4 ms·

I'm fascinated by the psychology behind online rating systems. Honestly, they are big motivators for me. I get a burst of endorphins when I receive many Facebo

I'm fascinated by the psychology behind online rating systems. Honestly, they are big motivators for me. I get a burst of endorphins when I receive many Facebook "likes" or upvotes on HackerNews. When I am ignored or downvoted, I feel as if I've been voted out of a digital democracy. What's interesting, though, is that many online rating systems aren't democracies; they're dictatorships. In other words, it's unclear to the user how the process of ranking / rating actually works. (HN is pretty transparent, I think, but Facebook is more shadowy in this regard.)

bluetidepro 13y ago
> "HN is pretty transparent, I think, but Facebook is more shadowy in this regard." Don't you mean vice-versa? Facebook is completely obvious, and HN is the one that isn't at all. On Facebook I can easily see if I have 5 'Likes', which 5 people 'Liked' it. On HN, I have no idea why/who/where/etc the up-votes are coming from, or how they are weighted in various ways based on who actually up-voted you. It's the opposite of transparent. It's just a number with an up and down arrow. With Facebook, there is obvious measures by seeing the number of comments (and by who), the number of 'Likes' (and by who), and so forth. Not sure I follow your logic on that, unless you just accidentally reversed your sentence. EDIT: I was thinking more in terms of "Upvotes/Likes". I see what OP might mean now from the standpoint of Facebook logic on what content you actually see, and that side of things.
- cryptoz 13y ago
  HN is open source. Do you want to know how posts rise to the top? Go read the code. Do you want to know how Facebook determines what content you see? You could be a criminal, a felon, if you try to find out their algorithms (how do you do that, hack their servers?). I'm not the OP, but that might be the direction the original logic was going.
  - bluetidepro 13y ago
    Ah, okay. I suppose I mis-read what he meant by that statement. I see what the OP might mean now when you bring up the Facebook logic on what content you see, and that side of things. I was thinking more in terms of "Upvotes/Likes".
  - hawkharris 13y ago
    Yeah, that's exactly what I was trying to say. Thanks for helping to clarify.
  - switz 13y ago
    HN is not open source. It may have been at one time, but that ship has long sailed. We have no idea what code may have been changed, and how things are weighted differently. Presumably, there's a reason Paul no longer wants it to be open source.
    - cryptoz 13y ago
      Hm, interesting. I was referring to the old news.arc it seems, I didn't realize times had changed. Thanks.
fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
>I get a burst of endorphins when I receive many Facebook "likes" or upvotes on HackerNews. When I am ignored or downvoted, I feel as if I've been voted out of a digital democracy. Same here, I laugh at myself because of it and usually try very hard to avoid pandering to it. Is it a form of narcissism? It causes me to question my personal autonomy.
- VladRussian2 13y ago
  you're trying to fight your nature. People who didn't care for the group's approval were more probably to be banished from the tribal cave and thus die alone in the wilderness. Thus we are descendants of the ones who cared a lot about getting group's approval and avoiding its disapproval. With tptacek leading the pack.
  - tptacek 13y ago
    Have you actually read any of my comments? I'm pretty sure I'm not the leader of any kind of pack here.
    - VladRussian2 13y ago
      relax, i'm just envy of your karma.
mikeash 13y ago
It's the opposite for me at least when aggregated. Makes me think I should stop wasting so much time. Given this comment, it's apparently not working, though.

bluetidepro 13y ago

> "HN is pretty transparent, I think, but Facebook is more shadowy in this regard." Don't you mean vice-versa? Facebook is completely obvious, and HN is the one that isn't at all. On Facebook I can easily see if I have 5 'Likes', which 5 people 'Liked' it. On HN, I have no idea why/who/where/etc the up-votes are coming from, or how they are weighted in various ways based on who actually up-voted you. It's the opposite of transparent. It's just a number with an up and down arrow. With Facebook, there is obvious measures by seeing the number of comments (and by who), the number of 'Likes' (and by who), and so forth. Not sure I follow your logic on that, unless you just accidentally reversed your sentence. EDIT: I was thinking more in terms of "Upvotes/Likes". I see what OP might mean now from the standpoint of Facebook logic on what content you actually see, and that side of things.

cryptoz 13y ago
HN is open source. Do you want to know how posts rise to the top? Go read the code. Do you want to know how Facebook determines what content you see? You could be a criminal, a felon, if you try to find out their algorithms (how do you do that, hack their servers?). I'm not the OP, but that might be the direction the original logic was going.
- bluetidepro 13y ago
  Ah, okay. I suppose I mis-read what he meant by that statement. I see what the OP might mean now when you bring up the Facebook logic on what content you see, and that side of things. I was thinking more in terms of "Upvotes/Likes".
- hawkharris 13y ago
  Yeah, that's exactly what I was trying to say. Thanks for helping to clarify.
- switz 13y ago
  HN is not open source. It may have been at one time, but that ship has long sailed. We have no idea what code may have been changed, and how things are weighted differently. Presumably, there's a reason Paul no longer wants it to be open source.
  - cryptoz 13y ago
    Hm, interesting. I was referring to the old news.arc it seems, I didn't realize times had changed. Thanks.

fnordfnordfnord 13y ago

>I get a burst of endorphins when I receive many Facebook "likes" or upvotes on HackerNews. When I am ignored or downvoted, I feel as if I've been voted out of a digital democracy. Same here, I laugh at myself because of it and usually try very hard to avoid pandering to it. Is it a form of narcissism? It causes me to question my personal autonomy.

VladRussian2 13y ago
you're trying to fight your nature. People who didn't care for the group's approval were more probably to be banished from the tribal cave and thus die alone in the wilderness. Thus we are descendants of the ones who cared a lot about getting group's approval and avoiding its disapproval. With tptacek leading the pack.
- tptacek 13y ago
  Have you actually read any of my comments? I'm pretty sure I'm not the leader of any kind of pack here.
  - VladRussian2 13y ago
    relax, i'm just envy of your karma.

mikeash 13y ago

It's the opposite for me at least when aggregated. Makes me think I should stop wasting so much time. Given this comment, it's apparently not working, though.