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I've been doing this recently, posting a lot more and looking back at my posts to see what was upvoted. This persons conclusions line up pretty well with my pr

I've been doing this recently, posting a lot more and looking back at my posts to see what was upvoted. This persons conclusions line up pretty well with my predictions based on analyzing my own highest upvoted comments on HN and reddit. The biggest thing I learned is don't play devil's advocate. Even if it's sincere, don't try to empathize with the other side of the argument. Try to figure out what the "average" (internet points-voter) thinks and say it loud, say it proud. One of my biggest upvotes was on r/politics post, where I posted a direct, forceful and unbeknowingesty satirical support of socialism/socialist policies. If you're on a media subreddit for a TV show. If there's an obvious character to quote or show trope that people like in response to a post, post that quote/trope. Some of my biggest downvotes were explaining to a person who asked in a neoliberal subreddit "Why do leftist politicians" say things they know aren't true or can't justify, and pointing out that they are incentivized to exaggerate, precisely because they don't have political power. I guess I figured out later it was a rhetorical question. And alot of this is in good faith. I'm honestly interested in understanding and discussing the realities of peoples political motivations over and above my own beliefs about them.

nomel 4y ago
> And alot of this is in good faith. I'm honestly interested in understanding and discussing the realities of peoples political motivations over and above my own beliefs about them. Related, I really liked the feature on Slashdot where "friends of friends" could be given more visibility, and a karma boost. If I friended you, I would then be exposed to your friends, which I would probably end up valuing, resulting in an amplification of a certain type of mindset across the site. It was a nice way to boost rationality. It would also be a terrible way to make an echo chamber, but to each their own I suppose.
- sfink 4y ago
  Yeah, I've started very slowly accumulating a list of HN commenters who say nonobvious things that I find value in. Occasionally I'll browse through their comment history, and I'm trying to train myself to recognize when they show up in a comment section. It would be nice to have the site automate some of that. But I recognize that it's tough to do without reinforcing an echo chamber. I don't even wish for a site that would only show me my "blessed community". I like the general commentary to be pretty widely scattered, but I (1) don't want to miss the larger bits of signal, and (2) want to improve my overall cost::benefit ratio. I also definitely don't want the base level to be too widely scattered, or more specifically, too low of an average value.
  - ansible 4y ago
    Yes, having a "friends" feature like on reddit would be welcome... though I find myself using it only very, very rarely. Even though I have well over a dozen accounts marked as "friends".
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
kergonath 4y ago
> The biggest thing I learned is don't play devil's advocate. Or do it well. Most of the time, “playing devil’s advocate” is just hypocritical trolling, so we’re more or less trained to assume bad faith. Which is an unfortunate bias, but that’s where we are. On the other hand, posts really need to be very bad to get greyed out. Even if you get a few downvotes, it’s not a huge problem.
- nomel 4y ago
  > Most of the time, “playing devil’s advocate” is just hypocritical trolling On reddit and twitter, I usually see the opposite of hypocritical lock-step adherence to a narrative, with any nuance and criticism being disallowed and attacked. I tend to assume bad faith for anyone completely taking one side of any complex (and therefore controversial) topic, on the internet.
the_only_law 4y ago
What I've learned is "right place right time". You can make a post that violates half the commenting guidelines, but if you're in the right thread with the right obvious, you can get a good amount of upvotes.
bena 4y ago
One of my most upvoted posts on reddit is a vagina joke. There was someone famous who was going to miss something important due to the birth of their kid and someone responded with "Birthgate" and I responded telling him it was called a vagina. My most downvoted post was a post about tournament card games where I was actually correct, but no one liked the answer regardless. It is also one of my most awarded posts.

nomel 4y ago

> And alot of this is in good faith. I'm honestly interested in understanding and discussing the realities of peoples political motivations over and above my own beliefs about them. Related, I really liked the feature on Slashdot where "friends of friends" could be given more visibility, and a karma boost. If I friended you, I would then be exposed to your friends, which I would probably end up valuing, resulting in an amplification of a certain type of mindset across the site. It was a nice way to boost rationality. It would also be a terrible way to make an echo chamber, but to each their own I suppose.

sfink 4y ago
Yeah, I've started very slowly accumulating a list of HN commenters who say nonobvious things that I find value in. Occasionally I'll browse through their comment history, and I'm trying to train myself to recognize when they show up in a comment section. It would be nice to have the site automate some of that. But I recognize that it's tough to do without reinforcing an echo chamber. I don't even wish for a site that would only show me my "blessed community". I like the general commentary to be pretty widely scattered, but I (1) don't want to miss the larger bits of signal, and (2) want to improve my overall cost::benefit ratio. I also definitely don't want the base level to be too widely scattered, or more specifically, too low of an average value.
- ansible 4y ago
  Yes, having a "friends" feature like on reddit would be welcome... though I find myself using it only very, very rarely. Even though I have well over a dozen accounts marked as "friends".

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

kergonath 4y ago

> The biggest thing I learned is don't play devil's advocate. Or do it well. Most of the time, “playing devil’s advocate” is just hypocritical trolling, so we’re more or less trained to assume bad faith. Which is an unfortunate bias, but that’s where we are. On the other hand, posts really need to be very bad to get greyed out. Even if you get a few downvotes, it’s not a huge problem.

nomel 4y ago
> Most of the time, “playing devil’s advocate” is just hypocritical trolling On reddit and twitter, I usually see the opposite of hypocritical lock-step adherence to a narrative, with any nuance and criticism being disallowed and attacked. I tend to assume bad faith for anyone completely taking one side of any complex (and therefore controversial) topic, on the internet.

the_only_law 4y ago

What I've learned is "right place right time". You can make a post that violates half the commenting guidelines, but if you're in the right thread with the right obvious, you can get a good amount of upvotes.

bena 4y ago

One of my most upvoted posts on reddit is a vagina joke. There was someone famous who was going to miss something important due to the birth of their kid and someone responded with "Birthgate" and I responded telling him it was called a vagina. My most downvoted post was a post about tournament card games where I was actually correct, but no one liked the answer regardless. It is also one of my most awarded posts.