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How is this voted to second place on front page? Feels like Reddit where people obviously vote on the headline before reading the article. A side point form th

How is this voted to second place on front page? Feels like Reddit where people obviously vote on the headline before reading the article. A side point form this, it would be interesting if HN/Reddit or other platforms brought in a quality score to peoples upvotes to negate people who do tend to upvote catchy headlines. That or 287 people other than me found this article interesting and useful...

gitpusher 10y ago
> 287 people other than me found this article interesting and useful... That's how voting systems generally function, yes
jtraffic 10y ago
It does seem a little weird how many negative comments there are. It's as if most who read the article didn't like it, but somehow it has been upvoted like crazy. Is a voting ring of this magnitude possible though? Maybe I just need to believe that tons of people really like it and nothing fishy is going on. If you loved this article and upvoted it, please tell us why.
- BenjaminTodd 10y ago
  That's what always happens. People who like upvote and move on (or do nothing). People who are critical comment. It's really hard to do a voting ring on HN. The algorithm is very sensitive. We've triggered it accidentally before, just because friends of ours, who we didn't ask, upvoted it.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- johnfn 10y ago
  That would be me. I liked it because it gave easy to understand and evidence-backed steps to improve your life. I see a bunch of posts and comments on HN where the poster postulates (without any research or backing) some hypothesis about how to improve your life. These inevitably get hundreds of upvotes and never get questioned, even though n=1 is practically meaningless. This is the complete opposite. Every step on here is discrete, concrete and backed by study. What more do you want, exactly? And how come no one ever calls out the n=1 case, but everyone is calling out this? What exactly is the difference?
  - askafriend 10y ago
    > And how come no one ever calls out the n=1 case, but everyone is calling out this? What exactly is the difference? The difference is in making a claim and recounting a personal experience. The two have entirely different bars for acceptance.
    - johnfn 10y ago
      I would argue that in the amount of credence people place on each account, there is very little difference.
- k-mcgrady 10y ago
  >> It's as if most who read the article didn't like it I would posit the opposite - people who read it upvoted it. People who read the title (and possibly a couple of headings) in this quite long article left negative comments. I enjoyed the article because there were a few bits in it that reminded me of common sense things that I've been neglecting. It also linked to several other resources (essays/books) that seem interesting and I plan on reading.
lazyjones 10y ago
> if HN/Reddit or other platforms brought in a quality score to peoples upvotes to negate people who do tend to upvote catchy headlines. Slashdot pioneered this AFAIK and it helped. Perhaps HN could track clickthroughs and allow upvoting after a specified time - e.g. 3 minutes - has passed (after clicking), to prevent upvotes when the user hasn't really read the article. Downside: if you know the article already from elsewhere, you'll be prevented from voting too.
k-mcgrady 10y ago
>> Feels like Reddit I agree but not based on this article getting to the top but based on the 90% negative/sarcastic/useless comments in this thread. I'm not directing this at you specifically but there are some atrocious comments. Clearly (as you say), based on the upvotes, a lot of people found the post useful.

gitpusher 10y ago

> 287 people other than me found this article interesting and useful... That's how voting systems generally function, yes

jtraffic 10y ago

It does seem a little weird how many negative comments there are. It's as if most who read the article didn't like it, but somehow it has been upvoted like crazy. Is a voting ring of this magnitude possible though? Maybe I just need to believe that tons of people really like it and nothing fishy is going on. If you loved this article and upvoted it, please tell us why.

BenjaminTodd 10y ago
That's what always happens. People who like upvote and move on (or do nothing). People who are critical comment. It's really hard to do a voting ring on HN. The algorithm is very sensitive. We've triggered it accidentally before, just because friends of ours, who we didn't ask, upvoted it.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
johnfn 10y ago
That would be me. I liked it because it gave easy to understand and evidence-backed steps to improve your life. I see a bunch of posts and comments on HN where the poster postulates (without any research or backing) some hypothesis about how to improve your life. These inevitably get hundreds of upvotes and never get questioned, even though n=1 is practically meaningless. This is the complete opposite. Every step on here is discrete, concrete and backed by study. What more do you want, exactly? And how come no one ever calls out the n=1 case, but everyone is calling out this? What exactly is the difference?
- askafriend 10y ago
  > And how come no one ever calls out the n=1 case, but everyone is calling out this? What exactly is the difference? The difference is in making a claim and recounting a personal experience. The two have entirely different bars for acceptance.
  - johnfn 10y ago
    I would argue that in the amount of credence people place on each account, there is very little difference.
k-mcgrady 10y ago
>> It's as if most who read the article didn't like it I would posit the opposite - people who read it upvoted it. People who read the title (and possibly a couple of headings) in this quite long article left negative comments. I enjoyed the article because there were a few bits in it that reminded me of common sense things that I've been neglecting. It also linked to several other resources (essays/books) that seem interesting and I plan on reading.

lazyjones 10y ago

> if HN/Reddit or other platforms brought in a quality score to peoples upvotes to negate people who do tend to upvote catchy headlines. Slashdot pioneered this AFAIK and it helped. Perhaps HN could track clickthroughs and allow upvoting after a specified time - e.g. 3 minutes - has passed (after clicking), to prevent upvotes when the user hasn't really read the article. Downside: if you know the article already from elsewhere, you'll be prevented from voting too.

k-mcgrady 10y ago

>> Feels like Reddit I agree but not based on this article getting to the top but based on the 90% negative/sarcastic/useless comments in this thread. I'm not directing this at you specifically but there are some atrocious comments. Clearly (as you say), based on the upvotes, a lot of people found the post useful.