Hacker News Reader

Comment by 37 | Hacker News Reader

Oh okay wow. And you've been here longer than me. I understand the push for engagement and the idea of preventing mass bot accounts, but I'd think after a few years they would give the ability. Wonder if they have considered this...

View on HN

For lack of a better term it’s proof of work. Simply making accounts and waiting is easy, you don’t want the temptation to create a lot of accounts then heavily downvote people you disagree with.

Voting rings seem like an easy way around this but tend to be easy to catch.

I mean... I guess I understand, maybe just the threshold feels a little high for introverts like me (and the others who have commented here with accounts lasting many years and <501 karma).

Also, for some reason, I sorta had the assumption that HN users wouldn't be that level of malicious (maybe because these rules exist, or maybe because they seem smarter than the average bear, or maybe because I'm crazy and see HN as some getaway paradise oasis that I can escape to and get some rational reasonable informative content).

In think that this would not really work in HN.

First of all, these are truly internet points. What you have has zero impact on your life. I can imagine that a developer could care about their SO points, or Github stars because these may (and it is a big may) have some impact.

But HN points? Who cares?

I love HN mostly because of the various kind of information, but especially because of the quality of the comments (that I read before the post they relate to). I have no idea about the karma points of the ones making the comments, and this is great.

So I can hardly imagine someone building an elaborate plot to downvote someone whose points are invisible.

Now, there are the psychopaths who will do everything to bury a post just because. Hopefully HN is not a practical playground for them.

Thank you for putting it in these terms. I think I agree with your reply 100%.

>Now, there are the psychopaths who will do everything to bury a post just because. Hopefully HN is not a practical playground for them.

I also think that (1) no, HN is not a practical playground for them, and (2) this may very well be due to the fact that the rules voting are what they are. I think it may be because of the voting rules that HN seems so composed or not willing to build "an elaborate plot" or whatever.

Been here doesn't mean I was active in any meaningful way or made any significant contributions to the community. I do encourage you to be active, there are several users out there with great insights and the level of discourse is pretty high even if people have a different point of view or opinion in a subject matter.

If someone cannot contribute to discussion in a meaningful way, why they should have the right to downvote?

Interesting question.

I think there are those of us that enjoy following along with a discussion as opposed to directly participating in it. A “lurker” if you will.

For myself, I like to do this to see opposing viewpoints on a topic, to help crystalize my own thoughts. Also, I often read on mobile and don’t have the patience to write lengthy replies on my iPhone keyboard.

I’m not necessarily saying that users like myself deserve the right to dowvote, but I do consider myself part of this community, even if I am not actively “participating” by writing comments.

Thanks for putting it in those words. I am very much a lurker. If I did have the ability to downvote, I would do it maybe two or three times a year, like I do on reddit.

>Also, I often read on mobile and don’t have the patience to write lengthy replies on my iPhone keyboard.

This also rings true. Or sometimes when I don't have the time or energy to sit down and write out a reasoned response.

Disclaimer: I have been here way less than 10 years. At least w/ an account, lurking before that without an account even.

Lengthy replies are not needed at all. Look at this recent article https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29756714 and find my reply. Very short but it adds information to the discussion in that Microsoft is not alone in this and other large vendors have such problems too.

I did a CTRL-F to see if anyone else had mentioned SAP already and since they didn't, I did a quick Google search to find corroborating evidence of what I knew from work like 10 years ago about SAP production systems shutting down due to DST changes. People upvoted this.

Maybe, just maybe (!) - going out on a limb here that might get me downvoted, I didn't go through your comment history - there's a hint in your and your parent's reply: no patience for a reasoned response. I think if you really try for reasoned responses, even force yourself to type out that reasoned response, especially on the phone, as it slows you down, it can give you the time you need to make it a reasoned response. It's very easy and fast to write an inflammatory response.

Side note: I don't know if you have ever been downvoted yourself but that obviously doesn't help w/ the karma you got ;) If that is the case, there are other things we can discuss about how to change that but for now I won't just assume that this is the case and shut up.

Just contribute some links and you'll get karma as well. No need to engage in discussions.

> I'd think after a few years they would give the ability.

That would just encourage bots to sit for years and let their timers expire before letting themselves known.

Are people really that petty? Or is it like a mass-agenda, control-the-narrative type of thing? For some reason I didn't(don't?) think this would happen, especially on HN. Maybe I'm being obtuse or naive.

I’ve observed that the world operates on the principle of: “if someone can, someone will”.

So if HN worked the way you describe, someone would create “sleeper bots” that would emerge only after x years.

You're not missing much! Being able to downvote people isn't going to make your HN experience much better.

Just like anything else, should seniority be measured in time served, accomplishments, potential, passion, social skills, or other?

Why should age of account be factored in at all? What does it prove?

That you have had an account for a long time, other than that I'd say essentially nothing.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com