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An easier solution would be to limit voting on a comment to, say, 2 hours after it was posted. However, is this really that big of a problem? Often I find myse

by Udo 14y ago

An easier solution would be to limit voting on a comment to, say, 2 hours after it was posted. However, is this really that big of a problem? Often I find myself reading from the bottom up, so I'm more likely to promote overlooked comments. The comments on top don't need my vote, so I seldom give it to them. As long as I'm not the only person doing this, everything should be fine.

KajMagnus 14y ago
I don't think a time limit would mitigate the problem? — People won't return to vote, once the time limit has expired. They'll just forget about it. And new visitors (that arrives after the time limit has expired) will do as usual: read the topmost comments and upvote them. If this is a big problem: I've heard people mention it, and I think I've encountered it sometimes. But I guess it is a rather serious problem, because people are so terribly lazy. I mean, they are short of time and have to prioritize.
- Udo 14y ago
  It would mitigate the problem because then you couldn't upvote top comments period. If the assumption is true that all top comments are old, then this simple trick would definitely help.
  - KajMagnus 14y ago
    Oh I thought you meant: Allow voting after two hours have passed. But you meant: Allow voting until two hours have passed (?). If people cannot upvote top comments, then the problems mentioned in my reply to this comment should apply: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5430699 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5430699 Also, forbidding votes on top comments doesn't help a comment at position 10 or 20 to surface to the top. (So really useful comments posted rather late, would still be forgotten forever)
KajMagnus 14y ago
>is this really that big of a problem? (My 2nd reply) Yes apparently it is, I feel fairly sure now. Search this page for "Search engines have to solve this problem". — They have the same problem, and "have" to solve it. So I think it does matter fairly much. (Much enough to be worth solving :-)) And read this article from Reddit: http://blog.reddit.com/2009/10/reddits-new-comment-sorting-system.html?m=1 http://blog.reddit.com/2009/10/reddits-new-comment-sorting-s... It's about an even worse version of the problem, when one uses a naive (but prevalent!) approach to comment sorting. Anyway it exemplifies how comments posted later on has no chance to reach the top of the page, no matter how useful/interesting they are.

by Udo 14y ago

KajMagnus 14y ago

I don't think a time limit would mitigate the problem? — People won't return to vote, once the time limit has expired. They'll just forget about it. And new visitors (that arrives after the time limit has expired) will do as usual: read the topmost comments and upvote them. If this is a big problem: I've heard people mention it, and I think I've encountered it sometimes. But I guess it is a rather serious problem, because people are so terribly lazy. I mean, they are short of time and have to prioritize.

Udo 14y ago
It would mitigate the problem because then you couldn't upvote top comments period. If the assumption is true that all top comments are old, then this simple trick would definitely help.
- KajMagnus 14y ago
  Oh I thought you meant: Allow voting after two hours have passed. But you meant: Allow voting until two hours have passed (?). If people cannot upvote top comments, then the problems mentioned in my reply to this comment should apply: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5430699 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5430699 Also, forbidding votes on top comments doesn't help a comment at position 10 or 20 to surface to the top. (So really useful comments posted rather late, would still be forgotten forever)

KajMagnus 14y ago

>is this really that big of a problem? (My 2nd reply) Yes apparently it is, I feel fairly sure now. Search this page for "Search engines have to solve this problem". — They have the same problem, and "have" to solve it. So I think it does matter fairly much. (Much enough to be worth solving :-)) And read this article from Reddit: http://blog.reddit.com/2009/10/reddits-new-comment-sorting-system.html?m=1 http://blog.reddit.com/2009/10/reddits-new-comment-sorting-s... It's about an even worse version of the problem, when one uses a naive (but prevalent!) approach to comment sorting. Anyway it exemplifies how comments posted later on has no chance to reach the top of the page, no matter how useful/interesting they are.