Good question. It hasn't affected "readability" for me but I think two side effects have impacted how I use/view HN: 1) It has led to a lot more "Me too!" and

Good question. It hasn't affected "readability" for me but I think two side effects have impacted how I use/view HN: 1) It has led to a lot more "Me too!" and "+1" responses, just because no one can see the effect of your vote anymore. 2) It has given people less of a reason to vote up Example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5778412 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5778412 Does this comment "have value" to the community? I don't know if any other members have voted for it. If I vote for it, what effect will I and the other members of the community see? Nothing. And that's a problem I see with not showing comment scores. The submitter will see his score, but the rest of the community will not get any "value" from voting for his comment. I've also seen times where the first comment in a popular thread has no comments. Is that because it's a new comment, or because it's a comment from a member with high karma, or is it because it has a lot of upvotes? I have no clue. You have no clue. We have to guess ("I think it's because he has a bunch of karma and it's a new comment, so it floats to the top."). So because there's less effect you immediately get from voting something up, I'd guess it's something that a lot of people just don't do anymore. EDIT: It would be nice if you could see the comment score for items you have voted on.