Ask HN: Would HN be even better if comment karma scores were invisible? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Would HN be even better if comment karma scores were invisible?

2 pointsesja6 comments

Many years ago[0] I asked which mechanisms were in place here to punish noise and reward signal.

Overall I think: dang does an incredible job, the guidelines are great, and the site itself is really well designed.

But I often wonder: Would HN be even better if comment karma scores were invisible? By all means, continue to use votes for sorting, and perhaps continue greying out items once they fall below some threshold (ideally -2 or worse, not zero). But what value does the visible score provide? And does that value outweigh the negatives? From observation of myself and others, having the score visible leads to some unhealthy behaviour.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=239058

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I don't see comment scores on individual comments, so I'm not really sure what you are asking about.

Can't you see them on your own comments?

Yes, I can only see them on my own comments. I actually find that a useful signal as otherwise I'd be making a lot more junk comments :)

Thanks for the reply. Do you think the numbers are useful though? Or just the "status", e.g. popular or unpopular, which would be a simple change.

I would personally prefer to never see the actual numbers, as I know really high scores make me feel good, and low scores make me feel bad, and in a lot of people that sort of thing drives addiction and unhealthy habits (like checking and re-checking your upvotes as some sort of personal validation). Every so often I see people complaining about their scores which suggests it does affect people more than it should.

I think one of the reasons HN is so much better than other sites is the minimalist design, including the avoidance of "engagement" (i.e. addiction) anti-features, like emojis/reactions, automatic scrolling, and personalisation of the feed. Showing the scores also falls in that category to me and should be removed.

I think they are useful to let people know how their comments are being received. If you just have popular/unpopular then you don't know if it was just one person or multiple that disliked or liked your comment.

Getting downvoted or flagged on a comment isn't fun but it is important in understanding the community and how to interact with it. Ultimately every person needs to manage how they use HN so that it is a resource useful to them rather than a distraction.

Thanks for that, I think you've persuaded me.

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