Too often I see good comments get down voted for no good reason. It would be nice to have a throttle system that limits users who persistently down vote or maybe even displays their username.
What do you dislike about HN and how would you fix it
11–17 of 17 posts
Re: What do you dislike about HN and how would you fix it
#12When people use preformatted (indented) blocks for quoting material. (It's unreadable on mobile.)
The fix? Format any paragraph which begins with a > character with left padding and a left border.
I would assume the fix is simple, but, looking now, the HTML HN generates is somewhat borked. The first paragraph of my comment is not in a
tag, though the remainder are, and all three paragraphs are nested within a single . (A should contain phrasing content, which
is not.) Styling paragraphs would probably necessitate fixing this first.
Re: What do you dislike about HN and how would you fix it
#13If I press 'hide' during several days to much it stops to work. I.e. hiding does not hides. Limit of hides seems to be 350 or so.
Also there are no build in filter or good oss client with filter. Filter by domain. I am tired to hide trash from vice guardian newyorker atlantic etc.
Thanks for asking. I hope somebody who has influence will read.
Or is there good client for my needs?
Re: What do you dislike about HN and how would you fix it
#14Unexplained downvotes are antithetical to rational discourse. Either downvotes should be abolished or they should require an explanatory comment.
I agree. One idea would be to make cost the downvoter a fraction of their own karma. Perhaps 0.1 points/vote. That's how it works on Stackoverflow and the problem isn't as prevalent there.
Re: What do you dislike about HN and how would you fix it
#15If someone posts a link in a comment thread, and then that link gets posted generally to HN, the person who posted the link in the comment should get an extra point. It's only fair. :)
Re: What do you dislike about HN and how would you fix it
#16When people use preformatted (indented) blocks for quoting material. (It's unreadable on mobile.) The fix? Format any paragraph which begins with a > character with left padding and a left border. I would assume the fix is simple, but, looking now, the HTML HN generates is somewhat borked. The first paragraph of my comment is not in a tag, though the remainder are, and all three paragraphs are nested within a single…
The single biggest change I'd make would be to add markdown support.
Re: What do you dislike about HN and how would you fix it
#17Unexplained downvotes are antithetical to rational discourse. Either downvotes should be abolished or they should require an explanatory comment.
I have thought that. (I even thought that it was against the HN guidelines to use downvotes to express disapproval, but deng corrected me.)
But now I'm not so sure. I see people being a jerk to others more often than I want to stop and explain that you're really not supposed to be a jerk here. I see people who certainly seem to be shilling for a viewpoint more often than I want to take the time to call it out. I see bad logic (and even what sure looks like bad faith) more often than I want to take the time to correct.
Do I just let it go each time unless I'm willing to invest the time to explain? I am no longer sure that's going to improve the site. I fear it would instead lead to more bad behavior, lower quality posts, flames, and so on. I fear it could damage the site.