Re:Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores
by raganwald on Tuesday April 26, 2011 @10:10AM
(#2485215)
ABSOLUTELY.
Comment scores in the midst of an active discussion narrow thinking. Comment scores on historical artifacts are useful for research.
So the evident solution then would be to show comment scores after X (24?) hours since the news item was posted.
Re:Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores
by hernan7 on Tuesday April 26, 2011 @12:10PM
(#2485861)
More like after 1 week, I would say, but yes.
Re:Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores
by cyanbane on Tuesday April 26, 2011 @10:28AM
(#2485310)
I think if people in general see a comment that has been upvoted heavily they are less likely to contribute their opinion to it if they agree with it. I like not being able to see its weight as I feel like more readers will comment with their opinions rather than just upvote, which creates more discussion, etc (I have no numbers to back this up, just what I believe).
Re:Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores
by rb01usa on Tuesday April 26, 2011 @10:38AM
(#2485353)
This is true for me--I have felt more encouraged to contribute to discussions now that the votes are hidden as opposed to before; As long as the higher voted comments bubble up to the top I don't see a reason to see the votes count with a comment.
That sound like it worsens the signal/noise ratio. If a comment is definitive (and ratified by up votes) then there would be fewer comments reiterating the point.
Are we going for more informative or more participatory?
Research into what?
Re:Tell HN: Please bring back comment scores
by scott_s on Tuesday April 26, 2011 @10:18AM
(#2485253)
HN already has "modes" for comments. Comments that are two weeks old are in archive-mode: you can't reply to them. Displaying scores on such comments makes sense to me.
Exactly. Don't show scores for active threads if you want, but please, after x days or so, let the numbers show so searchyc can cache it correctly and people who come back to old threads have a sense of direction from the discussion.
However, this is more of a problem when I'm trying to assess information in areas that I'm not already familiar with. If I'm searching for information on which DNS providers are best and I find an Ask HN from 4 months ago, I can no longer tell what the true community consensus on it is. I expect the current masking of comments will provide less biased voting, so I think displaying comment scores on stories that are more than two months old would eventually provide the best of both worlds.