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An Update on Hacker News

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: An Update on Hacker News

#41

Post by krapp »

krat0sprakhar wrote: post #10
angersock wrote: post #8

A third experiment didn't go so well: we briefly made the software kill comments that had been sufficiently downvoted. Many users objected, arguing that killing downvoted comments is too harsh a punishment for unpopular opinions, especially since downvoted comments get faded to begin with. We heard that and reversed the change. Good to hear they decided to roll that back. PG opened a pandora's box when he said that d…

> In the meantime, we will simply have to stop assuming that downvoted comments are actually, you know, bad. I don't think this is true. Given that downvoted comments become faded, I have a strong reason to believe that the intent is to hide them because they are actually bad

You're using circular reasoning - that the comments are faded because they're bad, and the evidence they're bad is that they're faded.

But, people downvote comments for any number of reasons, and even doing so for mere disagreement is within the acceptable guidelines - and of course for everything, despite the lack of clear context, the effect remains the same.

Re: An Update on Hacker News

#42

Post by maxerickson »

logicallee wrote: post #29
angersock wrote: post #8

A third experiment didn't go so well: we briefly made the software kill comments that had been sufficiently downvoted. Many users objected, arguing that killing downvoted comments is too harsh a punishment for unpopular opinions, especially since downvoted comments get faded to begin with. We heard that and reversed the change. Good to hear they decided to roll that back. PG opened a pandora's box when he said that d…

your name is bad for the site and you should change it. nomen est omen.

Repeatedly breaking threads by deleting your comments after there are replies is worse.

So is threatening to delete your comments over down votes.

Re: An Update on Hacker News

#43

Post by [deleted] »

rspeer wrote: post #37

> To prevent abuse, moderators review flagged stories and comments and revoke flagging privileges from users who flag inappropriately. This seems like one of the cases where HN's moderation is both draconian and completely opaque. I can't flag comments, and I have no idea why. I certainly don't think of myself as an abusive user. Maybe I accidentally clicked the "flag" link once. If that gets flagging privileges remo…

[deleted]

Re: An Update on Hacker News

#44

Post by peterwwillis »

I'd love to see posts on the rationale between different design decisions, particularly with regards to things that change group dynamics. For instance, putting karma next to someone's name may produce leader-following social behavior, meaning your high-karma users would reinforce general behavior by encouraging other users to behave the same. But that would increase the already prevalent concern of high-karma users overly influencing discussion and getting upvoted based on karma alone. It would be interesting to see all these examples stacked up and then a post about why they went one way or another.

Re: An Update on Hacker News

#45

Post by spicyj »

rspeer wrote: post #37

> To prevent abuse, moderators review flagged stories and comments and revoke flagging privileges from users who flag inappropriately. This seems like one of the cases where HN's moderation is both draconian and completely opaque. I can't flag comments, and I have no idea why. I certainly don't think of myself as an abusive user. Maybe I accidentally clicked the "flag" link once. If that gets flagging privileges remo…

> I can't flag comments, and I have no idea why.

Make sure you're clicking "link" through to the comment's page -- the flag links don't appear when comments are shown in a thread.

Re: An Update on Hacker News

#46

Post by hackuser »

readerrrr wrote: post #14

If I understand the rules correctly, downvoting is used for not agreeing with a comment, and flags are used for inappropriate comments. But is fading the comment really the correct behaviour. Isn't the position on the page deciding whether the community agrees with the comment? My suggestion is: remove the fading; let downvoting only move the comments down, since the comment is appropriate yet the community doesn't a…

> downvoting is used for not agreeing with a comment

I hope downvoting has nothing to do with agreement; I thought it was for comments that aren't valuable to the conversation (e.g., not substantive, poorly reasoned, false, or poorly communicated).

I want to see many more comments that are valuable and challenge the community (and challenge my thinking too). The groupthink is already well known and if not, will certainly be posted by someone.

In practice, I do see downvoting used on comments that are valuable but challenging. It's disappointing.

EDIT: remove embarrassing typo

Re: An Update on Hacker News

#47

Post by dang »

minimaxir wrote: post #7
shitehawk wrote: post #6

Can anyone comment on the reasoning behind the lack of a mobile style sheet?

Hacker News is supposedly undergoing a redesign soon, which would assumingly include a responsive layout.

Not a redesign, but new markup that preserves the existing design.

Re: An Update on Hacker News

#48

Post by onli »

readerrrr wrote: post #14

If I understand the rules correctly, downvoting is used for not agreeing with a comment, and flags are used for inappropriate comments. But is fading the comment really the correct behaviour. Isn't the position on the page deciding whether the community agrees with the comment? My suggestion is: remove the fading; let downvoting only move the comments down, since the comment is appropriate yet the community doesn't a…

I think you don't understand the rules correctly. Or rather, I know a different version. Maybe that is because that question does seem to not really be answered in the rules, at least I found nothing.

I was under the impression that downvoting is for comments that you do more than just disagree with. If you disagree, but it is a valid interesting argument, I try to vote a comment up, in any case not to vote it down.

Flagging is for inappropriate comment, stuff that is harder than just a bad comment, like racial insults or spam.

I'm sure that will be explained to us :)

Re: An Update on Hacker News

#49

Post by drinchev »

yoha wrote: post #40
rspeer wrote: post #37

> To prevent abuse, moderators review flagged stories and comments and revoke flagging privileges from users who flag inappropriately. This seems like one of the cases where HN's moderation is both draconian and completely opaque. I can't flag comments, and I have no idea why. I certainly don't think of myself as an abusive user. Maybe I accidentally clicked the "flag" link once. If that gets flagging privileges remo…

I am in a similar situation. I do remember having mis-clicked on a "flag" link once.

+1. I event didn't know that I can flag comments until now. I don't have flag link since I don't know when.

Re: An Update on Hacker News

#50

Post by BoppreH »

rspeer wrote: post #37

> To prevent abuse, moderators review flagged stories and comments and revoke flagging privileges from users who flag inappropriately. This seems like one of the cases where HN's moderation is both draconian and completely opaque. I can't flag comments, and I have no idea why. I certainly don't think of myself as an abusive user. Maybe I accidentally clicked the "flag" link once. If that gets flagging privileges remo…

Are you sure you are looking at the right place? To flag a comment you must click on "link", and only then the "flag" option appears. TFA mentions the threshold for flagging is only 30 karma.

This has been the source of much confusion and I'm not 100% sure on the reason why it was implemented.

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