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There is an art to crafting posts that will mine the most karma. There are even some easy ways to quickly mine for points with low-value posts. I'd personally p

There is an art to crafting posts that will mine the most karma. There are even some easy ways to quickly mine for points with low-value posts. I'd personally prefer if everyone would just post thoughtful comments, and try not to lose their sense of humor.

kbenson 13y ago
Definitely. I notice that since I tend to be a reactive poster, where most my posts are responding to some other comment or expanding on a point that it's much less likely I'll get views and votes since it's it relies on the votes of the parent items for whether it's towards the top of the page. Also, I don't submit much. I imagine posting quickly at the top level of a hot topic in a polarizing, but defensible (don't be definitive, or at least leave the door open that you may be incorrect) way will get you a lot of votes. Those that agree will up vote, those that disagree will respond. I can't bring myself to test this because I'll know I'm just doing it for points, so I continue to mostly respond to others (as here).
- fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
  >I can't bring myself to test this because I'll know I'm just doing it for points, so I continue to mostly respond to others (as here). Why not? I've run some of these little experiments myself. Aside from the ethical breach of performing amateur psychology experiments on unwitting subjects, what's the harm? You don't have to adopt the model to all of your future posts. Do it for science!
  - kbenson 13y ago
    Well, to clarify, my normal posting style is semi-similar to what I laid out. I try to always allow for the case I'm incorrect, since personally I believe absolutist statements about relative matters to be of little use. That leaves root level posting and polarizing comments. Neither in itself a bad thing, but I find them generally time sensitive. By the time I see and read a post, my sentiments have usually already been expressed, and adding what's essentially a duplicate post seems counterproductive for the community, no matter how productive it would be for my karma. :) Anything extra I would have added works well in a reply to the similar comment. As for polarizing opinions, those come when they come. I'm not willing to manufacture any when they aren't my own. I see my online persona as an extension of me, not some mask I put on so I can adopt other characteristics. I would feel just as bad as if I had lied to someone in real life. All that said, if I was more in the habit of having a few drinks before or while reading HN, I'm sure I would have reams of data to play with. ;) Actually, that would be a fun experiment. Have two accounts. One used exclusively while sober, the other exclusively while slightly buzzed or more. Maybe multiple accounts for different drugs of choice, although increasing consumption just to provide roughly similar use times may yield negative consequences...
    - mtdewcmu 13y ago
      Do you think it's better to be polarizing or crowd-pleasing? I've noticed that if you want to criticize someone/something, it's safer to aim for some defenseless individual, rather than a famous company like google. I got down-voted for criticizing google, even though I'm pretty sure nothing I could say could hurt google's feelings.
      - fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
        Crowd-pleasing is just positive feedback, not usually a good thing in a discussion. Polarizing comments, tend to shunt discussion off into a particular direction therefore distracting from other points of discussion. Either are great for karma whoring, but not usually great for increasing the quality of a debate.
        kbenson 13y ago
        I agree that polarizing comments may detract from a discussion, but I also believe they may serve a useful purpose, which is to more clearly define general sides of an argument, which can then be easily used to individuals to define their particular stance. E.g. I believe/am an X, but with caveats Y.
  - freehunter 13y ago
    I always feel like people will remember my name and what I've done. If I do something "wrong" (make a faulty assumption and get called out, for example), I'll take a break from HN in the hopes that people forget about me and what I've done. I then ease myself back into the discussions. Yes, it's weird and I know I'm not interesting enough to have people know me by name. I've just had a few incidents where people have tracked through my comment history and brought up things from the past to defeat me in an argument, and I get a little gunshy.
    - fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
      It can be humbling to be reminded of some of the dumb things we've said and forgotten. I say enough dumb shit that I had to get over myself a long time ago. I once had the good fortune to make an ill-conceived sarcastic comment in reply to something Jamie Zawinski had said in a forum, back when I was in college. To make matters worse, I was responding to a comment he'd made a long time prior to my comment, making myself even more of a doofus, and giving jwz more powder to use against me. I probably don't have to tell you that jwz excels at eviscerating uppity undergraduate know-it-alls with wit. I don't even remember what either of us said, and I am afraid to look. I just remember that he didn't disappoint.

