News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Auto submission bots on Hacker News. Parent comment

Re:Auto submission bots on Hacker News by Udo on Wednesday March 30, 2011 @07:46AM (#2386754)
Submitting good articles is definitely of value, so HN should give out Karma for it. However, I believe because articles cannot be downvoted, there is no risk involved for spam bots and spammy humans alike. The solution seems simple: allow downvoting on articles that are younger than one hour. And add captcha for submissions.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Auto submission bots on Hacker News by Sukotto on Wednesday March 30, 2011 @09:31AM (#2387063)
Articles can be flagged though. Perhaps a heavy penalty per flag?

I think this is actually a pretty complex issue (social dynamics, reputation, incentives) so let us keep Mencken's Law firmly in mind

  For every complex problem there is an answer that is
  clear, simple, and wrong.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Auto submission bots on Hacker News by bricestacey on Wednesday March 30, 2011 @08:46AM (#2386930)
You can flag just about anything.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Auto submission bots on Hacker News by Udo on Wednesday March 30, 2011 @08:47AM (#2386934)
That's not enough. It's not enough to be able to kill a link, there should be a disincentive to having posted it in the first place.
[ Parent | on HN ]