using technical solutions. Technology can make community management easier. Better algorithms and visual design and so on can improve the way that a community polices itself. But, I think eventually you'll run into vanishing returns from that kind of stuf…

> By the time it's written and posted, the site has moved on to the next new thing. I noticed this within the context of submissions and /new when I posted two blog posts of mine. Both posts were x000 words so minimum reading was over 3-5 minutes (average time on site was 1.5 minutes so not everyone read to the end). Both times neither posts got any upvotes until half way down the first page. They were surrounded by…

One way around the burying effect of the new page would be to not let it be ordered by age but delivered in a random order (but removed altogether after a certain amount of time).

Re: A Proposal To Improve Hacker News

#149

Post by buro9 »

The hide button will not work for long.

It is an attempt to treat the symptom and not the cause.

I run large communities, and I've implemented "hide" and "ignore" functions for pretty much everything in my time.

People rub each other up the wrong way, so they want to ignore anything the other person says.

People get rubbed up by all threads on a certain topic, so they want to ignore the topic.

When a topic hits the news in a big splash and half the front page is the same thing, they get annoyed and want to ignore the whole of that topic for a short while.

Failing to hide/ignore all of that stuff results in them lashing out to the detriment of all.

But, if you indulge it by providing the hide/ignore all you've done is hide the symptom. Now people think it's cured and it is not.

The problem here isn't the content, it's the reaction to the content.

The problem here is with the reader and contributor, not pg and the code base.

The problem is that there needs to be a shift in attitude and etiquette from a lot of users.

It's a people problem, and people need to be shown what isn't an acceptable way to behave.

Re: A Proposal To Improve Hacker News

#150

Post by chrislomax »

pedalpete wrote: post #130
peterwwillis wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fuck karma in general. I can't think of a practical use for publishing the karma number. Real karma ripples throughout the world on it's own, you don't need a number to record it. There's far too much ego worship in communities like HN, where nerds are often too concerned with it to begin with. The whole 'honoring the most popular community members' is the same. It's horrifically vain and just gives otherwise normal…

Though you are correct in theory, I think the karma points are beneficial in driving the community. I didn't know what it was before I signed up, but now I check it out every now and then (though you can tell by my score, I don't obsess over it). Though maybe having a user know their overall score is a detriment. It doesn't matter how much Karma is accumulated overtime, but consistently benefiting the community is va…

I think levels would be better, taking the idea of a veteran to the next level. But I think the levels should be based on time and "karma". So you start off green, if you stopped on the site 5 years and never added anything you would be green but the same would be said if you were on the site for 5 minutes and got 1000 karma in a day, you would then move up a level or something but didn't get the "veteran" accolade. You then wouldn't be able to receive such higher levels without being a member for a certain period as well.

Maybe the overall levels relate to how much you can help moderate the site?

I know karma doesn't matter but I do find myself looking when I come onto the site and equally I don't post as often as I should because I find idiots down voting something for the sake of "happy clicking".

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