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Ask PG: Feature request, remove yourself from the leaderboard

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Re: Ask PG: Feature request, remove yourself from the leaderboard

#31

Post by icey »

jacquesm wrote: post #30
tptacek wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We can argue ad nauseam about the pros and cons of different approaches, but if you just posted as jacquesm_, the trolls who are under your skin about karma won't get their ammo, and the people that care to read your whole history can figure out how to get the rest of it.

Hehe, I can see one problem with that approach which will surface in a year or so, and I'll have to switch to jacquesm__ or something like that, but it's worth a try.

Unless you're getting seriously trolled via email, it sounds like a lot of work when you could just press the delete key and move on.

Re: Ask PG: Feature request, remove yourself from the leaderboard

#32

Post by jacquesm »

ivankirigin wrote: post #29
vaksel wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really, the lowest # on the leaderboard right now is ~4.2K. To get that you'd need to spend like 6-7 months on HN submitting quality stuff or making quality posts(need those votes). Noone is going to do all that for a single link, they'd rather spend that time adding their site to a bunch of directories or writing articles to submit to content farms.

I think you underestimate both the capability for automation and the motivation of the spammers.

The motivation for the spammers would be the direct clickthrough from the new page that's what they're doing it for today, their accounts would never have a snowballs chance in hell to make it to the leaderboard.

Votingrings with sockpuppets would be detected long before they would get even near that level, presumably long before they'd reach even 10% of what it takes to get on the leaderboard.

There must be softer targets than the HN leaderboard.

Re: Ask PG: Feature request, remove yourself from the leaderboard

#33

Post by fnid »

pg wrote: post #3

This is a feature of pretty narrow appeal, so I don't think I'd want to clutter the source with it. (I'm not listed because no admins are, but the others don't have enough karma for it to matter.)

It's a matter of privacy. You have created this feature to reward participation, but someone who should be receiving that reward is telling you it is actually a curse.

It may be a narrow appeal, but it is being requested by someone who has demonstrated significant contribution to the community to be rewarded in about the only way one can be rewarded here and you won't free him from that which he considers a punishment.

Re: Ask PG: Feature request, remove yourself from the leaderboard

#34

Post by jacquesm »

mechanical_fish wrote: post #15

Why do you think that removing your name from the leaderboard will matter? Will the name-callers even notice? Rude people are rude people. If they can't complain about your karma they will complain about your socks. My advice is to ignore them and carry on. Don't take criticism seriously unless it's serious criticism.

> Why do you think that removing your name from the leaderboard will matter?

Because the leaderboard has positive and negative sides to it.

The negative sides have to do with the people that think that HN is all about 'being in the top 100'.

The positive side is that you can see fairly easily who are the people that have spent a lot of time on the site, in other words who is here for the long haul and who is passing through.

On /. you get a similar feeling by looking at people uid#, here we don't have that so the leaderboard has some of that function.

> Rude people are rude people. If they can't complain about your karma they will complain about your socks.

Ah, but they can't see my socks :)

> My advice is to ignore them and carry on. Don't take criticism seriously unless it's serious criticism.

It gets a little tedious after a while and the negative returns from being on the leaderboard seem to outweigh the positive ones, hence the request.

Re: Ask PG: Feature request, remove yourself from the leaderboard

#35

Post by msc »

jacquesm wrote: post #34
mechanical_fish wrote: post #15

Why do you think that removing your name from the leaderboard will matter? Will the name-callers even notice? Rude people are rude people. If they can't complain about your karma they will complain about your socks. My advice is to ignore them and carry on. Don't take criticism seriously unless it's serious criticism.

> Why do you think that removing your name from the leaderboard will matter? Because the leaderboard has positive and negative sides to it. The negative sides have to do with the people that think that HN is all about 'being in the top 100'. The positive side is that you can see fairly easily who are the people that have spent a lot of time on the site, in other words who is here for the long haul and who is passing…

Even if you remove yourself from the scoreboard, they can still see your karma by just going to your profile, I don't think the name calling would stop.

Re: Ask PG: Feature request, remove yourself from the leaderboard

#36

Post by jacquesm »

msc wrote: post #35
jacquesm wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why do you think that removing your name from the leaderboard will matter? Because the leaderboard has positive and negative sides to it. The negative sides have to do with the people that think that HN is all about 'being in the top 100'. The positive side is that you can see fairly easily who are the people that have spent a lot of time on the site, in other words who is here for the long haul and who is passing…

Even if you remove yourself from the scoreboard, they can still see your karma by just going to your profile, I don't think the name calling would stop.

I think it would, otherwise I would not have asked. It seems a simple enough change to the code to me, but then again it isn't my call.

You know how YC always preaches that you should take your users feed back serious and all that ;)

Re: Ask PG: Feature request, remove yourself from the leaderboard

#37

Post by jacquesm »

pg wrote: post #3

This is a feature of pretty narrow appeal, so I don't think I'd want to clutter the source with it. (I'm not listed because no admins are, but the others don't have enough karma for it to matter.)

It's your call, I figured asking wouldn't harm. On my two bit websites adding that feature would take 10 minutes, and potentially the appeal is huge.

After all, for every person that removes themselves from the leaderboard another one gets the ability to make the decision.

Unless you think that the majority of the HNers is here to make it to the leaderboard, which is a possibility but I highly doubt that a majority here is taking the karma count as their reason for contributing.

edit: this is the third time in as many weeks that I get pretty negative email definitely caused by HN users, it's not at a level where I worry about it (that takes a lot more) but it is a nuisance and it spoils some of the pleasure of being here.

The biggest reason why I am here is because of the people, the second one is the ability to ask and answer 'Ask HN' style postings, the third is to learn and interact. None of that stands a chance of being harmed by a couple of idiotic emails.

I figure that by taking my name off the leaderboard I would make a statement about what I think HN is all about, which is not the leaderboard, anything but.

The silly emails just made me think about it, and in that sense they served a purpose. The alternative, to make another account is also a possibility but then I'm still taking up that slot.

Even if the leaderboard does serve a purpose, which to me is simply to distinguish the frequent contributors from the rest (but for that the leaderboard is actually too small since HN has far more than 100 frequent contributors). I have gone through ever single profile on the leaderboard and visited the sites of the people listed there to see what they're up to.

Re: Ask PG: Feature request, remove yourself from the leaderboard

#38

Post by DenisM »

pg wrote: post #4
vorador wrote: post #2

Why not remove the leaderboard altogether ? I don't see what it brings, except competition because people want to get listed.

It rewards people for their contributions to the site.

Personal leaderboard would serve better - who are the people I upmode the most? Who are the people they upmode the most?

Re: Ask PG: Feature request, remove yourself from the leaderboard

#40

Post by Kilimanjaro »

jacquesm wrote: post #37
pg wrote: post #3

This is a feature of pretty narrow appeal, so I don't think I'd want to clutter the source with it. (I'm not listed because no admins are, but the others don't have enough karma for it to matter.)

It's your call, I figured asking wouldn't harm. On my two bit websites adding that feature would take 10 minutes, and potentially the appeal is huge. After all, for every person that removes themselves from the leaderboard another one gets the ability to make the decision. Unless you think that the majority of the HNers is here to make it to the leaderboard, which is a possibility but I highly doubt that a majority h…

Just a checkbox in our profile and "if checked dont list" would suffice to make a happy customer happier.

Enough reasons to add the feature.

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