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Reddit has downvotes as well and its conversations are uniformly bad. Slate Star Codex has a creaky old antique of a comment system without voting at all, but i

Reddit has downvotes as well and its conversations are uniformly bad. Slate Star Codex has a creaky old antique of a comment system without voting at all, but its conversations were of the highest quality. So are LWN's. I don't think voting mechanics affect discussion quality as much as you think. What matters a lot more is a sense of mutual respect, shared purpose, and, honestly, a certain level of average intellectual horsepower.

donw 6y ago
I'd argue that it's the norms that a community develops. LWN and SSC had excellent discussion because their respective communities focus on both promoting quality and policing bad behavior -- go off the rails, and you'll get a bunch of folks trying to help you get back on. It's Peelian policing[1] for internet forums. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peelian_principles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peelian_principles
chroem- 6y ago
Reddit will ban you if you vote the "wrong" way. (HN has similar mechanisms in place as well.) Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23601595 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23601595
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
mundo 6y ago
I'm a huge fan of Scott's writing, but the forum discussions at SSC did not seem particularly good (for any value of good - niceness, erudition, signal-to-noise, etc) to me. Certainly they were much worse than HN on average.
- wanderer2323 6y ago
  Not sure what you mean by the 'forum discussions'. The open thread discussions were almost uniformly of higher quality and depth than most HN threads.
  - jessaustin 6y ago
    Could you link to some examples? My impressions so far have agreed with GP's...
- chillacy 6y ago
  Maybe they seemed especially bad next to Scott's essays which were all very well thought out in comparison. I do agree though that I've found them more disappointing than HN comments on a pg essay.
commandlinefan 6y ago
> Slate Star Codex has Had, sadly. Still deleted.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
Chris2048 6y ago
I think it's specialism. The topic that defines the community, dictates what kind of people are likely to join. If youTube only server IT-related videos, it wouldn't be 1/100th as popular, but the comments would probably be much higher quality.

donw 6y ago

I'd argue that it's the norms that a community develops. LWN and SSC had excellent discussion because their respective communities focus on both promoting quality and policing bad behavior -- go off the rails, and you'll get a bunch of folks trying to help you get back on. It's Peelian policing[1] for internet forums. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peelian_principles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peelian_principles

chroem- 6y ago

Reddit will ban you if you vote the "wrong" way. (HN has similar mechanisms in place as well.) Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23601595 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23601595

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

mundo 6y ago

I'm a huge fan of Scott's writing, but the forum discussions at SSC did not seem particularly good (for any value of good - niceness, erudition, signal-to-noise, etc) to me. Certainly they were much worse than HN on average.

wanderer2323 6y ago
Not sure what you mean by the 'forum discussions'. The open thread discussions were almost uniformly of higher quality and depth than most HN threads.
- jessaustin 6y ago
  Could you link to some examples? My impressions so far have agreed with GP's...
chillacy 6y ago
Maybe they seemed especially bad next to Scott's essays which were all very well thought out in comparison. I do agree though that I've found them more disappointing than HN comments on a pg essay.

commandlinefan 6y ago

> Slate Star Codex has Had, sadly. Still deleted.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

Chris2048 6y ago

I think it's specialism. The topic that defines the community, dictates what kind of people are likely to join. If youTube only server IT-related videos, it wouldn't be 1/100th as popular, but the comments would probably be much higher quality.