Comment by GDC7 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by GDC7 | Hacker News Reader

It is superhard to post on HN

A person can post for 6 months and still they can't be sure about speaking their mind freely , negative karma points accumulate fast and pretty soon they'll be shadowbanned.

Once you are at -15 karma points your replies are not being seen by anybody.

Let's say you are at +60 karma points that you have accumulated in 6 months. It seems a healthy margin, but all it takes is a couple of threads in which you have controversial back and forth with other HN users and all of a sudden you can't speak your mind freely for 6 more months.

Now you have to rebuild back. Only people who post a lot and post popular content earn their right to freely speak their mind on HN.

Most people aren't willing to put up with that.

HN is so valuable specifically because it’s not a free-for-all. The “speak your mind” internet is substantial, but there’s a reason I don’t spend my time there.

HN basically forces you to build a modest amount of karma capital if you typically post controversial comments (eg your comments have net 0 karma, +5, -5). My karma hasn’t budged in ages because everything I post has a bunch of people agreeing and disagreeing with it. But, I’m okay with that since I built enough capital to do this. If did this around 50 karma, one or two comments on a tough thread would have put me under.

That's what I mean.

Most people won't put up with that just to be part of the "intelligentia"

Seems easy to replicate. What is the catch, why doesn't more forums do this successfully?

Isn't this feature valuable? as I see it it would allow new comers to build trust in a community first.

Would you, as a new neighbour, walk into the local bar and start objecting or disagreeing with the locals?

Although on second thought... I guess it depends on what's your commenting on and the stance of those you're interacting with. So it can be a double edged sword.

If we’ve learnt anything from the past decade of being online, it’s that the gatekeepers are vital.

What sorts of posts cause this in your experience?

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