5 ms·

Why can't I down mod?

3 points by doki_pen 17y ago

I have 160 karma. I can't find the rules anywhere.

wglb 17y ago
I think that nowadays it needs to be 200.
- paulbaumgart 17y ago
  Yep, it's in the source: http://arclanguage.org/item?id=10254 http://arclanguage.org/item?id=10254
- slater 17y ago
  i'm at 250 and can't downmod.
  - doki_pen 17y ago
    I think there is also a time limit. Like 200 karma in the last yr or something.
tokenadult 17y ago
What's the hurry?
- apotheon 17y ago
  Maybe it's just curiosity. I've discovered I can downmod some comments (though I haven't yet), and not others. That gets me thinking about things like "What are the rules? At what point do I get the ability to downmod articles? Is it all relative to the karma other users have?" . . . but it's just idle curiosity (for me, at least). The only time I've honestly, earnestly wished I had the power to downmod submissions was when the front page was full of the most banal possible Erlang articles, to the point that even good Erlang articles couldn't get to the front page. The rest of the time, the fact I lack the ability to downmod submissions just makes the place feel a lot more laid-back than other places, even while the fact I know the HN members with the most activity over the longest time can downmod submissions makes me feel better about the ability of the community to police itself than places that only allow upvotes for everyone. I think, if I were to implement something like this, I'd probably try grading on the curve. Maybe the tenth percentile would be able to downmod comments, and the second percentile would be able to downmod submissions -- or vice versa. Maybe I'd make comment downmodding a privilege based on relative karma, and submission downmodding a percentil cut-off. I'm not sure. I'd want something that grew organically with the community, though, rather than eventually being 98% of the community because most people have been there long enough to have 200 points and the remainder are newbies and lurkers. edit: That ended up being much longer than I expected (thanks to rambling off into speculation about what I'd do with a new discussion Webapp).
  - nostrademons 17y ago
    You never get the ability to downmod articles. I've got 8000+ karma and still can't. I believe that you can't downmod comments that are on a thread that you've responded to. This is to prevent pile-ons, where debates get so heated that people just downmod all opposing POVs that they don't agree with. Similarly, you can't downmod comments that are more than a day old from the user page, to prevent people from downmodding all comments of a person they don't like.
    - DrJokepu 17y ago
      I wonder if there's any provision against first downvoting then replying - I'd rather not downvote someone just to the this and I couldn't find any trace of that in the source code. But then again, my Lisp-fu is far from perfect, I might have missed it.
      - apotheon 17y ago
        Actually, I appear to have the ability to downvote both this comment of yours (which is in discussion following my comment above about "curiosity") and the comment just before my "curiosity" comment, so I don't think the "can't downvote something in a subthread to which you've replied" hypothesis holds much water. It seems, however, that I can't downvote the immediate response to my comment by the guy with 8000+ karma. This may mean that immediately following responses and/or people with 8000+ karma aren't within range of my downvote capabilities.
        nostrademons 17y ago
        It's probably immediate responses. I can't downvote either yours or DrJokepu's responses, but I can downvote this comment.
        apotheon 17y ago
        Excellent! I think we've figured out the mechanism for prohibiting comment downvotes. . . . unless it's more complex than it at first seems. I don't really have the LISP Fu yet to figure it out from the source.

3 points by doki_pen 17y ago

I have 160 karma. I can't find the rules anywhere.

wglb 17y ago

I think that nowadays it needs to be 200.

paulbaumgart 17y ago
Yep, it's in the source: http://arclanguage.org/item?id=10254 http://arclanguage.org/item?id=10254
slater 17y ago
i'm at 250 and can't downmod.
- doki_pen 17y ago
  I think there is also a time limit. Like 200 karma in the last yr or something.

tokenadult 17y ago

What's the hurry?

apotheon 17y ago
Maybe it's just curiosity. I've discovered I can downmod some comments (though I haven't yet), and not others. That gets me thinking about things like "What are the rules? At what point do I get the ability to downmod articles? Is it all relative to the karma other users have?" . . . but it's just idle curiosity (for me, at least). The only time I've honestly, earnestly wished I had the power to downmod submissions was when the front page was full of the most banal possible Erlang articles, to the point that even good Erlang articles couldn't get to the front page. The rest of the time, the fact I lack the ability to downmod submissions just makes the place feel a lot more laid-back than other places, even while the fact I know the HN members with the most activity over the longest time can downmod submissions makes me feel better about the ability of the community to police itself than places that only allow upvotes for everyone. I think, if I were to implement something like this, I'd probably try grading on the curve. Maybe the tenth percentile would be able to downmod comments, and the second percentile would be able to downmod submissions -- or vice versa. Maybe I'd make comment downmodding a privilege based on relative karma, and submission downmodding a percentil cut-off. I'm not sure. I'd want something that grew organically with the community, though, rather than eventually being 98% of the community because most people have been there long enough to have 200 points and the remainder are newbies and lurkers. edit: That ended up being much longer than I expected (thanks to rambling off into speculation about what I'd do with a new discussion Webapp).
- nostrademons 17y ago
  You never get the ability to downmod articles. I've got 8000+ karma and still can't. I believe that you can't downmod comments that are on a thread that you've responded to. This is to prevent pile-ons, where debates get so heated that people just downmod all opposing POVs that they don't agree with. Similarly, you can't downmod comments that are more than a day old from the user page, to prevent people from downmodding all comments of a person they don't like.
  - DrJokepu 17y ago
    I wonder if there's any provision against first downvoting then replying - I'd rather not downvote someone just to the this and I couldn't find any trace of that in the source code. But then again, my Lisp-fu is far from perfect, I might have missed it.
    - apotheon 17y ago
      Actually, I appear to have the ability to downvote both this comment of yours (which is in discussion following my comment above about "curiosity") and the comment just before my "curiosity" comment, so I don't think the "can't downvote something in a subthread to which you've replied" hypothesis holds much water. It seems, however, that I can't downvote the immediate response to my comment by the guy with 8000+ karma. This may mean that immediately following responses and/or people with 8000+ karma aren't within range of my downvote capabilities.
      - nostrademons 17y ago
        It's probably immediate responses. I can't downvote either yours or DrJokepu's responses, but I can downvote this comment.
        apotheon 17y ago
        Excellent! I think we've figured out the mechanism for prohibiting comment downvotes. . . . unless it's more complex than it at first seems. I don't really have the LISP Fu yet to figure it out from the source.