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Comment by makmanalp | Hacker News Reader

What is the use case for seeing the points on a comment anyway?

All you need to know is that the comments on the toppish are the best ones, and as you scroll down you can stop reading whenever you feel like it's gotten too bad.

I find that without points I'm definitely more focused on the content and are less likely to consciously / subconsciously groupthink.

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Here's my use case: suppose there's a comment with a longish reply. If I see that reply has 120 points I'm definitely going to read it. But if I just see it as a sole response to a comment, there's a very good chance I won't read it (there being so many comments).

Use case for displaying points is that it allows you to get an idea of what percentage of the users on the site agree with the comment. I think that's really valuable. I'm often more interested to know what the masses think because it helps you understand the audience.

I thought people were supposed to vote up/down based on whether the comments adds/detracts value from the convo?

Me too, but from years of using this site and similar I find that to be untrue because even assuming everyone votes with this in mind, I don't think you can fully separate perceived value of a comment and agreement with the comment. If you strongly disagree with a comment, then doesn't that imply you don't see value in it? I think that line is ambiguous.

Could the same thing be argued for submissions as well?

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