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On HN, it appears the downvoting is about those with the power disagreeing with a different or unpopular opinion, so is of little deterrence to trolling. The t

by Tozen 4y ago

On HN, it appears the downvoting is about those with the power disagreeing with a different or unpopular opinion, so is of little deterrence to trolling. The troll can be typing something that is popular or is popular, but is specifically targeting or bullying other users. The troll behavior isn't punished, unless a moderator steps in, where arguably it would have reached the point of being quite obvious or outrageous. So on HN, it seems that if a user has an issue with trolling, they would have to e-mail HN about it. And here again, it would likely need to be something more on the continual, obvious, or outrageous side for actions to be taken.

matsemann 4y ago
You can click the timestamp of a comment, and then on the page you're taken to choose to flag the comment.
- corobo 4y ago
  Anyone else noticing this is used as a mega downvote recently? Saw a pretty civil disagreement in a thread where half the conversation was flagged dead. There used to be a vouch option but I guess I don’t have that anymore Turn showdead on, you’ll start seeing it all the time (it feels like)
  - aspenmayer 4y ago
    > There used to be a vouch option but I guess I don’t have that anymore Yeah, what gives?
burnished 4y ago
The moderation team here (is it just dang?) is pretty effective and I think succeeds. I've been corrected for relatively minor stuff before, and it was a helpful reminder to remain civil and engaged in good faith conversation. I guess what I'm getting at is I have had a completely different experience and I'm wondering what lead you to feel the way that you do.
- WaxedChewbacca 4y ago
- stuartjohnson12 4y ago
  Hacker News is interesting because I think it's also pretty troll resistant through virtue of... being boring to non-trolls, I think. The web 1.0 design scares off a lot of the teenagers.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - rectang 4y ago
    To troll on HN, you just need to operate within some constraints. Two criteria need to be satisfied. First, to prevent your troll from being greyed out, you need to be in alignment with the dominant Hacker News zeitgeist. Downvotes don't matter so long as enough people counter them with upvotes. Second, to prevent being flagged, you need to craft your message in such a way that it could possibly be interpreted as well meaning. "Assume good faith" is a loophole to be exploited: "suck it bitch" overt hostility won't fly, but since "I'm just asking questions"-style disingenousness often can't be differentiated from honest inquiry, it makes it through the filter. If you can master those techniques, you can troll any unpopular outgroup on HN without limit. You can't troll the dominant faction without getting downvoted into oblivion, so the dominant faction believes trolling doesn't happen, but as for whether trolling of outgroups is happening... ... we can't say, as that would mean doubting the good faith of those "just asking questions". Nevertheless, we can observe that certain demographics who frequently get the "just asking questions" treatment are severely underrepresented on HN.
    - junon 4y ago
      Pretty much sums it up, and is another reason my involvement with HN has decreased significantly over the last year or so. This mode of operation is gross to me.

by Tozen 4y ago

matsemann 4y ago

You can click the timestamp of a comment, and then on the page you're taken to choose to flag the comment.

corobo 4y ago
Anyone else noticing this is used as a mega downvote recently? Saw a pretty civil disagreement in a thread where half the conversation was flagged dead. There used to be a vouch option but I guess I don’t have that anymore Turn showdead on, you’ll start seeing it all the time (it feels like)
- aspenmayer 4y ago
  > There used to be a vouch option but I guess I don’t have that anymore Yeah, what gives?

burnished 4y ago

The moderation team here (is it just dang?) is pretty effective and I think succeeds. I've been corrected for relatively minor stuff before, and it was a helpful reminder to remain civil and engaged in good faith conversation. I guess what I'm getting at is I have had a completely different experience and I'm wondering what lead you to feel the way that you do.

WaxedChewbacca 4y ago
stuartjohnson12 4y ago
Hacker News is interesting because I think it's also pretty troll resistant through virtue of... being boring to non-trolls, I think. The web 1.0 design scares off a lot of the teenagers.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- rectang 4y ago
  To troll on HN, you just need to operate within some constraints. Two criteria need to be satisfied. First, to prevent your troll from being greyed out, you need to be in alignment with the dominant Hacker News zeitgeist. Downvotes don't matter so long as enough people counter them with upvotes. Second, to prevent being flagged, you need to craft your message in such a way that it could possibly be interpreted as well meaning. "Assume good faith" is a loophole to be exploited: "suck it bitch" overt hostility won't fly, but since "I'm just asking questions"-style disingenousness often can't be differentiated from honest inquiry, it makes it through the filter. If you can master those techniques, you can troll any unpopular outgroup on HN without limit. You can't troll the dominant faction without getting downvoted into oblivion, so the dominant faction believes trolling doesn't happen, but as for whether trolling of outgroups is happening... ... we can't say, as that would mean doubting the good faith of those "just asking questions". Nevertheless, we can observe that certain demographics who frequently get the "just asking questions" treatment are severely underrepresented on HN.
  - junon 4y ago
    Pretty much sums it up, and is another reason my involvement with HN has decreased significantly over the last year or so. This mode of operation is gross to me.