I'd say yes. I'm not a major contributor and do comment some but I've been here since the beginning and have noticed a general decline in the content and quality of comments.
It's a reminder to me that I ought to vote more. Thanks for posting this.
It's a reminder to me that I ought to vote more. Thanks for posting this.
As I understand the algorithm, a vote on a story that has been posted for an hour and is on the way down is not the same as a vote for a story that's only five minutes old and on the way up.
Somebody correct me if I'm wrong in this
As a rule I now refresh the page after voting, if the vote does not 'stick' I don't bother voting for 24 hours or so.
Since there is no clear indicator of which votes are 'real' and which ones are 'dummies' and I refuse to be treated like a six year old pressing buttons that have no effect other than 'for me' (pacifier votes ?) there may come a point where I will simply completely stop voting.
Edit: hey there downmodder, whoever you are. PG is on the record about this, I don't know where you get your information but it doesn't get much better than that.
Votes are definitely not always counted even though you get the illusion that they are.
You are assuming that your votes are actually counted, this is definitely not always the case.
I'm not seeing this. Some of what's on the site is "lazy loaded," as I recall being officially said, but to the best of my knowledge and belief a vote is a vote, and votes get counted. (There are two HN voters in my household, who visit different threads most of the time, and neither of us feel our votes aren't counted.) What would be definitive evidence of votes not being counted (as contrasted with some other possible explanations for what appears to be that condition)?
Belief doesn't enter in to it:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=871202
It persists to this date, you just have to work a bit to see it in action.