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I don't perceive any injustice. So I pissed off some people in Russert's thread today. Pissing off people on the internet is part of life. I think it's a vid

by LPTS 18y ago

I don't perceive any injustice. So I pissed off some people in Russert's thread today. Pissing off people on the internet is part of life. I think it's a video game, and could be better. That's what we do, make stuff better. I'm not suggesting it's actually done, either. But would it make things better, if half the voters reversed their pattern?

ComputerGuru 18y ago
IMHO: not really. Sure, for the while it takes to catch on (assuming it does) it would work and we'd know ourselves. But then when it becomes the "standard" for low ratings to mean high quality then people will start up-voting like crazy, and we're back where we started. The numbers are relative, so it doesn't make a difference if there's a leading "-" sign or not, it's the way people read and treat it that counts. When HN first started, + was the convention and people respected it (at first), then they didn't. If you switch to a "-" convention, people will respect it for some time, then the same thing will happen once more...
- LPTS 18y ago
  what if only a percentage do it? 25, 33, 50%?
  - ComputerGuru 18y ago
    Then it'll have no meaning. You'll downvote my reply because you think its worthy and someone else will come along and upvote it for the same reason (and, remember, everyone can upvote always). Or you'll upvote my reply because of how nasty, trollish, and a waste of bytes it is and someone will come along and take points away... it'd be chaos.
    - LPTS 18y ago
      Hackers. Chaos. Fun. What's not to love? (Hypothetically) Is the system totally vulnerable to an attack like this?
      - ComputerGuru 18y ago
        It's not an "attack" - it's the normal course of events. If 50% of the community follows one convention and the other 50% follow another, it's inevitable.
        LPTS 18y ago
        The attack is the community changing behavior spontaneously. Really I just wanted to use the word irono-recursively.

by LPTS 18y ago

ComputerGuru 18y ago

IMHO: not really. Sure, for the while it takes to catch on (assuming it does) it would work and we'd know ourselves. But then when it becomes the "standard" for low ratings to mean high quality then people will start up-voting like crazy, and we're back where we started. The numbers are relative, so it doesn't make a difference if there's a leading "-" sign or not, it's the way people read and treat it that counts. When HN first started, + was the convention and people respected it (at first), then they didn't. If you switch to a "-" convention, people will respect it for some time, then the same thing will happen once more...

LPTS 18y ago
what if only a percentage do it? 25, 33, 50%?
- ComputerGuru 18y ago
  Then it'll have no meaning. You'll downvote my reply because you think its worthy and someone else will come along and upvote it for the same reason (and, remember, everyone can upvote always). Or you'll upvote my reply because of how nasty, trollish, and a waste of bytes it is and someone will come along and take points away... it'd be chaos.
  - LPTS 18y ago
    Hackers. Chaos. Fun. What's not to love? (Hypothetically) Is the system totally vulnerable to an attack like this?
    - ComputerGuru 18y ago
      It's not an "attack" - it's the normal course of events. If 50% of the community follows one convention and the other 50% follow another, it's inevitable.
      - LPTS 18y ago
        The attack is the community changing behavior spontaneously. Really I just wanted to use the word irono-recursively.