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> I see a lot of long form articles here without any comments and I wonder, are they upvoted by bots? The Hacker News ranking algorithm penalises lots of comme
by hydrox24 7y ago
> I see a lot of long form articles here without any comments and I wonder, are they upvoted by bots?
The Hacker News ranking algorithm penalises lots of comments. Posts stay near the top precisely because they do not have comments.
- doubleunplussed 7y agoReally? That's amazing, I had no idea. Shame, since I come here more for the conversation than the articles themselves. But perhaps HN wants to discourage people like me.
- anon1m0us 7y agoWhat's the logic of that? If there are lots of comments, seems the content would be interesting to the community. It takes more to comment on something than to just click an up or down vote.
- mantap 7y agoThe same reason that you can tell if someone really enjoys your cooking, because they will be quiet while eating it. People tend to leave comments when they disagree. It's easy to disagree; it's harder to agree while also adding something interesting to the conversation.
- detaro 7y agoNot having comments does not weigh higher than having comments. Having too many comments relative to the votes can apply a penalty at some point, as a flamewar detector.