from Hacker News

Ask HN: (Yet Another) HN Comment Quality Going Down?

by smakz on 3/17/10, 7:08 AM with 5 comments

I know I know, another thread about comment quality - seems like we have these on a quarterly basis.

But it really does seem bad lately. A lot of up votes for reddit-style one liner zingers. Thoughtful discussion hard to navigate. I find myself losing interest a little bit in the comments section lately, but the submissions at least seem all on target.

I'm wondering does anyone else notice a similar slip in comment quality lately? Is this inevitable? Is there a desire amongst the community to turn it around? Is it just me?

  • by benwalther on 3/17/10, 2:02 PM

    It's my fault and people like me.

    Reddit's quality has been dipping significantly lately (there's been 3-5 front page self posts on "are you smart but too lazy to do anything with it?") and so people like me are subscribing to HN again to get that 'old reddit' feel.

    Keep the focus on immediate actionable steps rather than armchair pontificating and you'll drive off the non-constructive layabouts.

  • by adrianwaj on 3/17/10, 3:59 PM

    It'd be fairly straightforward for a browser plugin to hide according to a threshold (+ some rules). eg 1 point comments have to be more than 1 hour old to hit the threshold.

  • by jacquesm on 3/17/10, 1:36 PM

    edw519 already noted once that it is cyclic, and that the cycles have their 'lows' when YC has their application round, we're in the midst of that.

  • by ableal on 3/17/10, 10:33 AM

    Two suggestions: make votes cost (e.g. 1/10 point); put a threshold also on upvoting (e.g. 10 or 20 points).

    Eroding over time (e.g. 1 pt/day) probably would also be beneficial.