What's wrong with simple categories for comments... Informative, Funny, Flamebait, etc.
Don’t blame me, I voted for CowboyNeal.
Ask HN: Is it time for HN to implement a form of captcha?
71–80 of 150 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is it time for HN to implement a form of captcha?
#72I've always wished there was a "block comments from this user" feature that didn't rely on vibe-coding my own Chrome extension (and thus not work on Safari where I spent at least 50% of my HN time). I imagine it could even work like Sponsorblock does, and we could crowdsource people who's comments are inflammatory. I've also noticed that very obviously LLM-generated comments are called out, and the community tends to…
I don't think that kind of feature would be useful for HN.
The one thing I like about this place is that it's well moderated and you have shared opposing view points engaging (mostly) respectfully.
My personal and political views couldn't be further from most HN users (I'm both a Conservative _and_ a practicing Christian), yet I appreciate taking part in various discussion. I enjoy reading about point of views that directly challenge mine.
Let's keep HN respectful and accessible.
Re: Ask HN: Is it time for HN to implement a form of captcha?
#73Captcha is only effective at annoying legitimate users. If there is any incentive to do so, bots have no problem bypassing/solving them.
Is this your experience as a sysadmin or a user? As a sysadmin, this is an absurd statement in contradiction of my everyday reality.
My website's contact form has a reCAPTCHA and it still gets spam sent through it (though vastly less). They pass the reCAPTCHA somehow. My contact form literally only emails me and they still do it.
Re: Ask HN: Is it time for HN to implement a form of captcha?
#74I've always wished there was a "block comments from this user" feature that didn't rely on vibe-coding my own Chrome extension (and thus not work on Safari where I spent at least 50% of my HN time). I imagine it could even work like Sponsorblock does, and we could crowdsource people who's comments are inflammatory. I've also noticed that very obviously LLM-generated comments are called out, and the community tends to…
Not sure what extensions work in Safari, but I think I used this one for awhile in Chrome: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10005699 / https://github.com/morgante/hn_blocklist
The problem with extensions on Safari is that they now need to go through the App Store. So you can’t just code it up and run it. It would require signing up for a developer account, paying $99/year, and all of that stuff.
You can run temporary unsigned extensions for development purposes, but they are removed after 24 hours or whenever you quit Safari, which would make using it daily a non-starter.
Re: Ask HN: Is it time for HN to implement a form of captcha?
#75Captchas are not effective. You can pay 2captcha less than a penny per captcha and humans solve them for you.
Re: Ask HN: Is it time for HN to implement a form of captcha?
#76We've always wanted to build a service which provides authentication through credit score verification. Whether its applied to dating apps, product review sites, HN. I'd sure love to filter by 650+ only. I'm certain it's illegal but it sure would help.
What happens if someone had no debt, and thus no score? Lenders see this as a negative (to drive more business), but is likely a positive sign, as it means they live within their means and can get their bills paid without leaning on debt.
Re: Ask HN: Is it time for HN to implement a form of captcha?
#77Re: Ask HN: Is it time for HN to implement a form of captcha?
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
This seems like an especially silly complaint on a site that is clear on the label about votes being just one of many signals deciding placement on pages and threads. We've known since 2008 that the HN experiment doesn't work if it runs off raw votes; you just get a front page full of memes.
If this were clearly public (like written in the rules) then maybe it wouldn't be worth mentioning. But if it isn't, it's good for people to know, so they understand how their voting habits can affect whether their votes count, right? That's why I mentioned it.
Perhaps you should acknowledge that your claim of them refusing to tell people about this is false.
Re: Ask HN: Is it time for HN to implement a form of captcha?
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't see a many habitual problem accounts. Do you? I guess there was the arguably special case of a certain OS enthusiast...
An account doesn't have to be problematic for you to not want to see their comments. I have several handles in mind where I'd add them to such a list if it were a feature. Nothing against the people in particular, but sometimes when I see a handle (like others said, very often old accounts with high karma), I already know what they will go on about merely just based off the title of the submission and having unintent…
I disagree and would be hurt to lose your attention.
Re: Ask HN: Is it time for HN to implement a form of captcha?
#80Its too bad Team Blind doesn't support a dev api to their auth service. Work emails are a good candidate for a simple "blue check mark" system for the HN crowd, but with a layer preserving anonymity. Ex. Generate a token, add to profile, browser extension performs verification.
Otherwise agreed with the sentiment.