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I think HN should automatically penalize the scores of paywalled sites. Although I'm not sure HN's pro-corporate politics would ever allow it.

chris_wot 10y ago
I think that in practice this happens through the normal voting process.
- sambe 10y ago
  Why is this sufficient for HN but not for Reddit? If opinion is less divided on Reddit I'd also expect it to be less of a problem and thus less likely to require (auto) moderator input.
  - chris_wot 10y ago
    Scale. Reddit is bigger with hundreds, if not thousands, of subcultures and norms. While HN has a single stream of stories being voted on, the guidelines for story submissions limits the scope for what can be submitted. The people who read HN are pretty much all technically astute, so when they see an article behind a paywall they don't vote it up - heck, many probably just flag it on principle. If the article is chock full of intrusive advertising, it gets flagged pretty fast. If it is an interesting article that gets to the front page I guarantee you that there will be vocal complaints about the advertising. But most of us here, I would hazard to guess, have installed uBlock Plus of some sort of ad blocker so we probably largely miss it. And the things we find interesting are usually from sources clueful enough not to be so stupid as to employ anti-adblockers.
    - oarsinsync 10y ago
      > Scale. Reddit is bigger with hundreds, if not thousands, of subcultures and norms. But the link is about /r/technology only, not reddit as a whole.
      - chris_wot 10y ago
        If /r/technology has a lot of paywall and ad-filled links, and HN does not, yet both sites have similar moderating technology, then either dang et al. are seriously better admins, or HN is frequented by a better class of person. There, you done gone made me say it.
        vorg 10y ago
        > “We're considering banning domains that require users to disable ad blockers” (reddit.com) It should be obvious before I click the front-page link on HN that it's about /r/technology only, not reddit as a whole. That means there's still room for admin improvement here on HN. You made me say it!
gedrap 10y ago
I just disagree. It's up for the community to decide what's useful and what's not by voting on it. If you don't like the link - don't vote. If enough people like it, then it's fair for others to see it. That's how communities work, you can't change rules to please everyone because you never will.
- jcoffland 10y ago
  You cannot down vote links on HN. You can flag them but doing so on otherwise legitimate articles might be frowned upon and could lead to voting penalties.
beeboop 10y ago
I don't think HN could ever do this as long as it's associated with YC. It would be hypocritical of YC to be against paywalls and advertising if they have funded, or will fund, a business model that relies on it.

chris_wot 10y ago

I think that in practice this happens through the normal voting process.

sambe 10y ago
Why is this sufficient for HN but not for Reddit? If opinion is less divided on Reddit I'd also expect it to be less of a problem and thus less likely to require (auto) moderator input.
- chris_wot 10y ago
  Scale. Reddit is bigger with hundreds, if not thousands, of subcultures and norms. While HN has a single stream of stories being voted on, the guidelines for story submissions limits the scope for what can be submitted. The people who read HN are pretty much all technically astute, so when they see an article behind a paywall they don't vote it up - heck, many probably just flag it on principle. If the article is chock full of intrusive advertising, it gets flagged pretty fast. If it is an interesting article that gets to the front page I guarantee you that there will be vocal complaints about the advertising. But most of us here, I would hazard to guess, have installed uBlock Plus of some sort of ad blocker so we probably largely miss it. And the things we find interesting are usually from sources clueful enough not to be so stupid as to employ anti-adblockers.
  - oarsinsync 10y ago
    > Scale. Reddit is bigger with hundreds, if not thousands, of subcultures and norms. But the link is about /r/technology only, not reddit as a whole.
    - chris_wot 10y ago
      If /r/technology has a lot of paywall and ad-filled links, and HN does not, yet both sites have similar moderating technology, then either dang et al. are seriously better admins, or HN is frequented by a better class of person. There, you done gone made me say it.
      - vorg 10y ago
        > “We're considering banning domains that require users to disable ad blockers” (reddit.com) It should be obvious before I click the front-page link on HN that it's about /r/technology only, not reddit as a whole. That means there's still room for admin improvement here on HN. You made me say it!

gedrap 10y ago

I just disagree. It's up for the community to decide what's useful and what's not by voting on it. If you don't like the link - don't vote. If enough people like it, then it's fair for others to see it. That's how communities work, you can't change rules to please everyone because you never will.

jcoffland 10y ago
You cannot down vote links on HN. You can flag them but doing so on otherwise legitimate articles might be frowned upon and could lead to voting penalties.

beeboop 10y ago

I don't think HN could ever do this as long as it's associated with YC. It would be hypocritical of YC to be against paywalls and advertising if they have funded, or will fund, a business model that relies on it.