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While they're not using this data to moderate by consensus at this point that's clearly the direction they're heading. Consensus certainly has its place, partic

While they're not using this data to moderate by consensus at this point that's clearly the direction they're heading. Consensus certainly has its place, particularly in democratic institutions. But IMHO it's an anti-feature for a forum. It's exactly the counter-consensus opinions that I find most valuable. To the extent that they are suppressed the forum simply loses my interest. Yes, it's useful to see where the consensus is heading. But mostly it's a snooze, and the compelling content is the stuff that challenges it. A better use of this data would be to highlight the counter-consensus speakers so that I can have a listen.

runarberg 6y ago
Correct me if I’m wrong but hasn’t Stack Overflow used consensus to moderate with great success? What is the reason that consensus driven moderation works well on Stack Overflow but not other forums like Twitter?
- tylersmith 6y ago
  It's been a very long time since I've seen anyone use SO as an example of good community moderation. Everyone I know and the general sentiment I get online agree that their moderation is far too heavy handed and leads to an unpleasant experience for most participants.
- shijie 6y ago
  I would say that with SO, amortized consensus is fine due to there being a "right" answer to a technical problem or question (more or less). Twitter deals mainly in the market of human opinion, which is necessarily far more nuanced with n sides to a story. This makes Twitter the arbiter of truth for their platform. Perfectly legal, as it's their platform, but I wouldn't expect a free exchange of ideas on such a platform.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- CDSlice 6y ago
  On StackOverflow there is a simple, objective measure for judging answers and posts by. Namely “Does this answer actually solve my specific problem?” If there are syntax errors or if the answer plain just doesn’t solve the problem it won’t get upvoted or selected as the correct answer. On Twitter what objective measure are you going to use to evaluate “The election was stolen by widespread voter fraud”? The news? Half of the country believes that “liberal” news is full of lies and the other half thinks the same of “conservative” news.
- GrumpyNl 6y ago
  I have to disagree, there are to many down votes on legit questions but they did not rephrase it properly or didn't show the proper code. It should be more help full, specially when you down vote, give a reason and solution or advice.
dan-robertson 6y ago
Don’t they suggest that they don’t want to simply take the majority vote? I’m not really sure whether by consensus you mean the majority opinion or a smaller more shared opinion so maybe I’m misunderstanding.

runarberg 6y ago

Correct me if I’m wrong but hasn’t Stack Overflow used consensus to moderate with great success? What is the reason that consensus driven moderation works well on Stack Overflow but not other forums like Twitter?

tylersmith 6y ago
It's been a very long time since I've seen anyone use SO as an example of good community moderation. Everyone I know and the general sentiment I get online agree that their moderation is far too heavy handed and leads to an unpleasant experience for most participants.
shijie 6y ago
I would say that with SO, amortized consensus is fine due to there being a "right" answer to a technical problem or question (more or less). Twitter deals mainly in the market of human opinion, which is necessarily far more nuanced with n sides to a story. This makes Twitter the arbiter of truth for their platform. Perfectly legal, as it's their platform, but I wouldn't expect a free exchange of ideas on such a platform.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
CDSlice 6y ago
On StackOverflow there is a simple, objective measure for judging answers and posts by. Namely “Does this answer actually solve my specific problem?” If there are syntax errors or if the answer plain just doesn’t solve the problem it won’t get upvoted or selected as the correct answer. On Twitter what objective measure are you going to use to evaluate “The election was stolen by widespread voter fraud”? The news? Half of the country believes that “liberal” news is full of lies and the other half thinks the same of “conservative” news.
GrumpyNl 6y ago
I have to disagree, there are to many down votes on legit questions but they did not rephrase it properly or didn't show the proper code. It should be more help full, specially when you down vote, give a reason and solution or advice.

dan-robertson 6y ago

Don’t they suggest that they don’t want to simply take the majority vote? I’m not really sure whether by consensus you mean the majority opinion or a smaller more shared opinion so maybe I’m misunderstanding.