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Do people really care about where there comments are. This sounds so ridiculous.

by hnriot 14y ago

prawn 14y ago
You wouldn't create a top level comment if you weren't hoping to contribute and for it to be read. For it to be more likely to be read, it's better off at the top. So yes, I'd say that people care.
- hnriot 14y ago
  It's rather pathetic. Considering all the things that life has to offer, caring about making poll position in comments is really sad.
  - prawn 14y ago
    Why comment at the top level in this sort of discussion then? The topic isn't so much poll position but giving every comment a chance at being noticed so that the better options rise naturally to the top and create a better conversation. I don't think this is the "I don't care about silly internet points" discussion you think it is.
jakejake 14y ago
Well, I personally like to see the most interesting comments at the top. But that creates the inherit problem - the first interesting comment gets stuck at the top and prevents all the newer ones from being seen.
- waterlesscloud 14y ago
  For HN specifically, collapsible comments would make a huge difference. A top-level comment in position one can have dozens of comments under it, making the next comment (which is perhaps only 1 upvote lower) appear far, far down the page. If you could collapse the top level comments, this problem would evaporate.
  - aptwebapps 14y ago
    This is exactly why HN needs collapsible comments. Not so I can collapse them for my convenience, so that stuff doesn't get buried so easily. Sometimes the top thread is all there is on the first page ... for example, there was this great blog post by raganwald a while. Here's the new version [1] since I assume the posterous one won't be around much longer. And here's the HN discussion of the original [2] in which, as he noted, a comment about IQ testing (completely tangential to the post) took the whole first page. 1 http://braythwayt.com/2012/03/29/a-womans-story.html http://braythwayt.com/2012/03/29/a-womans-story.html 2 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3772292 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3772292
    - ceol 14y ago
      In that case, you would collapse the top comment chain and be shown nothing underneath, since HN only shows X amount of total comments before requiring you to click More. I think HN would have to increase the total number of comments per page before allowing collapsable chains.
      - aptwebapps 14y ago
        That's true, once it got that big, but I think the hope is that it wouldn't necessarily remain the top comment under those circumstances. Allowing people to collapse the thread, before it took a whole page, would allow them to see and upvote the other comments if they wished.
  - Serow225 14y ago
    Already possible with extensions, see https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hckr-news/mnlaodleonmmfkdhfofamacceeikgecp https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hckr-news/mnlaodle...
- kansface 14y ago
  HN and reddit should randomize comment placement based on the poster's karma, the ranking of the comment with some notion of number of readers and/or time to normalize the expected value. Ideally, the algorithm would also keep track of how well comments due in their temporarily elevated positions.

Do people really care about where there comments are. This sounds so ridiculous.

by hnriot 14y ago

Do people really care about where there comments are. This sounds so ridiculous.

prawn 14y ago

You wouldn't create a top level comment if you weren't hoping to contribute and for it to be read. For it to be more likely to be read, it's better off at the top. So yes, I'd say that people care.

hnriot 14y ago
It's rather pathetic. Considering all the things that life has to offer, caring about making poll position in comments is really sad.
- prawn 14y ago
  Why comment at the top level in this sort of discussion then? The topic isn't so much poll position but giving every comment a chance at being noticed so that the better options rise naturally to the top and create a better conversation. I don't think this is the "I don't care about silly internet points" discussion you think it is.

jakejake 14y ago

Well, I personally like to see the most interesting comments at the top. But that creates the inherit problem - the first interesting comment gets stuck at the top and prevents all the newer ones from being seen.

waterlesscloud 14y ago
For HN specifically, collapsible comments would make a huge difference. A top-level comment in position one can have dozens of comments under it, making the next comment (which is perhaps only 1 upvote lower) appear far, far down the page. If you could collapse the top level comments, this problem would evaporate.
- aptwebapps 14y ago
  This is exactly why HN needs collapsible comments. Not so I can collapse them for my convenience, so that stuff doesn't get buried so easily. Sometimes the top thread is all there is on the first page ... for example, there was this great blog post by raganwald a while. Here's the new version [1] since I assume the posterous one won't be around much longer. And here's the HN discussion of the original [2] in which, as he noted, a comment about IQ testing (completely tangential to the post) took the whole first page. 1 http://braythwayt.com/2012/03/29/a-womans-story.html http://braythwayt.com/2012/03/29/a-womans-story.html 2 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3772292 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3772292
  - ceol 14y ago
    In that case, you would collapse the top comment chain and be shown nothing underneath, since HN only shows X amount of total comments before requiring you to click More. I think HN would have to increase the total number of comments per page before allowing collapsable chains.
    - aptwebapps 14y ago
      That's true, once it got that big, but I think the hope is that it wouldn't necessarily remain the top comment under those circumstances. Allowing people to collapse the thread, before it took a whole page, would allow them to see and upvote the other comments if they wished.
- Serow225 14y ago
  Already possible with extensions, see https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hckr-news/mnlaodleonmmfkdhfofamacceeikgecp https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hckr-news/mnlaodle...
kansface 14y ago
HN and reddit should randomize comment placement based on the poster's karma, the ranking of the comment with some notion of number of readers and/or time to normalize the expected value. Ideally, the algorithm would also keep track of how well comments due in their temporarily elevated positions.