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At least for voting, the fix is simple and I don’t understand why both Reddit and HN (with the default settings) don’t do it: make voting invisible. That is,
by jorvi 6y ago
At least for voting, the fix is simple and I don’t understand why both Reddit and HN (with the default settings) don’t do it: make voting invisible.
That is, you sort the comments by the vote value they have, as is done now, but you don’t display the value. Reddit displays the value directly, and HN by gradually greying out comments. The problem with doing that is that it leads to bandwagoning. If I’d had to hazard a guess, a solid 50% of downvotes are people blindly ramming the downvote button because that comment already has a negative vote value.
- disgruntledphd2 6y agoHN used to display points (like Reddit), and removed them in maybe 2012, I don't remember the details. It was super controversial at the time, as I remember (I was new, so I didn't care that much).
- krapp 6y ago>the fix is simple and I don’t understand why both Reddit and HN (with the default settings) don’t do it: make voting invisible Because part of the purpose of voting/karma is operant conditioning - visually marking certain comments as "low quality" and others as "high quality" and to encourage commenters to prefer creating and engaging with the latter over the former through the constant feedback loop of reward and punishment. > If I’d had to hazard a guess, a solid 50% of downvotes are people blindly ramming the downvote button because that comment already has a negative vote value. That's the system operating as intended, ruthlessly separating the signal from the noise. I don't particularly like it either but Hacker News isn't about free discussion so much as curated discussion.