5 ms·

Lately I've had comments swing wildly dozens of points in each direction and also flagged. Brigadiering has come to HN and is getting worse over time. There see

Lately I've had comments swing wildly dozens of points in each direction and also flagged. Brigadiering has come to HN and is getting worse over time. There seems to be a growing segment of internet users who wish to cleanse perceived wrong think, it is disturbing and not what flags/downvotes are for. It also feels like there is more bots.

bb88 5y ago
Go look at HCQ/Ivermectin/Cryptocurrency for examples of such brigadiering.
- chernevik 5y ago
  The trouble is, you can't -- only the commenter can see their score swings, and then only if they pay attention. Publishing upvotes and downvotes would allow others to see these effects, and would allow them to register a comment as "controversial" rather than "not worthy of notice". Data on who made what vote could also be useful.
  - innocentoldguy 5y ago
    There are two things I've always wanted out of a comment system that allows up and down votes: 1. I want to know who upvoted/downvoted/flagged a comment so I can identify attempts at censorship, revenge voting/flagging, etc. 2. I want the ability to exclude individuals from the upvote/downvote tally I see. For example, if I see someone downvoting every post that is favorable to Elmer Fudd, or upvoting every post that is favorable to Bugs Bunny, I want to block that person's emotional bias from the rankings I see in order for my view of the comment section to be as objective as possible.
  - steveklabnik 5y ago
    Some old, old discussions on this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2403716 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2403716 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2445039 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2445039 That is, in the old days the total score was shown to everyone, but it was deliberately changed.
- recuter 5y ago
  Well yeah, there are a lot of those "controversial" subjects that attract far-left far-right flamewars and this has normalized using downvotes/flags as a weapon. Even about innocuous things. Which is... weird and sad.

bb88 5y ago

Go look at HCQ/Ivermectin/Cryptocurrency for examples of such brigadiering.

chernevik 5y ago
The trouble is, you can't -- only the commenter can see their score swings, and then only if they pay attention. Publishing upvotes and downvotes would allow others to see these effects, and would allow them to register a comment as "controversial" rather than "not worthy of notice". Data on who made what vote could also be useful.
- innocentoldguy 5y ago
  There are two things I've always wanted out of a comment system that allows up and down votes: 1. I want to know who upvoted/downvoted/flagged a comment so I can identify attempts at censorship, revenge voting/flagging, etc. 2. I want the ability to exclude individuals from the upvote/downvote tally I see. For example, if I see someone downvoting every post that is favorable to Elmer Fudd, or upvoting every post that is favorable to Bugs Bunny, I want to block that person's emotional bias from the rankings I see in order for my view of the comment section to be as objective as possible.
- steveklabnik 5y ago
  Some old, old discussions on this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2403716 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2403716 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2445039 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2445039 That is, in the old days the total score was shown to everyone, but it was deliberately changed.
recuter 5y ago
Well yeah, there are a lot of those "controversial" subjects that attract far-left far-right flamewars and this has normalized using downvotes/flags as a weapon. Even about innocuous things. Which is... weird and sad.