3 ms·

Ask YC: Hacker News has got POINTS... I smell some game theory here?

3 points by ideamonk 18y ago

Is it true that Hacker News is based on a game theory... where users play a game to get points... and this game keeps HN alive? same goes for Reddit. What views you have ?

gaika 18y ago
No. Point system is broken and encourages groupthink. This place is still the best forum for hackers because most people are not here for points.
- ideamonk 18y ago
  Yes, the end part of what you say is really true!
- stcredzero 18y ago
  "Point system is broken and encourages groupthink." Is that so different from how society works? There may be no numbers displayed, but a lot of society works through affirmations of one kind of another.
  - deleted 18y ago
    [deleted]
  - gaika 18y ago
    http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=196390 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=196390 , society is using subjective reputation system so it is less affected by groupthink.
- thaumaturgy 18y ago
  I don't understand this. When a forum tries to focus on a small number of topics, people accuse it of "groupthink". When a forum doesn't try to focus on a small number of topics, people accuse it of being the next Reddit, or Digg, or whatever. For that matter, you should know better than to throw around the "groupthink" accusation, when your own project encourages people to tune out everything that they think they don't like, until they only see things that they'll like anyway. Let's use something a little more descriptive than "groupthink".
lpgauth 18y ago
The community keeps HN alive not the point system. I don't really get why there is a point system in the first place... It's not because someone is considered as a troll on some subjects that when he post on a topic he know and is right that is post should automatically lower on the page.
- babul 18y ago
  The HN points system is an efficient way of filtering articles and comments - valued items quickly reach the top of a page/thread (usually). Even if it is broken in some ways, it is better to have it than not.
  - ideamonk 18y ago
    It seems the number of comments your post gets and number of visitors your post gets decides what rank and what point your post gets... besides age of the post is also an important factor

3 points by ideamonk 18y ago

Is it true that Hacker News is based on a game theory... where users play a game to get points... and this game keeps HN alive? same goes for Reddit. What views you have ?

gaika 18y ago

No. Point system is broken and encourages groupthink. This place is still the best forum for hackers because most people are not here for points.

ideamonk 18y ago
Yes, the end part of what you say is really true!
stcredzero 18y ago
"Point system is broken and encourages groupthink." Is that so different from how society works? There may be no numbers displayed, but a lot of society works through affirmations of one kind of another.
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
- gaika 18y ago
  http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=196390 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=196390 , society is using subjective reputation system so it is less affected by groupthink.
thaumaturgy 18y ago
I don't understand this. When a forum tries to focus on a small number of topics, people accuse it of "groupthink". When a forum doesn't try to focus on a small number of topics, people accuse it of being the next Reddit, or Digg, or whatever. For that matter, you should know better than to throw around the "groupthink" accusation, when your own project encourages people to tune out everything that they think they don't like, until they only see things that they'll like anyway. Let's use something a little more descriptive than "groupthink".

lpgauth 18y ago

The community keeps HN alive not the point system. I don't really get why there is a point system in the first place... It's not because someone is considered as a troll on some subjects that when he post on a topic he know and is right that is post should automatically lower on the page.

babul 18y ago
The HN points system is an efficient way of filtering articles and comments - valued items quickly reach the top of a page/thread (usually). Even if it is broken in some ways, it is better to have it than not.
- ideamonk 18y ago
  It seems the number of comments your post gets and number of visitors your post gets decides what rank and what point your post gets... besides age of the post is also an important factor