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The problem is how do you craft a set of effective community norms that allow for one type of humor and not the other? What are the design primitives that suppo
by shalmanese 16y ago
The problem is how do you craft a set of effective community norms that allow for one type of humor and not the other? What are the design primitives that support this enforcement?
I don't quite know the answer to this which is partly why the essay remains unfinished. But I do want to note that the upvote/downvote mechanism happens to be especially vulnerable to pathological humorous behaviors. A small, concerted clique of the "wrong element" can radically change the tenor of the site compared to a large and silent majority and, once the shift is made, the trend becomes self-reinforcing.
All it takes is a couple of redditors coming over and unthinkingly upvoting the humorous answers to start a mass movement.
- jacobolus 16y agoThe community norms around here reward humor that is (1) relevant to the topic at hand, and (2) insightful, and additionally (3) not mean-spirited. Trolls only have an outsized influence to the extent that the rest of the community has fuzzy or differing ideas about community norms. The larger the community the more likely this becomes. Trolls work by flirting with the boundaries of acceptability.
- elblanco 16y agoI agree with this. Every so often a little humor slips through the HN downvote filter and it usually fits your supplied parameters. I'd also add (4) not ironic or sarcastic (5) not absurd. Crafting a joke that fits all that is probably worth an upvote just on principle.