4 ms·

Why do dozens of people feel the need to say "+1" and "me too"? What could they possibly think they are adding to the discussion?

by lambda 14y ago

JoshTriplett 14y ago
Because the bug-tracking system doesn't have a noise-free way to say "this affects me too", the way that bugzilla and launchpad do. And "this affects me too" can potentially provide useful information, to gauge how many people an issue affects and thus what priority to give it.
- j_s 14y ago
  Everyone has a google account so they can easily jump in (as opposed to bugzilla/launchpad), and soon the snowball effect kicks in. This isn't the bug-tracking system, where it's supposed to be done by 'starring' an issue. Even there the concept is not emphasized enough so the same problem occurs. Edit: someone else found the actual bug, the star is flush left in the blue issue header: http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=84679 http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=84679
- dfc 14y ago
  Your answer explained why it is helpful to google. It does not explain why individuals post "me too," or why people are posting "me too" here on the HN page... There is a similar behavior here on HN with nice- page / I-agree / congrats posts. I'm wary of a general guideline that I should only post to HN if I think the karma reward will be greater than X, but more often than not I think it helps make sure any of my posts actually increase the numerator in the SNRatio.
  - sanli 14y ago
    It is human
    - alan_cx 14y ago
      +1 (Sorry, couldn't resist)
  - AndrewDucker 14y ago
    To make it clear how large the scale of the problem is, and that it is not just affecting one person.
  - tjoff 14y ago
    His answer explains that as well. Since the per post karma have been removed the only way to show you agree is to write an "I agree" post. If I upvote it only the author will see that someone upvoted it, but it is also information that is valuable to others. Hence, the only way to truly support a comment is to write a "me too" or try to rewrite "me too" into some rambling as if you had something else to contribute with but don't (which is arguably even worse). Not defending it or saying that hiding the per post karma is bad, but it is understandable and one of the drawbacks of hiding the per post karma.
    - politician 14y ago
      "Me too" is often used as a way to bump a forum thread back to the front page of forum software so that mods and others can have time to participate before the thread rolls off into murky ancient history. For instance, you very often see this in game forums. Now, my pet theory is that game forums seeded this behavior, and now more people use it even on forums where it is technically unnecessary. That said, I wonder what the game theoretical explanation is.
- drivebyacct2 14y ago
  That's... absolutely not true. The bug tracker (not the ML) has a star that is meant specifically for that and is a publicly viewable counter.
  - JoshTriplett 14y ago
    The star doesn't inherently say "I have this bug too". It just acts like a bookmark to find the bug later. That correlates with the number of people who want the bug fixed, somewhat, but it doesn't directly indicate how many people have experienced the bug.
- yellowbkpk 14y ago
  This isn't the bug tracker. It's a forum for support. Someone should file a bug here: http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/list http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/list Once they do that, you can "star" the issue. The Chrome team can sort their bug lists by "number of stars" during prioritization and you'll get e-mails when the bug's status changes if you star the bug.
javajosh 14y ago
That rather surprises me as well. I thought there'd be more analysis of what was happening - I looked in WebKit Inspector and noted some odd things. Something about a "hidden socket" in chrome.

Why do dozens of people feel the need to say "+1" and "me too"? What could they possibly think they are adding to the discussion?

by lambda 14y ago

Why do dozens of people feel the need to say "+1" and "me too"? What could they possibly think they are adding to the discussion?

JoshTriplett 14y ago

Because the bug-tracking system doesn't have a noise-free way to say "this affects me too", the way that bugzilla and launchpad do. And "this affects me too" can potentially provide useful information, to gauge how many people an issue affects and thus what priority to give it.

j_s 14y ago
Everyone has a google account so they can easily jump in (as opposed to bugzilla/launchpad), and soon the snowball effect kicks in. This isn't the bug-tracking system, where it's supposed to be done by 'starring' an issue. Even there the concept is not emphasized enough so the same problem occurs. Edit: someone else found the actual bug, the star is flush left in the blue issue header: http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=84679 http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=84679
dfc 14y ago
Your answer explained why it is helpful to google. It does not explain why individuals post "me too," or why people are posting "me too" here on the HN page... There is a similar behavior here on HN with nice- page / I-agree / congrats posts. I'm wary of a general guideline that I should only post to HN if I think the karma reward will be greater than X, but more often than not I think it helps make sure any of my posts actually increase the numerator in the SNRatio.
- sanli 14y ago
  It is human
  - alan_cx 14y ago
    +1 (Sorry, couldn't resist)
- AndrewDucker 14y ago
  To make it clear how large the scale of the problem is, and that it is not just affecting one person.
- tjoff 14y ago
  His answer explains that as well. Since the per post karma have been removed the only way to show you agree is to write an "I agree" post. If I upvote it only the author will see that someone upvoted it, but it is also information that is valuable to others. Hence, the only way to truly support a comment is to write a "me too" or try to rewrite "me too" into some rambling as if you had something else to contribute with but don't (which is arguably even worse). Not defending it or saying that hiding the per post karma is bad, but it is understandable and one of the drawbacks of hiding the per post karma.
  - politician 14y ago
    "Me too" is often used as a way to bump a forum thread back to the front page of forum software so that mods and others can have time to participate before the thread rolls off into murky ancient history. For instance, you very often see this in game forums. Now, my pet theory is that game forums seeded this behavior, and now more people use it even on forums where it is technically unnecessary. That said, I wonder what the game theoretical explanation is.
drivebyacct2 14y ago
That's... absolutely not true. The bug tracker (not the ML) has a star that is meant specifically for that and is a publicly viewable counter.
- JoshTriplett 14y ago
  The star doesn't inherently say "I have this bug too". It just acts like a bookmark to find the bug later. That correlates with the number of people who want the bug fixed, somewhat, but it doesn't directly indicate how many people have experienced the bug.
yellowbkpk 14y ago
This isn't the bug tracker. It's a forum for support. Someone should file a bug here: http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/list http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/list Once they do that, you can "star" the issue. The Chrome team can sort their bug lists by "number of stars" during prioritization and you'll get e-mails when the bug's status changes if you star the bug.

javajosh 14y ago

That rather surprises me as well. I thought there'd be more analysis of what was happening - I looked in WebKit Inspector and noted some odd things. Something about a "hidden socket" in chrome.