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The one thing I wish had more transparency is the inconsistency around reply-delays. Some people get less time than others.

Between the "average karma" statistic (I used to care about that and avoid posting non-primaries; now I don't care) and reply-delays, HN penalizes nested discussions, and that's probably a good thing for most discussions but it does have drawbacks.

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"Between the "average karma" statistic (I used to care about that and avoid posting non-primaries; now I don't care) and reply-delays, HN penalizes nested discussions, and that's probably a good thing for most discussions but it does have drawbacks."

Interesting. I don't think I quite follow how "non-primaries" (which means..."replies"?) harm one's average karma statistic, and how the average karma statistic + reply-delays penalise nested discussion, could you clarify?

"Primary" means a post that is primary in the thread. I suppose it would have been clearer to say "reply" instead of "non-priamry".

Your average karma gets hit because primaries tend to get much higher karma than replies-to-replies-to-replies that few people read. My primaries probably average 15-20, but I have a lot of 1-pointers in nested discussions that I think are better than the 50+ primaries.

Got it! Thanks.

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