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I wonder what would happen if there was an indefinite moratorium on the creation of new user accounts. I'm starting to see a lot of throwaway accounts being cre

by icey 17y ago

I wonder what would happen if there was an indefinite moratorium on the creation of new user accounts. I'm starting to see a lot of throwaway accounts being created solely for the purpose of trolling. Beyond that, it seems like the overall quality of the newer users has been fairly low. I'm sure there are some exceptions, but I can't think of any that have been created in the past, say, 200 days or so. [Edit: See tptacek and mquander's responses below to see why this is a bad idea]

japherwocky 17y ago
invitation based systems work too
tptacek 17y ago
Absolutely not worth it. People like Joel Spolsky, DHH, or the UX guy from Zappos, can be counted on not to put effort into figuring out how to post. Cutting expert casual commenters out of HN is a huge concession to the trolls. I'm asking for us not to freak out about them, and just let the site do its job. Don't comment. Just mod down and, as was pointed out upthread, flag. Make it not worth it for them.
chris100 17y ago
With all due respect, you sound very condescending. To use an analogy, think of a first generation immigrant who says that now the country is too crowded, we shouldn't let immigrants in anymore. Why are you convinced that you are better than newer users, to the point that all new users should be forbidden? It sounds a little harsh. You could impose some new thresholds so that people's votes and comments only start mattering once they have some amount of reputation. That should help get rid of the obvious trolls. But please, not extreme measures.
- icey 17y ago
  I'm sure there are tons of new users who have registered recently that are great. My point is that by and large they haven't been. Closing user registration for awhile worked well for Metafilter, so I figured I'd bring it up. tptacek made the best counter-argument for this idea; in that it would also prevent the people we want to hear from from registering; so my idea wasn't that great to begin with. I don't know where you get the idea that I think I'm somehow better than anyone else; all I said is that the newer users haven't been of the same quality as the older users. That's just my opinion, and you're welcome to disagree with it. I've been very careful not to jump on the "this site is turning into reddit!!!1!" bandwagon, but the unfortunate truth of the matter is that the overall quality on HN has declined, and I blame the new users for that.
  - mquander 17y ago
    I suspect that what really worked for Metafilter was maintaining full-time moderators who eliminate bad posts and talk one-on-one with users who are not contributing well. I think the barriers to registration just prevented the community from growing faster than the moderator team.

by icey 17y ago

japherwocky 17y ago

invitation based systems work too

tptacek 17y ago

Absolutely not worth it. People like Joel Spolsky, DHH, or the UX guy from Zappos, can be counted on not to put effort into figuring out how to post. Cutting expert casual commenters out of HN is a huge concession to the trolls. I'm asking for us not to freak out about them, and just let the site do its job. Don't comment. Just mod down and, as was pointed out upthread, flag. Make it not worth it for them.

chris100 17y ago

With all due respect, you sound very condescending. To use an analogy, think of a first generation immigrant who says that now the country is too crowded, we shouldn't let immigrants in anymore. Why are you convinced that you are better than newer users, to the point that all new users should be forbidden? It sounds a little harsh. You could impose some new thresholds so that people's votes and comments only start mattering once they have some amount of reputation. That should help get rid of the obvious trolls. But please, not extreme measures.

icey 17y ago
I'm sure there are tons of new users who have registered recently that are great. My point is that by and large they haven't been. Closing user registration for awhile worked well for Metafilter, so I figured I'd bring it up. tptacek made the best counter-argument for this idea; in that it would also prevent the people we want to hear from from registering; so my idea wasn't that great to begin with. I don't know where you get the idea that I think I'm somehow better than anyone else; all I said is that the newer users haven't been of the same quality as the older users. That's just my opinion, and you're welcome to disagree with it. I've been very careful not to jump on the "this site is turning into reddit!!!1!" bandwagon, but the unfortunate truth of the matter is that the overall quality on HN has declined, and I blame the new users for that.
- mquander 17y ago
  I suspect that what really worked for Metafilter was maintaining full-time moderators who eliminate bad posts and talk one-on-one with users who are not contributing well. I think the barriers to registration just prevented the community from growing faster than the moderator team.