My only suggestion is to add a "save to local" button. That would mean that I would save most of my comments to a local store, instead of posting them to HN.
Ask PG: Can't you turn off new account signups to increase HN quality?
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Re: Ask PG: Can't you turn off new account signups to increase HN quality?
#12Turning off new account signups won't reduce low-quality comments, unless in the rare case that HN is being raided. (i.e. during the Adria Richards incident)
Indeed. If the assumption is that the bulk of current accounts are also low-quality, and that (for whatever reason) account age is a good indicator of quality, you would have to follow up the cutoff of new account signups with a mass deletion of accounts (including OP's) until you got to the 'quality' line.
Re: Ask PG: Can't you turn off new account signups to increase HN quality?
#13It is worth contemplating that 'quality' doesn't exist without a 'subject' and an 'object'. There is no such thing as universal quality. In other words, what you might class as poor quality might be good quality to someone else (some other 'subject').
So, given I don't think you can actually say that the quality is deteriorating, the question is flawed.
Re: Ask PG: Can't you turn off new account signups to increase HN quality?
#14If you turn off new accounts, how do you know you're not pushing away 10 high quality new users to avoid one negative user signing up?
The only thing I could suggest would be to lower the bar for downvote capability. Or is that not an option at all? I thought I was told at some point that once you reach 200 "karma" you get that ability, but I don't have it.
Re: Ask PG: Can't you turn off new account signups to increase HN quality?
#15If you turn off new accounts, how do you know you're not pushing away 10 high quality new users to avoid one negative user signing up? The only thing I could suggest would be to lower the bar for downvote capability. Or is that not an option at all? I thought I was told at some point that once you reach 200 "karma" you get that ability, but I don't have it.
I thought it was 500 karma, and gets periodically karma inflation adjusted.