I would love to see them lower the threshold for down-voting. I've only got 200+ karma, and it's hard for me to get more. I can't be on here all day commenting, and being the first to submit articles.
If I have something important to say, I comment, otherwise, I mostly consume. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't be able to download a comment I don't agree with or find offensive.
As someone who has had downvote powers for a year, you should not be downvoting comments you do not agree with. Downvote trolls or other violations.
If I ever make a site with community comment contributions, and include upvoting, I would just leave downvoting out of the picture entirely. Etiher you do not agree and do nothing, you like a post and upvote it, or you report a comment in violation of the site rules. Downvoting just means dissenting against those you do not agree with rather than having a conversation about it.
You should be replying to the comments you dislike and state why, rather than just think hitting a down arrow is going to right all the wrongs with their statement.
It is the most infuriating thing to make a statement, have it downvoted, but have nobody say or argue why or against your points. The whole point of forums is discussion, and downvoting (especially when it outright removes comments) defeats the purpose.
I would modify your system to include a placebo downvote. There is a downvote button, and you can click it. It just doesn't do anything. Or maybe it only has locel effects - that comment is grey on the user's local system but not on anyone elses?
I actually think that some meta info involving downvotes can be quite interesting. For instance, "view controversial" on Reddit. You could provide that while still ignoring downvotes for sorting, if that's what you wanted.
I like this idea, particularly if you communicate the number of hides. The poster is made aware of how the comment has been received, so there's feedback while not affecting other users.
Same spot here - I've actually been on HN a couple years longer than my profile here indicates, but it wasn't until several years in that I actually felt the need to create an account to comment.
I only comment when I feel like I can really contribute.
I don't know what the threshold is for down voting, but I must still not be at it.
I don't know how much it matters to me though - it definitely makes me feel like more of an outsider to the community, but I don't know that it's a permission I really need.
The threshold is 500, as far as I know. Whenever I reach that, I delete my account and create a new one. I'm probably one of those people who downvotes others that I don't agree with, and I don't want that power. Especially since, imho, 50% of the comments that are downvoted here don't deserve it.
The post says "The threshold for flagging is low (only 30 karma), so nearly everyone can help there.". I'm not sure if this was recently lowered from something higher. It would be interesting to see a breakdown of the actual percentage of HN users that have over 30 karma. Does nearly everyone imply 99.9 percent?
Well I have posting a lot lends itself to more karma than not, as in eventually I write something intelligent and interesting enough for people to up vote. The majority of my comments sit pretty at whatever the default is with an occasional soapbox that I post knowing it will get nuked.
As far as stories, sometimes you can post too early and another will follow with a similar story and it runs up, submit what falls under the guidelines that you truly want to see discussed and you might hit karma gold.
Myself, my wish list for HN is a feature I can flag stories for my later review; a save feature like reddit
"Myself, my wish list for HN is a feature I can flag stories for my later review; a save feature like reddit"
Are you aware that upvoting a story saves it? You can access 'saved stories' via your profile. On one hand, you might argue that overloading the 'upvote' function isn't quite what you want, but the counter argument is that if a story seems interesting enough for you to want to read lead, the upvote's probably deserved.
I also miss downvoting on HN, although Reddit needs my help there more anyway. However, Sam did say:
>I'm sometimes asked how historically marginalized users can help shape the HN community when the karma threshold for down voting inappropriate comments is high. It's a fair question, and we are experimenting with lowering the downvoting threshold.
If I have something important to say, I comment, otherwise, I mostly consume. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't be able to download a comment I don't agree with or find offensive.