

Ask HN: Does anyone else misread the 'time since comment' as karma now? - kaisdavis


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solipsist
Yes, you're not alone. This is one of those short term effects (i.e.
withdrawal), although I agree that it has been annoying.

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sbierwagen
I initially upvoted this comment, rather than leave a redundant one... except
comment karma isn't visible now, so it can't be used as a straw poll.

Since I made this comment, I guess I better answer the actual question:
Mmmmmm-kinda.

We spent a _lot_ of time on this issue when Lesswrong was starting out, and
didn't come to any real conclusions. Visible comment karma induces some pretty
big cognitive biases, and 1-dimensional karma definitely encourages
groupthink, but hiding it is just so damn _annoying._ I've been having a hard
time distinguishing the factors of my annoyance from the "boo hiss UI change",
"oh geez a feature I used to use is gone", from what annoyance that might be
there from an actual poor design decision.

I'm definitely for experimentation, and weakly positive about hiding comment
karma; but it's odd that such minor UI changes can so badly annoy users.

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jarin
I'm in the "show karma only after voting" camp.

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X-Istence
Absolutely. In the longer threads I used to use comment karma as a way to
decide if a long post/reply was worth reading or if it wasn't. If the rest of
the thread was at 10+ and the long comment was at 2, then I knew I could just
skip it.

I have to filter information, it is no longer possible with the wealth of
information to read everything that is written and decide on its merit. The
amount of news I take in daily, and process would overwhelm those who start
their day with a newspaper and watch the news at 8 at night.

I hope that pg can reconsider, and add the karma back to the comments, it
would definitely help me while reading HN.

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mambodog
You'll get used to it. Give it time.

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WiseWeasel
No.

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burgerbrain
I'm suprised this comment has so many up-vot.... oh wait. _"32 minutes"_

Never mind...

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drivebyacct2
I am surprised at how much I miss comment karma being visible. I scoffed at
those who said they used it to gauge comments to consider versus skim past,
but it turns out, it's exactly what I'd been doing. I guess I hadn't realized
the amplification of the comment volume that has happened lately.

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protomyth
Yeah, I'm noticing it is harder with longer threads to get what the "group"
finds important. For want of a better way to say it, it feels like I am more
"alone" when reading the comments. I cannot see the wisdom of other people.
Also, long response chains are really a pain because they "feel" harder to
follow.

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bhickey
Posts of this nature contribute nothing but noise on HN. I've flagged this for
removal.

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sorbus
From the guidelines: "If you flag something, please don't also comment that
you did."

