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Ask PG: will disabling upvotes on the front page reduce hype stories?

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Ask PG: will disabling upvotes on the front page reduce hype stories?

#1
Lately there is a discussion going on @ HN about the quality of high rated stories. To me it seems people just upvote articles by reading the title alone instead of reading the linked article.

Will disabling the upvote button on the front page cause people to read the article first, or read the comments first and make a better decision about there upvoteabilities?

Re: Ask PG: will disabling upvotes on the front page reduce hype stories?

#2
It's important to recognize that any method open to public votes can be played. When you see two or three posts with the same origin suddenly and inexplicably rise to the top of the rankings for some reason other than their obvious worth, you see the role played by gaming the system -- and that's a common occurrence.

> Will disabling the upvote button on the front page cause people to read the article first, or read the comments first and make a better decision about there [sic] upvoteabilities?

s/there/their/

That would essentially disable voting. I think they call that a draconian solution.

Re: Ask PG: will disabling upvotes on the front page reduce hype stories?

#3
post #2

It's important to recognize that any method open to public votes can be played. When you see two or three posts with the same origin suddenly and inexplicably rise to the top of the rankings for some reason other than their obvious worth, you see the role played by gaming the system -- and that's a common occurrence. > Will disabling the upvote button on the front page cause people to read the article first, or read…

Would it essentially disable it, or just reduce the points stories get drastically? I think only allowing voting within the comment page would make it more likely that votes would be on content (or up-voted summaries in the comment page, at least) instead of the headline. If this affected all submissions, would that be a bad thing?

Re: Ask PG: will disabling upvotes on the front page reduce hype stories?

#8
post #3
post #2

It's important to recognize that any method open to public votes can be played. When you see two or three posts with the same origin suddenly and inexplicably rise to the top of the rankings for some reason other than their obvious worth, you see the role played by gaming the system -- and that's a common occurrence. > Will disabling the upvote button on the front page cause people to read the article first, or read…

Would it essentially disable it, or just reduce the points stories get drastically? I think only allowing voting within the comment page would make it more likely that votes would be on content (or up-voted summaries in the comment page, at least) instead of the headline. If this affected all submissions, would that be a bad thing?

> I think only allowing voting within the comment page would make it more likely that votes would be on content (or up-voted summaries in the comment page, at least) instead of the headline.

Maybe. And maybe someone intent on playing the system would simply move to the comment page and upvote there.

Re: Ask PG: will disabling upvotes on the front page reduce hype stories?

#9
I think this would be much like disabling jobs for (or heavily taxing) rich people. When you reach the top, it is much easier to continue ascending, just the same as a larger lion has an easier time finding a mate, and gets fed first.

C'est la vie

Re: Ask PG: will disabling upvotes on the front page reduce hype stories?

#10
While not impossible, I think assuming people vote without reading is doing a disservice to HN readers. The ratio of hits on a story to upvotes is huge - from purely anecdotal data (mine and others) a 20x ratio is common. Since the ratio is so high, it seems reasonable to assume that most if not all votes came from people who did actually click through. I have no data on the upvote to comment page ratio but I would guess it is even higher.

Of course subject matter, headline, other people's comments make a difference, but I doubt there is a significant blind upvoting of something that hits the front page.

I think it is however a good suggestion - simply an invisible reminder that we put content first. I like it.

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