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New users: Welcome. Please read the site guidelines.

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Re: New users: Welcome. Please read the site guidelines.

#101

Post by Retric »

dreish wrote: post #100
Retric wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As more people use the site the Karma swings are going to increase. He got a + 24 on the same thread so IMO it balances out.

Yes, but it once was the case that noise comments were given a single downvote and left alone by everyone else. Negative numbers here are like a slap in the face, and when overused they will be even more corrosive to the community than a flood of juvenile comments would be. More to the point, those scores are not supposed to be used to represent entertainment value, because people are not participating here for pure…

I tend to down vote things that are at +50 karma and up vote stuff that get's really low unless they are extremely good or bad. However, think of it like a threading problem. If 30 people that think like I do see the comment at 10 and all up vote it it's going to hit 40 without updating it's value to those people.

Re: New users: Welcome. Please read the site guidelines.

#102

Post by TooMuchNick »

dreish wrote: post #94
TooMuchNick wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you have a not-so-secret smirking attitude toward Paul Graham, having publicly ridiculed him in an earlier stage of your career and now being lucky enough to have no need for his money.

I can remember when -23 points would be reserved for something like a string of racial epithets, not merely a lame but inoffensive attempt at humor.

It's okay, a little smack on the hand is just what I needed. I have no idea what's brought so many new users (I just came to find talent and advice for my startup), but as long as it's a temporary influx, the new users will settle down as they usually do. A short period of bad behavior from inexperienced users is just a growing pain for any healthy organization, and since the community (and Paul) have dealt with it so well, I have little fear that growth will turn Hacker News into Digg. For instance, I know now not to cheekily mock Paul in his own thread, and probably not to write a single thing after several black-and-tans.

That said, members who wish to preserve a community's original quality should be proactive. They may have to replace the functions of some other original members who have left. We call this "culture."

Re: New users: Welcome. Please read the site guidelines.

#104

Post by Xichekolas »

robotrout wrote: post #86
pg wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usernames consisting of people's first and last names feels corporate. It would be a bummer not to have any mechanical_fishes.

Thanks mate!

I didn't realize until this moment that there was a mechanical_fish and a robotrout... am I missing out on a joke or something?

Next I'll see a reply from cyberguppy.

Re: New users: Welcome. Please read the site guidelines.

#105

Post by Xichekolas »

TooMuchNick wrote: post #102
dreish wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can remember when -23 points would be reserved for something like a string of racial epithets, not merely a lame but inoffensive attempt at humor.

It's okay, a little smack on the hand is just what I needed. I have no idea what's brought so many new users (I just came to find talent and advice for my startup), but as long as it's a temporary influx, the new users will settle down as they usually do. A short period of bad behavior from inexperienced users is just a growing pain for any healthy organization, and since the community (and Paul) have dealt with it s…

Well just to chime in as someone that has been here for quite a long time, a 'slap on the hands' (as far as I have witnessed) tends to be dropping a comment to -1 or so.

Piling on someone like that should be genuinely rare, and only because they are spamming links to goatse or streaming curse words at someone.

Hopefully this little portion of our 'culture' doesn't change, as it seems like a civil way to deal with this sort of thing.

Re: New users: Welcome. Please read the site guidelines.

#106

Post by kwamenum86 »

sam_in_nyc wrote: post #98
kwamenum86 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you limit the karma to 10 then a particularly good comment will eventually sink below comments that are upmodded later because of the way the ordering algorithm works. Similarly, a particularly bad comment will stay visible. I don't see anything wrong with karma mega-boosting. At the end of the day it is just a number on your profile.

I think he meant only credit the user with 10 karma points. The comment can still be boosted based on the number of up-mods it receives.

Wouldn't we then be saying that no comment is worth more than 10 points under any circumstances? I am not sure that is the proper behavior either. In this scenario a well thought out 3 paragraph critique would be limited to the same number of points as a two word quip.

Re: New users: Welcome. Please read the site guidelines.

#107

Post by cdr »

mcargian wrote: post #74
axod wrote: post #44

I've also noticed comments modded down to To the new users: If you disagree with a comment, please reply to it, stating why. Don't just blindly downmod it. Just my 2c

On the flip side, I don't understand why someone should get 40 karma points for a two word witty comment, no matter how funny it was. Why isn't karma per comment limited to -1 to 10? Seems like it would limit karma bashing and karma mega-boosting.

Like say, Slashdot?

Re: New users: Welcome. Please read the site guidelines.

#108

Post by wensing »

mcargian wrote: post #74
axod wrote: post #44

I've also noticed comments modded down to To the new users: If you disagree with a comment, please reply to it, stating why. Don't just blindly downmod it. Just my 2c

On the flip side, I don't understand why someone should get 40 karma points for a two word witty comment, no matter how funny it was. Why isn't karma per comment limited to -1 to 10? Seems like it would limit karma bashing and karma mega-boosting.

I have a related suggestion: show someone's median karma per comment and karma per post in his/her profile. This would shed light on someone's real contribution level: e.g. someone puts up a TC article and gets 128 pts in one day vs. someone makes 64 moderately insightful, 2 pt comments.

StackOverflow awards medals to bring out distinctions. I don't think we have to go that far, but it's a similar idea.

Re: New users: Welcome. Please read the site guidelines.

#109

Post by mcargian »

kwamenum86 wrote: post #106
sam_in_nyc wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think he meant only credit the user with 10 karma points. The comment can still be boosted based on the number of up-mods it receives.

Wouldn't we then be saying that no comment is worth more than 10 points under any circumstances? I am not sure that is the proper behavior either. In this scenario a well thought out 3 paragraph critique would be limited to the same number of points as a two word quip.

Possibly. But right now many two word quips get more points than longer, well though out, responses. If karma really has no value (over the few point levels currently defined) I guess it doesn't matter. But I always assumed that in the future karma points would be used for additional features.

Perhaps the upper limit shouldn't be 10, but the total number of words in the post. So a two word quip, only gets you two points. ;)

Re: New users: Welcome. Please read the site guidelines.

#110

Post by michaelneale »

pg wrote: post #34
michaelneale wrote: post #21

A suggestion: Any chance that news stories could be throttled or more heavily edited/moderated just after a spike in new users? Just a thought, it could help to filter out those who are interested versus those just looking for another forum to do their usual thing on.

The problem is more in the comments. The character of the submissions hasn't changed much. The best way to deal with nasty comments by new users may be just to ask them to stop. Several times lately I've noticed established users doing that, e.g. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=457319

Well things seem to be going well. Dodged a bullet this time !

I am very interested to see how things maintained - increasing popularity is inevitable...

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