3 ms·

I believe this is an inherent effect of upvoting/downvoting. In an effort to protect against negative sentiment, qualifiers and requests for correction are inc

by nkozyra 11y ago

I believe this is an inherent effect of upvoting/downvoting. In an effort to protect against negative sentiment, qualifiers and requests for correction are included. It's intended to dull the edges of an opinion (correct me if I'm wrong here, I'm not entirely sure).

BinaryIdiot 11y ago
This is exactly correct and it happens on many sites that have upvoting and downvoting functionality (reddit and even digg back in the day had this; hell you can even find this on slashdot at times). Ultimately I'm not convinced upvoting / downvoting is a good metric but I'm not sure what is better. The same goes or ordering; if you arrive at something on social media where you're the expert / can provide possibly the best feedback but there are already 100 comments on it? Good luck. You'll be drowned out. This is a fun aside topic though :)
Arnt 11y ago
That sounds nice. Haters gonna hate, I've heard. But maybe one or two haters had second thoughts while adding insincere hedges and qualifications, and decided not to post their bilge after all? Or decided to read the original posting before commenting? I'm going to hope so. The thought will make me read a hundred hedges and qualifications with a smile.
parennoob 11y ago
Nice self-referential hedging at the end :) This is a result of HN's guidelines that say "It's explicitly okay to downvote based on disagreement", whereas for example Reddit's guidelines say "Downvote based on quality, not opinion". As a result, you get an aversion to disagreement, with a lot of "I think maybe.." and "I could be wrong.." phrases.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
mbrock 11y ago
Why wouldn't it simply be the result of people trying to express their thoughts in an epistemically warranted way, instead of making a strong claim when they only have a hunch or suspicion?

3 ms·

I believe this is an inherent effect of upvoting/downvoting. In an effort to protect against negative sentiment, qualifiers and requests for correction are inc

by nkozyra 11y ago

BinaryIdiot 11y ago
This is exactly correct and it happens on many sites that have upvoting and downvoting functionality (reddit and even digg back in the day had this; hell you can even find this on slashdot at times). Ultimately I'm not convinced upvoting / downvoting is a good metric but I'm not sure what is better. The same goes or ordering; if you arrive at something on social media where you're the expert / can provide possibly the best feedback but there are already 100 comments on it? Good luck. You'll be drowned out. This is a fun aside topic though :)
Arnt 11y ago
That sounds nice. Haters gonna hate, I've heard. But maybe one or two haters had second thoughts while adding insincere hedges and qualifications, and decided not to post their bilge after all? Or decided to read the original posting before commenting? I'm going to hope so. The thought will make me read a hundred hedges and qualifications with a smile.
parennoob 11y ago
Nice self-referential hedging at the end :) This is a result of HN's guidelines that say "It's explicitly okay to downvote based on disagreement", whereas for example Reddit's guidelines say "Downvote based on quality, not opinion". As a result, you get an aversion to disagreement, with a lot of "I think maybe.." and "I could be wrong.." phrases.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
mbrock 11y ago
Why wouldn't it simply be the result of people trying to express their thoughts in an epistemically warranted way, instead of making a strong claim when they only have a hunch or suspicion?