

Comments: Size Does Matter - mbrubeck
http://ignorethecode.net/blog/2009/09/29/comments_size_does_matter/

======
harpastum
The big problem I see here is that longer comments are much more likely to
include quotes and other contextual information that makes them seem 'better'
compared to shorter comments. The author mentions this, but underestimates its
importance.

For example, using HN karma as an approximate value, I left a one-line comment
[1] that seems uninteresting by itself, but added significant information to
the discussion, compared to another comment [2] that is very long. The thing
is, it's just a gigantic quote. I think that these two cases are the norm, not
outliers.

On the other hand, I think it would be very interesting (and more accurate) to
compare comment length and karma value on HN.

[1] <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=830887>

[2] <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=814591>

~~~
LukasMathis
Yes, using ratings that are made in the context the comment originally appears
would probably be better. /. is another site which could be used as source
material for such an analysis.

------
quizbiz
Usually long well written comments on HN are the ones to generate high 2-3
digit karma scores.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/bestcomments>

edit: there are some one liners

~~~
blasdel
MetaFilter's closest equivalent: <http://www.metafilter.com/favorites/all>

------
chrischen
Whenever I write a long comment here I just know most of the people lose
interest after the first paragraph. And it's because that's what I do when I
try to tackle a long comment.

I have the feeling that they think I am a _jackass_ , or _douchebag_ , writing
a bunch of mangled together _crap_ of a response/rant because it's usually the
most controversial comments that provoke such a response from me. And the
response usually doesn't make much sense or have a point when I read it over.
It just ends up being long, repetitive, and I forget what I was talking about
by the end of it.

As great as long comments are, I always get the feeling no one reads them.
maybe HN could implement an "I read this commment" button.

Hey if you read this please reply.

~~~
mahmud
_Whenever I write a long comment here I just know most of the people lose
interest after the first paragraph._

Don't right for readers, write to get something off your chest and feel
lighter.

~~~
chrischen
_Interestingly_ that's actually the only reason why I write long comment
responses. It's just that after the fact, _presumably_ no one _considered_ the
comment and that I got through to no one.

------
blasdel
This was clearly inspired by a previous MetaFilter / YouTube comment mashup:
<http://comments.thatsaspicymeatball.com/>

There were two MetaTalk (backchannel about site-related stuff) threads about
Lukas's rating experiment:

I posted one when I discovered it: [http://metatalk.metafilter.com/18264/Do-
we-have-a-minute-to-...](http://metatalk.metafilter.com/18264/Do-we-have-a-
minute-to-spare)

There was a follow-up after he made this blog post with his conclusions:
[http://metatalk.metafilter.com/18275/Metafilter-comments-
rat...](http://metatalk.metafilter.com/18275/Metafilter-comments-rated)

------
sohooo
"If I Had More Time I Would Write a Shorter Letter" \-- Mark Twain

------
beza1e1
So what about demanding a minimum amount of characters? In reference to a
certain well-known internet service i'd propose to accept only comments with
more than 140 characters.

~~~
philh
Sometimes 140 characters is all you need. Why force people to add fluff?

------
dbz
I have nothing against short and witty comments but I too have found that when
a person takes the time to write a long comment, he or she usually has
something intelligent or interesting to say. It seems unlikely that an
unintelligent individual will write a very long comment because he or she wont
posses the knowledge to captivate the audience or have the ability to think of
something _long and interesting_ to say. Nevertheless, I occasionally get
surprised by some of the long comments I see.

~~~
chrischen
Well there are comments that are long and interesting and comments that are
just long. And from my experience I've seen about equal amounts of both.
However to be honest it's the short and witty comments that are always fun to
read or funny.

------
lamby
Nice article. It seems a sad reflection of the baseline statistical knowledge
that he had to write an entire paragraph distancing his readers from inferring
a causal relationship though.

------
vilya
Interesting that this appears on HN right next to an article preaching the
value of conciseness: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=850857>

Ironically, that article itself fell into the TLDR category for me.

------
edw519
This is actually a very interesting analysis. He examines a whole bunch of
cofactors that I wouldn't have even thought of. Comment length, word length,
common adverbs, common pronouns, punctuation, all caps, swearing (since when
is "douchebag" a swear word).

I wonder what would be revealed by this kind of analysis on the entire hacker
news respository. Now, that's a large data set. (No, I'm not volunteering :-)

~~~
LukasMathis
Yeah, I got some complaints about calling that section "swear words." Some
people also complained about "cock" and "suck" and some of the other words. I
guess "profanity" would have been a better term to use.

------
jnaut
thanks!

~~~
jnaut
Now that's hilarious!! a "thanks!" getting a -1 :-) I was working on a similar
thing, i.e. co-relation between the size of comments and their usefulness,
'coz I wanted to limit the chars on the comments in my next app and also the
level of nesting. This analysis helped me and so I said - "thanks!"

~~~
LukasMathis
You're welcome :-)

~~~
jnaut
:-) Thanks again Lucas and maybe you will do a favor by upvoting the first
"thanks!"=-1 and I can say thanks! for that in advance.

Lot's of thanks in a sentence, someone will double downvote it!!...LOL :-)

~~~
LukasMathis
I did upvote it, but I guess somebody else downvoted it again. Sorry!

------
learnalist
Firstly, your going to disappoint some poor guy doing research on the size of
his penis with your title.

As for the content of your article. Really liked it. Some of the numbers in
tables were a little hard to follow at times.

Other than that, I love these sort of articles which can point out some
interesting tip bits of information which you otherwise wouldn't find. ( just
assumed maybe )

~~~
learnalist
Thats my first negative score! _takes it on the chin_

A nice feature would be, "negative points because". So that I can learn from
it. I have a sneaky feeling it will be related to my opening line.

Im guessing im probably not the first to ask for that feature.

~~~
RyanMcGreal
> A nice feature would be, "negative points because". So that I can learn from
> it.

My hunch is that your comment was too short.

~~~
learnalist
Thanks for your hunch. You have quite an impressive karma score considering
your 68days old here.

Thankfully I enjoy this site for more than my karma record.

Does deleting it remove the lost karma?

Is the idea of negatively voting down a comment. ( Other than the obvious ) To
encourage the user to delete it?

~~~
RyanMcGreal
>Thanks for your hunch.

Actually I was being facetious. :)

> Does deleting it remove the lost karma?

Not that I can tell. My guess is that 'deleting' a comment actually sets a
'deleted' flag somewhere in the data base rather than actually removing it;
but I haven't looked at the code so I'm just speculating.

> Is the idea of negatively voting down a comment ... To encourage the user to
> delete it?

No. The purpose is to encourage commentary that follows the site's discussion
guidelines:

<http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html> (see section titled "In
Comments")

In fact, the window to delete a comment is only open for a set amount of time
after posting, after which the site withdraws the option to delete.

~~~
learnalist
Thanks for the link, the section you speak of gave me great insight.

