That's a fair point. It wouldn't be much of a hacker site if we didn't run the experiment just to see what happens.

Sadly, I'm betting on "no measurable change."

Somebody in the first thread mentioned that he suspected an influx of witty one-liners, since they're easy to read and quickly upvoted. I'm afraid that'll be the case: we'll see a decline in good posts in favor of easily digested posts.

I'm much more likely to read and upvote longer comments, especially when there's lots of comments in a thread, because my eye catches on them and I generally think that if someone wrote a long comment they must have put in some effort.

So if enough people are like me, it won't be the one-liners that benefit.

And maybe not net ahead, if people take #1, #4, and #8 seriously enough.

2, 3, 5 and 7 are all fairly minor, I think.

But 1 and 4 are all about popularity, and number 8 leads to shallow discussion. It seems wrong to me, to assume that anything valuable must be stated within the first two or three exchanges.

1- Checked 2- Checked 3- Checked 4- Checked 5- Done 6- Did you know Bill Gates is smelly and likes hamburgers 7. Checked 8. Checked

Bring forth the karma!