4 ms·

I honestly visited the links and read some of your comments. I still fail to see why downvoting and flagging are necessary. Am I overlloking something?

dang 6y ago
Those links were in response to different issues you raised. The answer to this question is that downvoting and flagging are vital mechanisms for preventing HN from becoming completely overrun with much lower-quality threads. There is a ton of dreck on the internet, including here, and there needs to be countervailing mechanisms to address it. Upvotes alone can't cut it: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20%22upvotes%20alone%22&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu.... Basically, they are the immune system of the forum, and we need those white blood cells. There's a downside, to be sure—HN certainly gets bad downvotes and flags. But there are mechanisms to address those, like corrective upvotes (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=corrective%20upvote&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...) and vouching (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html), and as a last resort you can always email hn@ycombinator.com. Meanwhile the downside of having no immune system at all would be much worse.
excerionsforte 6y ago
I saw this question downvotes (casting doubt on the value of it) then I saw this request on another forum for bringing them back: https://eu.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/bring-forum-upvotedownvote-system-back/118334 https://eu.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/bring-forum-upvotedo... It is an endless tussle of how people want to be moderated. I definitely see the value of flagging given many if not all forums, commenting blocks and social media sites have that. It seems highly suspect to cast doubt on the value of it. Adding a low friction way to say "why" would give a way to add priority. Second, downvotes are community driven and very useful where the participants use it to bring up quality content. Of course it can be used unfairly as well.

dang 6y ago

Those links were in response to different issues you raised. The answer to this question is that downvoting and flagging are vital mechanisms for preventing HN from becoming completely overrun with much lower-quality threads. There is a ton of dreck on the internet, including here, and there needs to be countervailing mechanisms to address it. Upvotes alone can't cut it: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20%22upvotes%20alone%22&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu.... Basically, they are the immune system of the forum, and we need those white blood cells. There's a downside, to be sure—HN certainly gets bad downvotes and flags. But there are mechanisms to address those, like corrective upvotes (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=corrective%20upvote&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...) and vouching (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html), and as a last resort you can always email hn@ycombinator.com. Meanwhile the downside of having no immune system at all would be much worse.

excerionsforte 6y ago

I saw this question downvotes (casting doubt on the value of it) then I saw this request on another forum for bringing them back: https://eu.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/bring-forum-upvotedownvote-system-back/118334 https://eu.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/bring-forum-upvotedo... It is an endless tussle of how people want to be moderated. I definitely see the value of flagging given many if not all forums, commenting blocks and social media sites have that. It seems highly suspect to cast doubt on the value of it. Adding a low friction way to say "why" would give a way to add priority. Second, downvotes are community driven and very useful where the participants use it to bring up quality content. Of course it can be used unfairly as well.