

Ask HN: Let's do an A/B Test on HN - kashif

How about if HN allowed down votes for a week. Then we could compare the quality of stories, instead of just speculating.
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RiderOfGiraffes
As jacquesm says,

\+ <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1986986>

\+ <http://jacquesmattheij.com/HackerNews%2C+now+with+downvotes>

... flags are already counted as down votes. He does also say this (in his
item)

    
    
      > The downside of this being an obscure feature is that
      > knowledge of it could be abused by the less scrupulous
      > to push undesired articles off the homepage using a
      > series of flags.
      >
      > Another way to abuse this is by downvoting everything
      > except for the articles that you upvote
    

PG has stated elsewhere that he has an "indiscriminant flagging" detector, and
that when it gets triggered, subsequent flags from that person don't get
counted.

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jacquesm
Hn already allows downvotes.

~~~
coryl
On stories?

~~~
jacquesm
Yep.

<http://jacquesmattheij.com/HackerNews%2C+now+with+downvotes>

~~~
sz
So why do comments have actual downvotes and not just flags?

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RiderOfGiraffes
I suspect this is historical. As I understand it, the original intent was that
submissions would be ranked by their upvotes, and that only items that were
inappropriate should be flagged. Then sufficient flagging resulted in
deletion.

Comments, on the other hand, couldn't be deleted by flagging, but simply got
ranked according to their votes.

PG has decided to count flags as downvotes. He continues to tinker to try to
find a good balance of these limited controls. As the site grows so its focus
is getting lost, and these changes are an attempt to keep things "on track."

That's my understanding. It's probably wrong in detail, but it feels right in
general.

