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A comment on Hacking the Hivemind: Predicting Comment Karma on Internet Forums (2014) [pdf].

Re:Hacking the Hivemind: Predicting Comment Karma on Interne... by lacampbell on Sunday April 23, 2017 @07:46PM (#14181078)
I think karma mechanisms have had a net negative effect on online discussion. I don't want to have preconceived notion on how I should feel about a post - I want to make my own decisions. There's no escaping it now though, which is sad.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Hacking the Hivemind: Predicting Comment Karma on Interne... by bcherny on Sunday April 23, 2017 @09:05PM (#14181309)
Given how much content is generated on online forums, it is natural to have a mechanism to surface better/relevant content (different forums define relevance differently). Otherwise you have to wade through a sea of memes and low quality content to get to something that is worth consuming.
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Re:Hacking the Hivemind: Predicting Comment Karma on Interne... by vivekd on Monday April 24, 2017 @03:40AM (#14182542)
True but the incentive system which gives people points for content tends to create an environment where people try and say what is popular or will get high karma instead of what is insightful and avoid what is unpopular or will get downvotes even when it is true and insightful.

Tying a system for surfacing high quality content to individual points seems like a recipe for disaster. I like facebooks system, where points and algorithms work together to try and surface content that users will like, but there is no actual running point system to try and game.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Hacking the Hivemind: Predicting Comment Karma on Interne... by lacampbell on Sunday April 23, 2017 @09:23PM (#14181372)
Given how much content is generated on online forums, it is natural to have a mechanism to surface better/relevant content (different forums define relevance differently).

My key objection is that what the majority of users think is "better/relevant" should have no influence on what I think is better and relevant. I can decide for myself, I don't need the 'hivemind'.

What's wrong with just a "deleting memes" policy?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Hacking the Hivemind: Predicting Comment Karma on Interne... by stil on Sunday April 23, 2017 @09:43PM (#14181424)
bcherny is saying that karma's primary function is content curation. sure, you might like a few downvoted submissions from time to time, but for most content karma scores will be saving you time sifting through a sea of content. removing content by hand requires an active and vigilant moderation team, user votes help mitigate that burden. Also, the power to 'delete' is most likely a slippery slope...
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Hacking the Hivemind: Predicting Comment Karma on Interne... by lacampbell on Sunday April 23, 2017 @10:21PM (#14181533)
I see a lot of great content here greyed out. Including some of my own!

At the end of the day, I'm not happy to follow the collective judgment of other users.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Hacking the Hivemind: Predicting Comment Karma on Interne... by _qwerty_ on Monday April 24, 2017 @08:17AM (#14183620)
The logical solution isn't to ignore or remove the karma system, but to use it better.

For example, with sufficient data to analyse, it shouldn't be tremendously difficult to find relationships between users who tend to agree or disagree, and provide each user with a customised view, taking these preferences into account.

(Of course, slashdot took a slant at making it cleverer - by allowing upvoting for different reasons - e.g. funny vs. insightful.)

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Hacking the Hivemind: Predicting Comment Karma on Interne... by lacampbell on Monday April 24, 2017 @06:30PM (#14189013)
The logical solution isn't to ignore or remove the karma system, but to use it better.

I much preferred online discussion pre-karma.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Hacking the Hivemind: Predicting Comment Karma on Interne... by krapp on Monday April 24, 2017 @06:35AM (#14183200)
The greying out of downvoted comments seems to me to be a separate issue to karma - and particularly egregious given that (thanks to pg) there are no standards at all for voting.

