A Proposal To Improve Hacker News • Hacker News Board

Re: A Proposal To Improve Hacker News

#191

Post by dllthomas » Sun, Aug 19, 2012, 6:27 PM UTC

slurgfest wrote: post #183

ckcheng wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps votes should be weighted by the length of the submitted post. So, e.g., votes on short submissions are worth less than votes on full essays. Length of the post can be gamed, but I guess when that happens some form of information theoretic measure can be used as part of the weighting. I don't suppose this is already being done, is it?

It is going to be hard to make an algorithm which can't be beaten (e.g.) by just applying more adjectives and synonyms. Which can easily be automated.

Actually, I strongly doubt it can be easily automated in a way that doesn't reduce readability, which I expect to lead to a sharp drop off in number of up-votes. If the number of up-votes drops off faster than the advantage gained from the longer post, the system can't be gamed.

Re: A Proposal To Improve Hacker News

#192

Post by itmag » Sun, Aug 19, 2012, 6:43 PM UTC

Dn_Ab wrote: post #96

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…

Yeah RiderOfGiraffes is cool. He is still around but was sort of hostilely driven into retirement. He goes by ColinWright these days. You're most likely to find him in math related topics. Don't have anything else constructive to say.

He goes by ColinWright these days.

Of exilelifestyle.com fame?

Re: A Proposal To Improve Hacker News

#193

Post by olivier1664 » Mon, Aug 20, 2012, 1:21 AM UTC

Udo wrote: post #174

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…

There are technological solutions to some of the problems. For example, there is an increasing tendency to create dummy accounts for the sole purpose of dissing another user without getting your own account dirty. I was recently at the receiving end of this, and I have since noticed this happening more often all over HN. The solution for this would indeed be simple: don't allow new users to post comments for, say, 8…

On the "don't allow new users to post comments for, say, 8 hours": Don't forget lot of people create a first account just to do a first reply. I would have feel not welcome the first time I try to comment if this protocol was implemented. More than that, I'm not sure that your proposal will resolve the fake-account problem: if I love to be a jerk I will play with 2 accounts, your 8 hours delay will not block me.