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FWIW I've seen here a fair number of opinions I agree with and a fair number I disagree with, both thoughtful and otherwise. Also FWIW, it seems to me that comm

by gjm11 16y ago

FWIW I've seen here a fair number of opinions I agree with and a fair number I disagree with, both thoughtful and otherwise. Also FWIW, it seems to me that comment scores have enough correlation with interestingness to be useful, and that the sort of discussion in which this is least true is also the sort that least belongs on HN. Your mileage, of course, may vary.

JoeAltmaier 16y ago
Well consider: have you every upvoted a comment you disagreed with? This one for instance. It was worth responding to, but not worth a vote. This is exactly my point: karma is a popularity contest only.
- gjm11 16y ago
  I'm a very light upvoter, but I'm pretty sure I have. I have certainly downvoted comments I agreed with. And for me, at least, karma simply is not "a popularity contest only". (Incidentally, even if it were true -- which it isn't -- that no one ever upvotes a comment unless they agree with it, and that no one ever downvotes a comment unless they disagree with it, it would not follow that "karma is a popularity contest". For instance, that's consistent with the following state of affairs: people upvote comments that (1) are insightful and (2) they agree with, and they downvote comments that (1) are particularly stupid and (2) they disagree with. In that case, insightful comments will get lots of upvotes and no downvotes and stupid comments will get lots of downvotes and no upvotes -- unless it happens that someone posts something insightful and scarcely anyone agrees, or that someone posts something stupid and scarcely anyone disagrees. And if either of those happens, I submit that the community is so polarized that there's little hope of improvement with or without a karma system.)
  - gjm11 16y ago
    Incidentally, if whoever's been downvoting my comments in this thread (1) did it because they think those comments are of poor quality rather than to make some meta-point or meta-joke about voting, and (2) feels like explaining what they thought was wrong, then I'm all ears.

by gjm11 16y ago

JoeAltmaier 16y ago

Well consider: have you every upvoted a comment you disagreed with? This one for instance. It was worth responding to, but not worth a vote. This is exactly my point: karma is a popularity contest only.

gjm11 16y ago
I'm a very light upvoter, but I'm pretty sure I have. I have certainly downvoted comments I agreed with. And for me, at least, karma simply is not "a popularity contest only". (Incidentally, even if it were true -- which it isn't -- that no one ever upvotes a comment unless they agree with it, and that no one ever downvotes a comment unless they disagree with it, it would not follow that "karma is a popularity contest". For instance, that's consistent with the following state of affairs: people upvote comments that (1) are insightful and (2) they agree with, and they downvote comments that (1) are particularly stupid and (2) they disagree with. In that case, insightful comments will get lots of upvotes and no downvotes and stupid comments will get lots of downvotes and no upvotes -- unless it happens that someone posts something insightful and scarcely anyone agrees, or that someone posts something stupid and scarcely anyone disagrees. And if either of those happens, I submit that the community is so polarized that there's little hope of improvement with or without a karma system.)
- gjm11 16y ago
  Incidentally, if whoever's been downvoting my comments in this thread (1) did it because they think those comments are of poor quality rather than to make some meta-point or meta-joke about voting, and (2) feels like explaining what they thought was wrong, then I'm all ears.