> Result is that a simply proxy for a flame-war is the number of comments on a submission out-stripping the number of votes. I would be more interested in an e

> Result is that a simply proxy for a flame-war is the number of comments on a submission out-stripping the number of votes. I would be more interested in an echo-chamber detection system. A simple heuristic could be down votes greater than 3x the number of comments. The idea behind an echo chamber being that a post or comment is removed from circulation via excessive down votes without any corresponding commentary qualifying that level of voting. The result of echo chamber detection would be: * Presence of an echo chamber, such that the comments present don't qualify the quantity of down votes or that themselves present hostility or greater than tranquil disagreement. This is the online equivalent of a heckler's veto. * Presence of a contribution that is probably deserving of moderation due to hostility more than disagree-ability. On HN this would rarely work, because an echo chamber scenario results in a maximum of 4 down votes. I have found that echo chambers are a group behavior that feeds itself in that some users contribute to the group's hostility simply out of conformity or other mental laziness. They may even leave evidence of such when their comments clearly indicate they are advocating for a position without reading the thread they are commenting into. Responding to echo chambers in unexpected ways would make for interesting social experiments. Consider what a hostile group would do, for example, if the group hostility instead raised the presence/visibility of the contrary contribution and the vote count is artificially exaggerated.