3 ms·
While I agree that the per-user karma is worthless, comparing the rating of comments with the rating of stories is a bit like apples and oranges: multiple users
by stingraycharles 17y ago
While I agree that the per-user karma is worthless, comparing the rating of comments with the rating of stories is a bit like apples and oranges: multiple users can submit the same story, and when one submission "wins" over the other, little harm is done to the whole of HN. But when a comment is downvoted solely because people disagree with it, it hurts the discussion because the well constructed comment is less likely to be seen. Furthermore, this works both ways: snarky comments with little added value suddenly get a lot of appearance.
It's a very difficult problem to solve, but to just "not give a hoot" is hard, given the fact that the order of appearance for comments on HN depends so much on karma.
- pvg 17y agoActually it's a surprisingly simple problem to solve. Split comment and submission karma. Reddit, which HN was inspired by does that already. but to just "not give a hoot" is hard try it! at 1k or so karma you have more or less nothing to lose.
- stingraycharles 17y agoI don't think you understand my point: I agree that per-user karma records are worthless. However, I am not convinced that there is little to lose with bad comment ratings, since HN bases the appearance of comments on these ratings.
- gridspy 17y agoI am also interested only in the ordering of comments within a given discussion thread. The number of points that my user account gets does not matter to me. Same with my submissions - I only care about up-votes there because I want more people to see what I have posted and benefit from it.