from Hacker News

Ask HN: Is there a bug in the HN comment upvoting system?

by alimhaq on 3/16/17, 6:25 AM with 3 comments

I apologize if this has been asked before (I did do a bit of searching before), but why does it always seem to be the case that the highest level comment in a thread always has the highest upvotes in said thread? Granted, I'm relatively new to Hacker News (and programming in general) but I've never seen a comment replying to a comment that garners more upvotes than the parent comment. This can't be just chance–is there some bug with how the comment system currently displays upvotes on comments?

Unfortunately it doesn't seem like the code for the upvoting system is publicly available (for obvious reasons) but this seems like a pretty strange occurrence to be merely coincidental. Or maybe I'm just crazy and someone could demystify this for me?

  • by brudgers on 3/16/17, 2:36 PM

    I suspect it is in part because there are typically fewer top level comments than non-top level comments and all things being equal the best comment is likely to be a non-top level comment.

    I think it is in part because, while good questions are good, good answers to good questions are better.

    I think it is in part because a top level comment is more likely to be low quality. It is where spam is most likely. It is where users with less interest/skill at engaging others in discussion are more likely to post. It is where drive by comments will park. It is where generalized trolling will take place. It is where conspiracy theorists will show their tin foil.

    Good luck.

  • by detaro on 3/16/17, 7:29 AM

    > I've never seen a comment replying to a comment that garners more upvotes than the parent comment.

    I have comments that have more points than other comments by me above them in the tree. How often it (doesn't) happen in general is impossible to tell since we can't see how many upvotes comments by someone else have.

  • by elvinyung on 3/16/17, 6:34 AM

    > it doesn't seem like the code for the upvoting system is publicly available

    Sure it is.[1]

    1: https://github.com/wting/hackernews/blob/5a3296417d23d1ecc90...