Ask PG: Comment Spam

#1

Post by ZenJosh » Tue, Aug 28, 2012, 4:52 PM UTC

Over the past couple of days I've noticed an increasing trend of users posting " is becoming more and more of a problem, luckily, my startup 'X-Co' solves this problem, here's a link to our website" comments on vaguely related and completely unrelated posts. Is it time HN implemented a flag button for comments or would you class these as acceptable comments?

Re: Ask PG: Comment Spam

#2

Post by pg » Tue, Aug 28, 2012, 4:57 PM UTC

Examples?

Re: Ask PG: Comment Spam

#3

Post by tokenadult » Tue, Aug 28, 2012, 5:10 PM UTC

Is it time HN implemented a flag button for comments

Hacker News implemented a flag button for comments quite a while ago. You go the "link" next to the comment header, to go directly to the URL of the comment, and then a "flag" link will be exposed there if you have enough karma to flag. I flag comments from time to time if they meet criteria laid out by pg last year

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2403696

when he wrote, "The problem has several components: comments that are (a) mean and/or (b) dumb that (c) get massively upvoted."

A comment being mean is a signal that the comment may be silently downloaded (and flagged as well) and a comment being dumb is at least a signal for a downvote (although in some threads I don't know what is dumb and what is smart, for lack of personal knowledge, so I hope other people pitch in those threads) and possibly a signal for flagging. A comment that is BOTH mean and dumb definitely deserves user response to eliminate it. Comments that appear to be spam (what you are specifically asking about) are also against the community culture here, and I would flag those and downvote those when I see them (but I haven't seen a lot of comments like those lately).

Re: Ask PG: Comment Spam

#4

Post by mooism2 » Tue, Aug 28, 2012, 5:28 PM UTC

HN has a flag link for comments, but you have to follow the link link first in order to see it.

Re: Ask PG: Comment Spam

#5

Post by staunch » Tue, Aug 28, 2012, 5:36 PM UTC

Plugs from founders seems to me completely in line with what HN is all about. Heck, the whole site is in part a plug for YC. This is a total non problem.

Re: Ask PG: Comment Spam

#6

Post by staunch » Tue, Aug 28, 2012, 5:39 PM UTC

pg wrote: post #2

Examples?

Pretty sure this is one that sparked the issue http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4443320

Re: Ask PG: Comment Spam

#7

Post by pg » Tue, Aug 28, 2012, 5:50 PM UTC

staunch wrote: post #6

pg wrote: post #2

Examples?

Pretty sure this is one that sparked the issue http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4443320

That's harmless.