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I'm not sure I like this idea, it would mean all our votes are no longer anonymous. I think there is something to be said for not having to publish what you are

I'm not sure I like this idea, it would mean all our votes are no longer anonymous. I think there is something to be said for not having to publish what you are voting for. You could anonymize the data with hashing but to make it useful it would still have to be able you to see what other items were voted on by one account. It would then not be too hard to match people to a hashed account is based on low voted items with only a few comments as you could assume they had also been one of the votes, with enough points of data you can then make a fairly safe judgment on who someone is. I beleve PG has implimented a fairly sofisticated voting ring detection tool, I think I remember him talking about it before.

malandrew 14y ago
Maybe then limit the published data to upvotes without comments and hash the usernames so you can link votes from the same account. At the end of the day, voting rings are going to almost invariably involve voting without commenting, since the cost of manipulation becomes much higher when you need to write a thoughtful comment as well.
ig1 14y ago
Comments and submissions are already non-anonymous, what's the advantage of anonymous voting ? The knowledge that votes/flags are public may well change incentives, but I suspect the overall effect will be positive. That is people will be more thoughtful about what they vote up/down, rather than just voting for something because it's posted by a friend or flagging an article about a competitor.