I noticed something interesting on Reddit. I recently installed the Reddit Enhancement Suite extension for my browser. One of the features is that it displays

I noticed something interesting on Reddit. I recently installed the Reddit Enhancement Suite extension for my browser. One of the features is that it displays next to a user's name above their comment the sum of +/- 1 votes I have given them. It also colors them based on their distance from 0 (or something similar to this). Suddenly I find myself reading comments differently based on whether they a strong positive or negative rating from me. I worried a little when I found myself upvoting a comment that was made by a very common poster on the site, and I realized it was the sort of stupid joke that doesn't contribute to the discussion that I would normally down-vote. The reputation the user had with me caused me to give their posts the benefit of the doubt. It was a very odd experience. On HN, I almost never read the name of the person who posted something until I am about to vote on it. I enjoy trying to evaluate a post on its contribution to the topic, and not on the authority or popularity of the author.