5 ms·

The comments on Hacker News are high quality because there are only certain people with downvoting privileges. And trust me: they downvote ruthlessly. Which is

The comments on Hacker News are high quality because there are only certain people with downvoting privileges. And trust me: they downvote ruthlessly. Which is imo a good thing. Just take a peek at Reddit: subreddits with a high moderator count (which actively moderate) are high quality. /r/AskHistorians and /r/AskScience spring to mind. They do not allow any jokes in the comments.

burger_moon 12y ago
This is why I don't visit Reddit much anymore. I appreciate the seriousness of this discussion board even with controversial topics not related to the programming sphere.
engi_nerd 12y ago
I've been lurking for a lot longer than my account has been active (probably a good 5 years now); have never seen what the criteria are for being able to downvote. Could you please enlighten me?
- Balgair 12y ago
  Honestly, I'm a bit curious too, bu kinda do not want to know, as I may be then tempted to 'go for it' and obtain that ability.
- Retric 12y ago
  ~500 Karma
  - needacig 12y ago
    It has to be a lot higher than that now because the commenter with the comment above yours has ~900 karma and doesn't have downvote privilege.
    - seszett 12y ago
      I have 600 and can downvote, though. It appeared at exactly 500.
- Rainymood 12y ago
  It 'used to be' 500 karma. But I've heard it goes up over time. I've heard people talk about having ~2k karma without the privilege. So I don't really know to be honest. I wish somebody could answer your question more precisly.
- taylorling 12y ago
  It's enabled exactly when you have 500 karma. One of my colleague just got that.