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Comment by int_19h | Hacker News Reader

The whole point of friend/foe system on Slashdot is that foes' comments are less visible, and friends' are more visible. It's basically a way to say "this person tends to say ridiculous things, and I don't care to read more of them" and "this person tends to say interesting things, I'd love to hear what they have to say on other subjects".

So if your approach is to "try to avoid interacting with them", it just automates that.

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I used the friends/foes on /., but never thought much about it. Filtered out a number of vocal nutcases.

But wouldn't this sort of create your own cozy echo chamber, where all opinion is streamlined?

I think it would be interestring going the other way around, a bit like some sub Reddits don't show comment score for a day or two, to not cause self reinforcement in moderation.

Maybe even take it a bit further by anonymizing the commenter's name for a limitid time, could be interesting as the comment would then rely fully on content, not reputation or score feedback reinforcement.

It depends on how you use it. If you only friend people who agree with you, then yes, you'll get an echo chamber. If you friend people who say interesting things instead, you won't.

> So if your approach is to "try to avoid interacting with them", it just automates that.

Well, I didn't really mean that I don't read or listen to what they have to say. I just choose not to engage with it.

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