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Compared to the real world, where people make arguments around the table and others applaud, grunt, hoot, roll their eyes, etc., upvotes seem like a rather mild
by tlb 8y ago
Compared to the real world, where people make arguments around the table and others applaud, grunt, hoot, roll their eyes, etc., upvotes seem like a rather mild form of feedback.
I don't think zero feedback is a good goal. Even with voting, forums exhibit a level of trolling and asshattery you'd never find if you had to watch people's live reactions to your statements. And not that much grandstanding, compared to, say, politicians in the media.
That said, should HN add an option in your profile to hide comment scores? You could always get around it with some effort, but maybe not seeing the score right there would encourage you to comment for truth, beauty, and posterity, rather than upvotes.
- PavlovsCat 8y ago> Compared to the real world, where people make arguments around the table and others applaud, grunt, hoot, roll their eyes, etc., upvotes seem like a rather mild form of feedback. That's the problem IMO, it's not just mild, it's nothing, yet weight is attached to it. In the real world, when you make a good argument and someone just rolls their eyes disapprovingly and grunts, you can go "What? What's your problem with what I just said?", and they can't possibly just pretend they're not there or didn't roll their eyes -- like people who downvote without reply often do, which gives them the false impression of having said something. When we don't like something, yet can't find any solid argument against it, that should do something with us, maybe teach us something, and votes are like the most optimized form of memes and other ways to not have to actually think, distilling it to the minimal essence, just a click. I'm not saying nobody thinks when voting, but the only requirement is an account and an input device, not actually thinking. Not so for "using one's words".