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Hang on, though. What if I don't even have to ask? I know that I tend to upvote people more often who I know (even without them asking). Is that bad / immoral?

Hang on, though. What if I don't even have to ask? I know that I tend to upvote people more often who I know (even without them asking). Is that bad / immoral? If you say yes, then it's very important to come up with an answer for "what's an upvote supposed to mean?" If you don't think I should be allowed to upvote people because I know them, you can no longer say that the rule is "I was interested in this story" but instead "I think the HN community would be interested in this story". But that's asking for trouble, because everybody has their own crazy views on what HN should be (see the periodic threads on how HN is offtopic, or too big, or not as cool as it used to be).

alanthonyc 17y ago
Upvote based on the content of the link, not the person/persona behind it. If we focus on quality (regardless of your specific definition of quality), then it can only improve the site. If a personal friend of mine submitted a crap comment, I would downvote. Crap site, flag. EDIT: And I upvoted you because you asked a useful question that would bring up good conversation, although obviously I disagree with your stance.
- kyro 17y ago
  That doesn't always hold. If a submission on security came and tptacek commented, I'd probably upvote his comment knowing that he's pretty damn well versed in that field.
  - blhack 17y ago
    I don't think that there is a perfect if/then way of solving this issue...this is why we have humans doing the moderating ;-).
sophacles 17y ago
This sort of brings up an interesting idea: perhaps anonymous story posting is something to consider? I have no problem voting comments up based on the strength/personality of the commenter, past discourse colors current interpretation of the comment. However with stories, maybe upvoting on a person's character is not so wanted/warranted? Edit: The more I think on this, the less I'm sure it would fix anything -- those who want their story upvoted because it is to their own site would not care about credit. Also it opens up various gaming opportunities not previously present.
josefresco 17y ago
The guidelines don't address upvotes in particular but if we are to assume that on-topic generally equals upvote then I think the guidelines spell it out well. I don't see an "I" in there anywhere or reference to submitter. http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

alanthonyc 17y ago

Upvote based on the content of the link, not the person/persona behind it. If we focus on quality (regardless of your specific definition of quality), then it can only improve the site. If a personal friend of mine submitted a crap comment, I would downvote. Crap site, flag. EDIT: And I upvoted you because you asked a useful question that would bring up good conversation, although obviously I disagree with your stance.

kyro 17y ago
That doesn't always hold. If a submission on security came and tptacek commented, I'd probably upvote his comment knowing that he's pretty damn well versed in that field.
- blhack 17y ago
  I don't think that there is a perfect if/then way of solving this issue...this is why we have humans doing the moderating ;-).

sophacles 17y ago

This sort of brings up an interesting idea: perhaps anonymous story posting is something to consider? I have no problem voting comments up based on the strength/personality of the commenter, past discourse colors current interpretation of the comment. However with stories, maybe upvoting on a person's character is not so wanted/warranted? Edit: The more I think on this, the less I'm sure it would fix anything -- those who want their story upvoted because it is to their own site would not care about credit. Also it opens up various gaming opportunities not previously present.

josefresco 17y ago

The guidelines don't address upvotes in particular but if we are to assume that on-topic generally equals upvote then I think the guidelines spell it out well. I don't see an "I" in there anywhere or reference to submitter. http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html