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This leads inevitably to karma farming bots who upvote each other’s submissions à la Reddit. It’s a speed bump at best.
by brewdad 7mo ago
This leads inevitably to karma farming bots who upvote each other’s submissions à la Reddit.
It’s a speed bump at best.
- DharmaPolice 7mo agoA speed bump might still be preferable to nothing.
- vunderba 7mo agoYeah I considered that - but any friction is better than none. Maybe integrate an additional consideration by which low karma (threshold < 5 karma) accounts cannot upvote other low karma accounts. Honestly, we don’t really have the same cold start problem that a brand new social media site would. We already have plenty of reputable active users here. So HN could restrict new accounts to only being able to comment initially. As they participate, their comments receive upvotes, allowing them to build up enough karma (even a small amount of 25) which unlocks the ability to upvote, and then, finally, the ability to create posts.
- muldvarp 7mo agoCreating more friction can also lead to a higher percentage of bots. I for one immefiately leave when I realize that I need to jump through several hoops before I'm actually allowed to participate on a site. Someone building a bot farm on the other hand is probably willing to tolerate quite some friction before giving up.
- vunderba 7mo agoThat's true. On the other hand, Hacker News is a pretty well known entity, so I think new users would be more willing to put in the time. I also don't think it's too unreasonable to ask people to make comments and participate in the community before allowing them to do more.