kbenson 13y ago

Definitely. I notice that since I tend to be a reactive poster, where most my posts are responding to some other comment or expanding on a point that it's much less likely I'll get views and votes since it's it relies on the votes of the parent items for whether it's towards the top of the page. Also, I don't submit much. I imagine posting quickly at the top level of a hot topic in a polarizing, but defensible (don't be definitive, or at least leave the door open that you may be incorrect) way will get you a lot of votes. Those that agree will up vote, those that disagree will respond. I can't bring myself to test this because I'll know I'm just doing it for points, so I continue to mostly respond to others (as here).

fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
>I can't bring myself to test this because I'll know I'm just doing it for points, so I continue to mostly respond to others (as here). Why not? I've run some of these little experiments myself. Aside from the ethical breach of performing amateur psychology experiments on unwitting subjects, what's the harm? You don't have to adopt the model to all of your future posts. Do it for science!
- kbenson 13y ago
  Well, to clarify, my normal posting style is semi-similar to what I laid out. I try to always allow for the case I'm incorrect, since personally I believe absolutist statements about relative matters to be of little use. That leaves root level posting and polarizing comments. Neither in itself a bad thing, but I find them generally time sensitive. By the time I see and read a post, my sentiments have usually already been expressed, and adding what's essentially a duplicate post seems counterproductive for the community, no matter how productive it would be for my karma. :) Anything extra I would have added works well in a reply to the similar comment. As for polarizing opinions, those come when they come. I'm not willing to manufacture any when they aren't my own. I see my online persona as an extension of me, not some mask I put on so I can adopt other characteristics. I would feel just as bad as if I had lied to someone in real life. All that said, if I was more in the habit of having a few drinks before or while reading HN, I'm sure I would have reams of data to play with. ;) Actually, that would be a fun experiment. Have two accounts. One used exclusively while sober, the other exclusively while slightly buzzed or more. Maybe multiple accounts for different drugs of choice, although increasing consumption just to provide roughly similar use times may yield negative consequences...
  - mtdewcmu 13y ago
    Do you think it's better to be polarizing or crowd-pleasing? I've noticed that if you want to criticize someone/something, it's safer to aim for some defenseless individual, rather than a famous company like google. I got down-voted for criticizing google, even though I'm pretty sure nothing I could say could hurt google's feelings.
    - fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
      Crowd-pleasing is just positive feedback, not usually a good thing in a discussion. Polarizing comments, tend to shunt discussion off into a particular direction therefore distracting from other points of discussion. Either are great for karma whoring, but not usually great for increasing the quality of a debate.
      - kbenson 13y ago
        I agree that polarizing comments may detract from a discussion, but I also believe they may serve a useful purpose, which is to more clearly define general sides of an argument, which can then be easily used to individuals to define their particular stance. E.g. I believe/am an X, but with caveats Y.
- freehunter 13y ago
  I always feel like people will remember my name and what I've done. If I do something "wrong" (make a faulty assumption and get called out, for example), I'll take a break from HN in the hopes that people forget about me and what I've done. I then ease myself back into the discussions. Yes, it's weird and I know I'm not interesting enough to have people know me by name. I've just had a few incidents where people have tracked through my comment history and brought up things from the past to defeat me in an argument, and I get a little gunshy.
  - fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
    It can be humbling to be reminded of some of the dumb things we've said and forgotten. I say enough dumb shit that I had to get over myself a long time ago. I once had the good fortune to make an ill-conceived sarcastic comment in reply to something Jamie Zawinski had said in a forum, back when I was in college. To make matters worse, I was responding to a comment he'd made a long time prior to my comment, making myself even more of a doofus, and giving jwz more powder to use against me. I probably don't have to tell you that jwz excels at eviscerating uppity undergraduate know-it-alls with wit. I don't even remember what either of us said, and I am afraid to look. I just remember that he didn't disappoint.