Thoughtful comments that are factually wrong should be downvoted. Seriously. If your code doesn't compile, the compiler doesn't care how much effort it took you to write it...
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Dear YC: Please stop downvoting thoughtful comments you disagree with.
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Re: Dear YC: Please stop downvoting thoughtful comments you disagree with.
#32Quick: can someone create a proxy to hn which does the regexp s/\d+ points? by//g I wonder what it would "feel" like to read hn without the quantification of quality. After all the most interesting stuff would be still on top. Edit: I've done a quick bookmarklet, it seems to break links, but it gives an impression (so enter in in the urlbar at any hn site and press enter): javascript:document.documentElement.innerHTM…
I was toying with suggesting this "improvement" the other day - i.e. remove comment scores.
I think it makes things better; but I suspect there would be a lot of opposition.
Re: Dear YC: Please stop downvoting thoughtful comments you disagree with.
#33Sometimes a reply to a down-voted comment is more insightful than the original. The only comments I down-vote and don't reply to are the "hey this is great" or the one-liner joke comments.
If I think the commenter is wrong or a douche, I'll down-vote and reply with my own side of the debate.
Re: Dear YC: Please stop downvoting thoughtful comments you disagree with.
#34Does this not apply anymore?
Re: Dear YC: Please stop downvoting thoughtful comments you disagree with.
#35It would be nice if you linked to the actual comments that were down voted instead of to article pages with dozens of comments, where, presumably, the reader has to guess which comment you were referring to.
I thought there were too many comments to link to: Create's and bitdiddle's responses here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=720924 This response: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=720909 Is identical to this one: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=720766 My comments in this entire conversation, also: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=720569 (at one point, each of mine was <0, now upvoted out of nagativity, t…
Where the 3rd one is a simple WFM, which is helpful because it establishes that not everyone is having these problems, the 2nd comment sounds condescending and ignores the problems that the parent is having in favour of bringing up an unrelated bug that should be fixed soon.
See the parent post: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=720525
Re: Dear YC: Please stop downvoting thoughtful comments you disagree with.
#36Thoughtful comments that are factually wrong should be downvoted. Seriously. If your code doesn't compile, the compiler doesn't care how much effort it took you to write it...
> If your code doesn't compile, the compiler doesn't care how much effort it took you to write it
Trying be a compiler for somebody's though ;)
Re: Dear YC: Please stop downvoting thoughtful comments you disagree with.
#37I have noticed this effect as well. Many of my comments fluctuate massively; up to +10, down to -8, back to 2, down to -5, ...
I think this basically means that we are a few months away from being Reddit. Pretty soon, any comment containing $HILARIOUS_MEME will be upmodded regardless of its applicability or actual humor value. (We are already Reddit with respect to downmods; say something bad about the iPhone or something good about the GPL, and the downmods start almost instantly. Also, I think there used to be articles about programming here, but I haven't seen any in a while. Maybe today I can read about how programmers are smarter than everyone else, or how to sell a $35,000 watch. Tomorrow, I look forward to some cat pictures.)
Anyway, moderation is a waste of time. Hitting "flag" will get comments and articles that you disagree with censored a lot quicker.
Re: Dear YC: Please stop downvoting thoughtful comments you disagree with.
#38Quick: can someone create a proxy to hn which does the regexp s/\d+ points? by//g I wonder what it would "feel" like to read hn without the quantification of quality. After all the most interesting stuff would be still on top. Edit: I've done a quick bookmarklet, it seems to break links, but it gives an impression (so enter in in the urlbar at any hn site and press enter): javascript:document.documentElement.innerHTM…
I was toying with suggesting this "improvement" the other day - i.e. remove comment scores. I think it makes things better; but I suspect there would be a lot of opposition.
Maybe one could make that a user setting so that everybody who likes it that way could switch points off.
I think I could be more objective when I wouldn't see the exact points but just the relative order of stories and comments.
Another interesting idea would be that a reply to a comment would count as +1 (or maybe +0.5) for the parent. Because I think that if a comment is interesting or controversial enough to justify a reply it deserves a point or a half for that fact alone.
Re: Dear YC: Please stop downvoting thoughtful comments you disagree with.
#39As someone who has received a string of downvoted commented recently (admittedly they were warranted given the nature of some of them) I really don't see the problem. Someone disagrees with you and does the initial downvoting, then groupthink kicks in and your score hits the floor. It's a simple fact of life in social media sites (it occurs on many sites with differing communities), this is why PG put in the -8 limit…
I worry that when so many comments have negative votes, readers will be more inclined to downvote future comments. While I agree with you that it's really human nature, I still think it needs to be discouraged, if only to keep HN the kind of place where debate is encouraged.
"While I agree with you that it's really human nature, I still think it needs to be discouraged, if only to keep HN the kind of place where debate is encouraged."
I agree with you, absolutely. I think we're mostly adults here and hearty debate should be encouraged.
I think that if you really want to counteract the douchebag effect (the groupthink downvote pileon on thoughtful comments) then make who has downvoted you public to everyone but the downvotee - transparency would be one way to help combat it.
Think about it for a second, if you have a legitimate gripe with someone's comment, then whether you downvote them or not shouldn't matter. Those comments are easy to single out.
However, if you're piling on just because of groupthink, then why not let other's know. I'm sure someone could come up with an algorithm for working out who's being a dick with the downvoting consistently.
I think there should be a clear distinction between legitimately disagreeing/downvoting someone's comment and being a dick, so why not try and expose the latter.
We've seen in many, many cases that anonymity on the web has given rise to the kinds of behaviours that many of us dislike. Why not bring it back a little towards people being responsible for their actions.
Re: Dear YC: Please stop downvoting thoughtful comments you disagree with.
#40As someone who has received a string of downvoted commented recently (admittedly they were warranted given the nature of some of them) I really don't see the problem. Someone disagrees with you and does the initial downvoting, then groupthink kicks in and your score hits the floor. It's a simple fact of life in social media sites (it occurs on many sites with differing communities), this is why PG put in the -8 limit…
I kind of see myself as the balancer. I tend to actually read a downvoted comment to see if it was worthy (and vote it up) or see a highly upvoted comment and possibly vote it down if it's just getting upvoted because it puts forward a popular view (e.g. Microsoft is evil) rather than something of value.