

Ask HN - I don't understand the up/down arrows behavior ... - RiderOfGiraffes

I'm finding that on some threads there are comments I can up or down mod, but other comments I can only up mod.  I thought it might be because I couldn't downmod people with more karma than I have, but then I found a two comments by the same user, and I could downmod one but not the other.<p>I'm very confused by this - not that it really matters - but I'd like to understand.  Can anyone here provide an explanation?<p>Thanks.
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CalmQuiet
What confuses me is that there is not a man page that explains the workings of
news.yc Parts of it can be pieced together in SEARCHING - or in articles like
the Feb 4 newsnews on new comment/color-highlighting feature. Nor have I seen
an _explanation_ of why no man page (e.g., "if you dont' understand how it
works you're too noob a hacker for these pages" or "we don't explain it all
because we don't want it to be too easy to hack the site" (i.e., beat the
system) ). As an admitted noob, I remain... puzzled.

~~~
andreyf
You can get the source here: <http://arclanguage.org/install>

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diN0bot
open source is _awesome_. open source is not, however, a replacement for
explanations, which are often briefer and more broadly understandable.

~~~
andreyf
This is arc code - try reading it, I think you'll be surprised. It does takes
a little effort [1], but certainly no UML diagrams - there is an especially
fun learning curve around learning what the macros do [2], but nothing like
the training needed to read theoretical math or CS papers.

1\. The tutorial helps: <http://ycombinator.com/arc/tut.txt>

2\. `aif' and `awhen' are good examples not covered in the tutorial: they set
"it" variables to the result of the test:

    
    
      (mac aif (expr . body)
        `(let it ,expr
           (if it
               ,@(if (cddr body)
                     `(,(car body) (aif ,@(cdr body)))
                     body))))
    
      (mac awhen (expr . body)
        `(let it ,expr (if it (do ,@body))))

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diN0bot
actually, i read the code first. i have a computer science bachelors and
masters from mit, which means i have wonderful memories from writing in scheme
and list. reading the code is a joy for me.

after working on numerous projects with a wide variety of skills, many not
being programming, i have to say that english is often a better answer than
code. not everyone reads code. it annoys me that people want my status report
rather than reading my repo commit messages and diffs, but at this i can
empathize with their perspective. if you really get into alternate education,
which i think is a wonderful way to understand multiple perspectives and find
respect for a wide range of abilities, you'll find that communication is more
about being flexible on the means.

that said, i did just post about using puzzles to get comment scrip (-;

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tome
You cannot downmod comments that are older than 24 hours.

~~~
RiderOfGiraffes
That's an interesting point that I shall explore. However, it's not the whole
story. Although I wouldn't want to, I cannot downmod _your_ comment. That
might be explained by the fact that it's a response to mine.

I'm still not completely clear on the logic, but some of the factors involved
are surfacing.

Is there a complete explanation somewhere, rather than just some reverse
engineering?

~~~
tome
Of this feature, yes. See under 4 August at the bottom of the page:

<http://ycombinator.com/newsnews.html>

I don't know about in general though. There are a "mythical" things about this
site that sort of just happen, and you get used to. I don't know if there's a
full explanation somewhere!

~~~
unalone
I think there's also something in place to prevent your massively downvoting a
single person. It seems to me that if I downvote somebody twice or thrice,
I'll find that other comments of theirs become off-limits.

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markup
When it happens to me it is because I have replied to that comment. I assume
that it is because if you replied to a comment you DO think it is worth
reading it, and it surely contributed to the discussion, therefore no sense in
downmodding it

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ErrantX
As Dasil says you cant down mod replies to your comments (for obvious reasons
:D).

I find I can vote on comments I reply to... (it doesnt, to me, appear to be
logical that if your replying you agree with the post).

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markup
Well I cannot downmod comments I have _already_ replied to. Up/downmodding
does NOT mean you agree or disagree with that comment, it means you find it
useful/interesting or that it has added something/contributed to the
discussion

~~~
ErrantX
how do you mean by _already_ ?

I can still down mod the comments in this thread that I have replied to.

EDIT: wait NOW I see :) I cant down the above comment. Ignore me :)

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diN0bot
if you down mod and then reply does the karma get removed?

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ErrantX
good question.

I volunteer to be downmodded and replied too :)

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jonursenbach
downmodded and here's your reply.

