4 ms·

Seems complicated, just add meta-moderation.

JulianMorrison 15y ago
How's it complicated? Meta moderation is much harder. It would be a boolean flag in the comment that turns it into a trap. The operation of the trap is: set points = min(points, 1) and then if someone clicks upvote when points == 1, then rather than set points = 2, instead set karma=karma-100. Simple.
- sorbus 15y ago
  If so, combine it with either a short take-back period for votes or separation between the up and down arrows. Using a laptop, I've occasionally accidentally upvoted when I intended to downvote, and I understand that it is much more common to make such mistakes when using a touch-based interface.
  - JulianMorrison 15y ago
    I've never understood why HN doesn't let you take back a moderation, not even in the way Google mail does (with an undo link popping up for a few seconds at the top of the screen).
- mishmash 15y ago
  I didn't mean the code would be complicated, but the additional mental load of all users evaluating every comment for it's trappiness (USERS * COMMENTS * SPLIT_SECOND). If someone's being a jerk why not just use the current moderation/ban system that's in place? And if it's a specific idiotic/malicious set of characters that keeps popping up, just add a censor for it. Pretty much all other moderation needs could be solved with slashcode-style meta-moderation.
  - JulianMorrison 15y ago
    If you're the sort of person who naturally doesn't care to upvote stuff that the admins think ought to be booby-trapped, then you won't be stung. Versus, if you're a jerk who likes dumb comments, you'll be stung often enough to feel inhibition and a need to contemplate a comment's jerkiness and dumbness before hitting the up arrow. This additional mental load is quite deliberate.
ZachPruckowski 15y ago
Is meta-moderation useful when you can vote on as many comments as you'd like? It works on Slashdot because you can only moderate a handful of comments per day/week, but if you can moderate an infinite number of comments, you can create downvote-sink comments on an alternate account (or just make sure you downvote every actual troll), so that the majority (or a large minority) of your moderations pass meta-moderation.

How's it complicated? Meta moderation is much harder. It would be a boolean flag in the comment that turns it into a trap. The operation of the trap is: set points = min(points, 1) and then if someone clicks upvote when points == 1, then rather than set points = 2, instead set karma=karma-100. Simple.

sorbus 15y ago
If so, combine it with either a short take-back period for votes or separation between the up and down arrows. Using a laptop, I've occasionally accidentally upvoted when I intended to downvote, and I understand that it is much more common to make such mistakes when using a touch-based interface.
- JulianMorrison 15y ago
  I've never understood why HN doesn't let you take back a moderation, not even in the way Google mail does (with an undo link popping up for a few seconds at the top of the screen).
mishmash 15y ago
I didn't mean the code would be complicated, but the additional mental load of all users evaluating every comment for it's trappiness (USERS * COMMENTS * SPLIT_SECOND). If someone's being a jerk why not just use the current moderation/ban system that's in place? And if it's a specific idiotic/malicious set of characters that keeps popping up, just add a censor for it. Pretty much all other moderation needs could be solved with slashcode-style meta-moderation.
- JulianMorrison 15y ago
  If you're the sort of person who naturally doesn't care to upvote stuff that the admins think ought to be booby-trapped, then you won't be stung. Versus, if you're a jerk who likes dumb comments, you'll be stung often enough to feel inhibition and a need to contemplate a comment's jerkiness and dumbness before hitting the up arrow. This additional mental load is quite deliberate.

ZachPruckowski 15y ago

Is meta-moderation useful when you can vote on as many comments as you'd like? It works on Slashdot because you can only moderate a handful of comments per day/week, but if you can moderate an infinite number of comments, you can create downvote-sink comments on an alternate account (or just make sure you downvote every actual troll), so that the majority (or a large minority) of your moderations pass meta-moderation.