5 ms·

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

by vorador 17y ago

pg 17y ago
It rewards people for their contributions to the site.
- vaksel 17y ago
  the real reward would be if the top 100 people got the ability to add live dofollow links in their profiles. that way people would get a little bit of Google juice for their sites
  - mcherm 17y ago
    Hey, that's a really good idea! Is anybody listening?
  - ivankirigin 17y ago
    That puts a horrible incentive on those who would do it just for the links. The best incentives are non monetary. Real people are motivated by them.
    - vaksel 17y ago
      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.
      - ivankirigin 17y ago
        I think you underestimate both the capability for automation and the motivation of the spammers.
        jacquesm 17y ago
        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.
  - byrneseyeview 17y ago
    You get live dofollow links to stuff you submit, if it gets voted up. And it has actual anchor text, instead of being a raw URL.
    - vaksel 17y ago
      yeah but you keep the high PR juice only for as long as your site is on the front page: front page: PR7 page 2: PR0 the top100 leaderboard user profile on the other hand: PR4
      - DanielBMarkham 17y ago
        I second this motion. There are a lot of guys here working hard on their startups who have also spent a boatload of hours on HN submitting, ranking, and commenting. Giving them a little GoogleJuice doesn't hurt HN at all (want to take a year to get on the board just for one link? Don't think so) and it helps some of us out a bit.
  - tptacek 17y ago
    I would LOVE it if HN did this, and would directly benefit, but I think it's a profoundly bad idea. If you thought people obsessed about karma now... (ahem, Jacques).
    - rms 17y ago
      I like it in the sense that it starts the transition towards the monetization of karma, which is a pet interest of mine. I would totally sell links in my profile.
- DenisM 17y ago
  Personal leaderboard would serve better - who are the people I upmode the most? Who are the people they upmode the most?
cake 17y ago
I don't see any use of it either. The term "Leader" makes me uncomfortable in the first place, English is not my first language, that's why maybe it resonate for me as in : "The persons who rules the others". In my opinion "Top contributors" would be more appropriate.
- gaius 17y ago
  Leaderboard, one word, is a term from sports leagues meaning the highest scoring players or teams. Obviously in sports no-one gains "authority" over the other players by scoring more goals; it is a means of recognizing equals.
- astine 17y ago
  "Leader" doesn't necessarily have those connotations for English speakers. It means, "The person whom others follow." Generally, "the person who rules others," is the "Ruler." "Leader" can imply "ruler," but it can also mean someone who is winning a competition (his opponent are behind in score and hence are "following" him) or someone whom other voluntarily follow. It is generally considered a benign term.
_giu 17y ago
I think the leaderboard is a very good reward for the people who spend quite a lot of time on submitting quality links and contributing to discussions with good comments. every upvote on Hacker News (especially in the comments section) is hard-earned IMHO. the community upvotes quality, and that's one of the main reasons why I love to read links from Hacker News and take part on discussions here. for me it's really rewarding when I see that one of my comments / submissions got an upvote (note: I'm no karma-wh__e by any means!)

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

by vorador 17y ago

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

pg 17y ago

It rewards people for their contributions to the site.

vaksel 17y ago
the real reward would be if the top 100 people got the ability to add live dofollow links in their profiles. that way people would get a little bit of Google juice for their sites
- mcherm 17y ago
  Hey, that's a really good idea! Is anybody listening?
- ivankirigin 17y ago
  That puts a horrible incentive on those who would do it just for the links. The best incentives are non monetary. Real people are motivated by them.
  - vaksel 17y ago
    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.
    - ivankirigin 17y ago
      I think you underestimate both the capability for automation and the motivation of the spammers.
      - jacquesm 17y ago
        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.
- byrneseyeview 17y ago
  You get live dofollow links to stuff you submit, if it gets voted up. And it has actual anchor text, instead of being a raw URL.
  - vaksel 17y ago
    yeah but you keep the high PR juice only for as long as your site is on the front page: front page: PR7 page 2: PR0 the top100 leaderboard user profile on the other hand: PR4
    - DanielBMarkham 17y ago
      I second this motion. There are a lot of guys here working hard on their startups who have also spent a boatload of hours on HN submitting, ranking, and commenting. Giving them a little GoogleJuice doesn't hurt HN at all (want to take a year to get on the board just for one link? Don't think so) and it helps some of us out a bit.
- tptacek 17y ago
  I would LOVE it if HN did this, and would directly benefit, but I think it's a profoundly bad idea. If you thought people obsessed about karma now... (ahem, Jacques).
  - rms 17y ago
    I like it in the sense that it starts the transition towards the monetization of karma, which is a pet interest of mine. I would totally sell links in my profile.
DenisM 17y ago
Personal leaderboard would serve better - who are the people I upmode the most? Who are the people they upmode the most?

cake 17y ago

I don't see any use of it either. The term "Leader" makes me uncomfortable in the first place, English is not my first language, that's why maybe it resonate for me as in : "The persons who rules the others". In my opinion "Top contributors" would be more appropriate.

gaius 17y ago
Leaderboard, one word, is a term from sports leagues meaning the highest scoring players or teams. Obviously in sports no-one gains "authority" over the other players by scoring more goals; it is a means of recognizing equals.
astine 17y ago
"Leader" doesn't necessarily have those connotations for English speakers. It means, "The person whom others follow." Generally, "the person who rules others," is the "Ruler." "Leader" can imply "ruler," but it can also mean someone who is winning a competition (his opponent are behind in score and hence are "following" him) or someone whom other voluntarily follow. It is generally considered a benign term.

_giu 17y ago

I think the leaderboard is a very good reward for the people who spend quite a lot of time on submitting quality links and contributing to discussions with good comments. every upvote on Hacker News (especially in the comments section) is hard-earned IMHO. the community upvotes quality, and that's one of the main reasons why I love to read links from Hacker News and take part on discussions here. for me it's really rewarding when I see that one of my comments / submissions got an upvote (note: I'm no karma-wh__e by any means!)