

Solving the HN comment problem. - chaosmachine
http://i.imgur.com/nY4X4.png

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Goladus
The problem with flags and downvotes isn't that they fail to kill the
offending comment, or that they fail to cause a karma penalty. The first
effect is localized to the thread and the second is very indirect.

The problem with downvotes is that they do not give meaningful feedback or
encourage positive contributions. They are not even especially effective at
discouraging negativity. When not lost in a sea of upvotes, downvotes only
encourage defensiveness and complaining.

Flags should be visible by the commenter only, and the issue of whether to
kill comments or penalize karma doesn't have to be decided immediately.

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acconrad
Purely curious...is this that big of a problem? Karma isn't my end-all-be-all,
I don't think I'd be upset if someone misfired a downvote on me.

I only see flags being useful for admins to help keep spammers out and to ban
truly offending users.

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jodrellblank
Any evidence or reasoning behind why that will solve it?

At the moment you can downvote but (enough) people don't. If we gain flags,
why will people who don't downvote use them?

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chaosmachine
Downvotes get lost in a sea of upvotes. Flags are stronger, enough of them
will kill the comment regardless of karma. It also lets you be more specific
than downvoting.