It would be nice if HN would allow sorting of threads by various filters, such as time of last reply, and/or decide whether or not low-sorted comments get greyed out.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Hacking the Hivemind: Predicting Comment Karma on Interne... by Sacho on Monday April 24, 2017 @05:01AM (#14182845)
With your suggestion, you wouldn't be able to see the content at all. It would have been deleted.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Hacking the Hivemind: Predicting Comment Karma on Interne... by sametmax on Monday April 24, 2017 @07:39AM (#14183424)
But I'm very glad they grey out comments, including some of your own. So what do we do now ?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Hacking the Hivemind: Predicting Comment Karma on Interne... by lacampbell on Monday April 24, 2017 @06:30PM (#14189003)
There's already a mechanism in HN for not seeing comments you don't want to see. You can collapse them.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Hacking the Hivemind: Predicting Comment Karma on Interne... by marklgr on Monday April 24, 2017 @06:16AM (#14183122)
Rarely happens here, in my experience. Significantly downvoted content almost always has severe issues, either in form, tone, or quality. We sometimes might happen to agree with some controversial opinion that has been downvoted a good bit, but more often than not the tone was just not conducive to a good discussion. There's probably a few exceptions I guess, but overall the false positive rate is low enough for me.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Hacking the Hivemind: Predicting Comment Karma on Interne... by krapp on Sunday April 23, 2017 @09:15PM (#14181337)
>Otherwise you have to wade through a sea of memes and low quality content to get to something that is worth consuming.

Except now you have to deal with two definitions of quality - what you want to read and what gets voted up, and those don't always correlate.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Hacking the Hivemind: Predicting Comment Karma on Interne... by edmccard on Monday April 24, 2017 @02:16AM (#14182277)
>I don't want to have preconceived notion on how I should feel about a post...

Then don't! Or, if you mean you don't want to know how anyone else felt about a post, and you use the Stylish browser extension, you can use this style I made which makes all comment text the same vivid #000000 --

https://userstyles.org/styles/141705/that-s-just-like-your-o...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Hacking the Hivemind: Predicting Comment Karma on Interne... by Tanegashima on Monday April 24, 2017 @12:46AM (#14182037)
And I just upvoted your vote because I do agree... or it was because your post was top-voted?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Hacking the Hivemind: Predicting Comment Karma on Interne... by a1studmuffin on Monday April 24, 2017 @01:53AM (#14182202)
I'd love to see an automated karma system that scored posts on correct grammar, spelling and readability. I guess that would discourage non-native speakers of a language from participating though.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Hacking the Hivemind: Predicting Comment Karma on Interne... by slau on Monday April 24, 2017 @04:05AM (#14182634)
I don't think we should be overly PC. If someone doesn't understand the English language well enough to not write all of their thoughts in a single, unpunctuated wall of text, and doesn't rely on the red squiggly lines to indicate that something was misspelt... How exactly will they contribute to the discussion in a way that will be constructive and positive?

I'm not saying that their ideas aren't worthwhile, but simply that the medium won't allow for those ideas to be presented in an engaging manner.

There's a huge difference between the wall-of-text full of typos and misspellings (which seem to become the weapon of choice of native speakers as well), and the misuse of pronouns, or forgetting which word is an irregular preterit. I, for one, would be in favour of seeing the former ranked lower.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Hacking the Hivemind: Predicting Comment Karma on Interne... by jononor on Monday April 24, 2017 @06:38AM (#14183210)
Better to have feedback to the writer in the editor, so they are given a chance to learn and improve!
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Hacking the Hivemind: Predicting Comment Karma on Interne... by lacampbell on Monday April 24, 2017 @03:59AM (#14182603)
My personal threshold for "how good should I be at a language before I start arguing online in it" is very, very low.
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Re:Hacking the Hivemind: Predicting Comment Karma on Interne... by skocznymroczny on Monday April 24, 2017 @08:09AM (#14183566)
you mean automated censorship system.
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Re:Hacking the Hivemind: Predicting Comment Karma on Interne... by igk on Monday April 24, 2017 @08:17AM (#14183623)
I never look at the karma (consciously at least). However, I like the filtering effect that it has for the most part, if coupled with good moderation (r/askscience,r/askhistorians)
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Hacking the Hivemind: Predicting Comment Karma on Interne... by LambdaComplex on Monday April 24, 2017 @10:26AM (#14184558)
Well, there's always 4chan.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Hacking the Hivemind: Predicting Comment Karma on Interne... by lacampbell on Monday April 24, 2017 @06:32PM (#14189033)
That get rids of user names as well.
[ Parent | on HN ]