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Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores

#151

Post by fr0sty »

No one on this thread has picked up on the 'range' suggestion by Maro yet, so I'll add a thought:

For my purposes, displaying actual scores within the range -4 -> 10 would be sufficient. the low end is already capped, and the high end could either just have a ceiling of 10 or a score of 10+.

I am occasionally a "someone is Wrong on the internet!"[1] type and my inclination to wade in is directly proportioanl to the perceived traction of the inaccuracy. Without such a heuristic the choices are: reply to all, none, or a random sample which result in "poor information", "needless pedantry", and " undefined behavior" respectively.

[1] http://xkcd.com/386/

Re: Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores

#153

Post by fr0sty »

Terretta wrote: post #116
tolmasky wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just expand the example: pretend it was "that is not the way mysql works blah blah explanation". I agree that I don't want to read this if it has 2 points but I do if it has 100.

So many of the discussions around these points here center around the "TL;DR" point of view. I wonder how these people ever managed to make it through a newspaper without scores telling them which articles are worth it. Learn to survey, skim, and dive in. All your endeavors will be the better for it. PS. Your method (don't read if don't like score) also ensures you won't be soiled by accidentally reading an unpopular…

> Learn to survey, skim, and dive in. All your endeavors will be the better for it.

Then why sort comments at all? just order them in date order (or the reverse) and be done with it. Let the reader decide what is useful and what isn't.

Seems like having comments sorted in an implicit order of 'goodness' (even if there is no score) would handicap people in the development of their ability to 'survey, skim and dive in'.

Re: Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores

#154

Post by jaxn »

lotusleaf1987 wrote: post #128
jaxn wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why care? Because up votes are also coming from the community and I believe we are all here because we respect the opinions of the people here. Also, comments sort within threads. Sometimes the best reply is to a no-so-great parent comment.

|I believe we are all here because we respect the opinions of the people here. What does that even mean? That by not showing the comments we're somehow disrespecting those opinions? |Sometimes the best reply is to a no-so-great parent comment. And even then those replies are sorted again... what is your concern? Time? If you were saying hey, I only have so much time, I could maybe understand. But... I think it would…

| What does that even mean? That by not showing the comments we're somehow disrespecting those opinions?

What I was trying to say is that I value the votes of the community. The culture at HN is that "+1" type comments are noise, but 73 upvotes gives me an indication that the comment resonates with this community (whose collective opinion means alot to me).

Re: Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores

#156

Post by sktrdie »

I'm not going to read all the comments when they're more than 50. Finding insightful comments is hard without any number next to them. But I understand that it might bring more karma to "stupid comments" instead of "really insightful comments"... but who cares, the insightful comments is still there and probably going to get more karma than it would without any number next to it.

Re: Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores

#157

Post by tolmasky »

Terretta wrote: post #116
tolmasky wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just expand the example: pretend it was "that is not the way mysql works blah blah explanation". I agree that I don't want to read this if it has 2 points but I do if it has 100.

So many of the discussions around these points here center around the "TL;DR" point of view. I wonder how these people ever managed to make it through a newspaper without scores telling them which articles are worth it. Learn to survey, skim, and dive in. All your endeavors will be the better for it. PS. Your method (don't read if don't like score) also ensures you won't be soiled by accidentally reading an unpopular…

To your point about not beings soiled by unpopular views, the truth is that unpopular views already have that font color applied to them which goes a lot further in making sure I don't ready it (with my eyes I often have to copy paste it to a text editor before I can read it comfortably). I would much prefer all comments be the same font color and being able to see the score so I can make my own decision as to whether to read it or not.

Re: Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores

#158

Post by billswift »

alain94040 wrote: post #101
tolmasky wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just expand the example: pretend it was "that is not the way mysql works blah blah explanation". I agree that I don't want to read this if it has 2 points but I do if it has 100.

Since we don't see points anymore, instead of upvotting you because I agree with you, I just have to add a comment saying "I agree". Is that what people want?

See kristofferR's comment above. He got downvoted for saying "I agree." This may have worked if implemented in the beginning of HN, but now the community has pretty strong norms against simple "I agree" or "I disagree" comments. Either eliminate voting completely or show the results, this in-between situation is foolish, bordering on stupid.

Re: Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores

#159

Post by bruce511 »

brudgers wrote: post #121
bruce511 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since I can't see your score, and you can't see mine, I honestly have no idea at this point whether more people agree with you than with me. Or indeed if no-one cares at all. When this thread is referenced to a week from now there is no way to see what sort of agreement occurred with either one of us. There are a bunch of "for" comments, and a bunch of "against" comments, but ultimately no resolution (that either of…

> "When this thread is referenced to a week from now there is no way to see what sort of agreement occurred with either one of us." That just means that people will have to read the comments and decide for themselves based on the merits of the comments. One might argue that that is better than deciding based on points because some people interpret points as assent to the beliefs expressed in the comment while others…

>> That just means that people will have to read the comments and decide for themselves based on the merits of the comments.

You imply that the sole benefit of the score would be to allow me to form my own opinion. Whereas I hypothosize that I already know my own opinion - the score allows me to measure the opinion of others. Those who have no opinion of their own are easily swayed, with or without a score, however for those with an opinion of their own, it is useful to know the relative popularity of that opinion.

More data is almost always better - especially for those who respect the value, and limitations, of raw data.

Re: Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores

#160

Post by BoppreH »

Terretta wrote: post #147
BoppreH wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A better example would be choosing which newspapers to read based on your friend's recommendations, versus choosing by yourself. All articles from the same newspaper share a source and it already ensures some quality.

> All articles from the same newspaper share a source and it already ensures some quality You make an excellent point, applicable here: newspaper brand = web brand. Articles not flagged [dead] on news.ycombinator.com already ensure some quality, and both similarly share a "front page".

Wait, are you talking about articles on HN? Because only comments have their score hidden, you can still see how many points each article has.

My point was comparing newspapers brands/articles to HN comments, not articles, since you don't have much guidance anymore over what comments are worthwhile or not.

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