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You stay on HN because of the points system? Your points are mostly not even visible to others.

• alan_cx 14y ago
  So what? Are points, or what ever, only any use for showing off to others? I'd bet that to a fair few people here, the points are a quiet way that they, well, we, get our opinions or thoughts sort of validated to our selves. So, if my karma goes up after this post, I will quietly know more agreed with me than disagreed. And that is kind of comforting. But I don't feel any need for others to have to know that, its just a nice quiet me thing. And of course the opposite is true, and I quietly get to know I might be taking rubbish.
  • graeme 14y ago
    One problem I've found with that is that people are discouraged from downvoting unless something is off topic or out of line, whereas upvotes are encouraged more broadly. If only 20% of people reading a comment like it, at least some will still upvote. So on average, even my mediocre comments get +1-3 points. Thus the more I comment, the more points I get, even if quality is only so-so.
• lifeisstillgood 14y ago
  It was more that Facebook et al have sophisticated gamification to keep one engaged, HN just has karma (and community) yet I react like one of Skinners rats. I suppose if I have learnt something it's get addicted to something that has positive effects