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Yup. Actual conversations were replaced by liking or commenting something short. Those micro interactions are almost useless.

foobarbecue 4y ago
I upvoted this... And then literally smacked my head.
- JohnFen 4y ago
  In a forum like this, though, it's appropriate. Does anyone really want to wade through a bunch of replies to a comment that just say "I agree" without adding anything? That said, I'm guilty of the occasional "I agree" reply like that, and it typically gets downvoted -- as it should.
  - layer8 4y ago
    Honestly, this was/is rarely a problem in forums that have no upvote/downvote feature. The important part is that they don’t have the UI of a chat and have affordances that make them convenient for asynchronous use.
reidjs 4y ago
I disagree, those micro interactions complement async conversations - an easy way to acknowledge something, equivalent of saying 'lol' or 'ok'.
- AlwaysRock 4y ago
  Right. My point is though that many people will just like someones wedding photos or whatever life event instead of having a conversation with them and discovering that information. Acknowledging something is fine if you then talk to that person but most people replaced the conversation with the like.
  - reidjs 4y ago
    I think the bigger issue is that instead of having conversations with those around me I can choose to interact with people like you who may be a thousand miles away instead.
justin_oaks 4y ago
Whenever I comment on Hacker News, I'm always thrilled to get reply comments. It shows that someone read my comment, thought about it, and had something more to contribute to the conversation. While it's nice to see "number go up" from the upvotes on my comments, that simply doesn't have the same value to me as having the conversation move forward. Sadly, Hacker News isn't the best place to have conversations. Threads can start fast on 1st page articles, run up a bunch of comments, and then the discussion dries up within hours. Ugh.
orange_fritter 4y ago
Arguably worse than nothing in some situations. It's easy to speculate that upvotes/downvotes may contribute to bubbles, blind spots, and polarization when there is a tribal divide or some other kind of groupthink pathology. edit- specifically, I'm thinking of politically-minded forums where the top comments are just comments that reinforce the accepted mentality without really challenging anybody's ideas

foobarbecue 4y ago

I upvoted this... And then literally smacked my head.

JohnFen 4y ago
In a forum like this, though, it's appropriate. Does anyone really want to wade through a bunch of replies to a comment that just say "I agree" without adding anything? That said, I'm guilty of the occasional "I agree" reply like that, and it typically gets downvoted -- as it should.
- layer8 4y ago
  Honestly, this was/is rarely a problem in forums that have no upvote/downvote feature. The important part is that they don’t have the UI of a chat and have affordances that make them convenient for asynchronous use.

reidjs 4y ago

I disagree, those micro interactions complement async conversations - an easy way to acknowledge something, equivalent of saying 'lol' or 'ok'.

AlwaysRock 4y ago
Right. My point is though that many people will just like someones wedding photos or whatever life event instead of having a conversation with them and discovering that information. Acknowledging something is fine if you then talk to that person but most people replaced the conversation with the like.
- reidjs 4y ago
  I think the bigger issue is that instead of having conversations with those around me I can choose to interact with people like you who may be a thousand miles away instead.

justin_oaks 4y ago

Whenever I comment on Hacker News, I'm always thrilled to get reply comments. It shows that someone read my comment, thought about it, and had something more to contribute to the conversation. While it's nice to see "number go up" from the upvotes on my comments, that simply doesn't have the same value to me as having the conversation move forward. Sadly, Hacker News isn't the best place to have conversations. Threads can start fast on 1st page articles, run up a bunch of comments, and then the discussion dries up within hours. Ugh.

orange_fritter 4y ago

Arguably worse than nothing in some situations. It's easy to speculate that upvotes/downvotes may contribute to bubbles, blind spots, and polarization when there is a tribal divide or some other kind of groupthink pathology. edit- specifically, I'm thinking of politically-minded forums where the top comments are just comments that reinforce the accepted mentality without really challenging anybody's ideas