5 ms·

Because there are a lot of topics, even in my professional field, where I don't have the necessary foundation. Because sometimes a comment reaffirms or conflic

by latch 10y ago

Because there are a lot of topics, even in my professional field, where I don't have the necessary foundation. Because sometimes a comment reaffirms or conflicts with my evaluation and it's useful to have a weight assigned to that. Because the world has enough people who make their own evaluation and refuse to change their opinion regardless of overwhelming evidence.

coldtea 10y ago
>Because there are a lot of topics, even in my professional field, that I simply don't have the necessary foundation. And what makes you think that the "majority vote" on them will be correct? Most often, it's the majority that doesn't have the necessary foundation.
- criddell 10y ago
  Well, if we had the vote counts, we could test your conjecture.
  - coldtea 10y ago
    We have them in other forums -- e.g. Reddit if I am not mistaken. Do they work that well there, or do they make the forums a competition for points and popular comments, in other words a popularity contest?
    - tunap 10y ago
      WEB 2.0 turned online discussions into popularity contests. Period. I preferred the older, smaller communities sans likes & upvotes where you knew most in the community and had the ability to 'ignore' MUs. Of course, that had it's drawbacks and is much more difficult to scale as the site gains popularity & evolves. I do not have the answer other than self-moderation, yet, most(including myself) fail sometimes in the heat of emotional impulse... and personal investments, paid actors, other reasons.
      - criddell 10y ago
        As sad as Slahdot is these days, I still think they have a superior moderation system. I like that every vote comes with a reason and that you can use that information to do things like filter out the jokes.
- latch 10y ago
  It's not an all-or-nothing. It's an extra piece of information. There might be valid reasons to remove it (it hurts the community, it leads to negative behavior, .... I forget why they took it off). But when it comes to trying to assess the quality of the comment, more data is better than less. Then you have the option to weigh it as you see fit, including ignoring it.
  - BeetleB 10y ago
    >It's not an all-or-nothing. It's an extra piece of information...But when it comes to trying to assess the quality of the comment, more data is better than less. It could be an extra piece of disinformation, which can make it more difficult to evaluate. I suppose I'd like it if there was no way to sort. What happens on Reddit is that such comments easily bubble to the top, and they're often wrong, or just making a silly joke rather than being informative.
tttttttttttt 10y ago
But points don't equal expertise. You can be an ignoramus in an echo chamber, or be the world expert who doesn't come here too often

by latch 10y ago

coldtea 10y ago

>Because there are a lot of topics, even in my professional field, that I simply don't have the necessary foundation. And what makes you think that the "majority vote" on them will be correct? Most often, it's the majority that doesn't have the necessary foundation.

criddell 10y ago
Well, if we had the vote counts, we could test your conjecture.
- coldtea 10y ago
  We have them in other forums -- e.g. Reddit if I am not mistaken. Do they work that well there, or do they make the forums a competition for points and popular comments, in other words a popularity contest?
  - tunap 10y ago
    WEB 2.0 turned online discussions into popularity contests. Period. I preferred the older, smaller communities sans likes & upvotes where you knew most in the community and had the ability to 'ignore' MUs. Of course, that had it's drawbacks and is much more difficult to scale as the site gains popularity & evolves. I do not have the answer other than self-moderation, yet, most(including myself) fail sometimes in the heat of emotional impulse... and personal investments, paid actors, other reasons.
    - criddell 10y ago
      As sad as Slahdot is these days, I still think they have a superior moderation system. I like that every vote comes with a reason and that you can use that information to do things like filter out the jokes.
latch 10y ago
It's not an all-or-nothing. It's an extra piece of information. There might be valid reasons to remove it (it hurts the community, it leads to negative behavior, .... I forget why they took it off). But when it comes to trying to assess the quality of the comment, more data is better than less. Then you have the option to weigh it as you see fit, including ignoring it.
- BeetleB 10y ago
  >It's not an all-or-nothing. It's an extra piece of information...But when it comes to trying to assess the quality of the comment, more data is better than less. It could be an extra piece of disinformation, which can make it more difficult to evaluate. I suppose I'd like it if there was no way to sort. What happens on Reddit is that such comments easily bubble to the top, and they're often wrong, or just making a silly joke rather than being informative.

tttttttttttt 10y ago

But points don't equal expertise. You can be an ignoramus in an echo chamber, or be the world expert who doesn't come here too often