I’m not sure if its something I would use that much, but since this thread seems to show that there is some interest in a casual non karmic discussion corner, here’s a proposal for how to create one that could be implemented immediately and requires no coding
1) In discussion, create a new thread called “Non Karmic Casual Discussion Thread” or something similar
2) in the first post establish the groundrules:
“Hi, Welcome to the Non-Karmic-Casual-Discussion-Thread.
This is a place for [purpose of thread goes here].
In order to create a causal non karmic environment for every one we ask that you
-Do not upvote or downvote any zero karma posts
-If you see a vote with positive karma, downvote it towards zero, even if it’s a good post
-If you see a vote with negative karma, upvote it towards zero, even if it’s a weak post
-Please be polite and respectful to other users
-Have fun!”
Establishing a norm, within a single thread, of voting to keep posts karma neutral should be enough if the thread has a significant number of users / readers since most posts do not naturally get very high or low karma scores and not a lot of votes would be needed to keep karma neutral.
Those who like the karma system and do not want to see low quality conversations immune to being hidden should of course feel free (or, if they wish, obliged) to downvote all comments in such a thread without exception.
Do look at how the first thread of this type turned out, and if you decide to go ahead I expect the post will fare better if you explicitly state that voting on the post itself is encouraged rather than prohibited and distinguish the post from comments in the statement of the other rules.
I agree with wedrifid, and would prefer that this doesn’t happen.
One problem is comments are “non-local”, as long as they are above the bad-comment threshold, they appear in the recent comments. Allowing people to have stupid discussions freely will pollute the recent comments section (and this was actually one of the reasons for the recent implementation of the karma threshold).
If LW supported marking some threads as “comments don’t appear in recent comments”, then it wouldn’t be such a problem, although there is also the risk that the low-quality will start overflowing into the rest of LW (maybe?).
Hmm. The non local nature of comments is a good point and one I had not considered. I had initially been thinking that this might be helpful to some, and that most folks (myself included) would opt out. Since everyone sees the recent comments I am now desuggesting my suggestion.
I’m not sure if its something I would use that much, but since this thread seems to show that there is some interest in a casual non karmic discussion corner, here’s a proposal for how to create one that could be implemented immediately and requires no coding 1) In discussion, create a new thread called “Non Karmic Casual Discussion Thread” or something similar
2) in the first post establish the groundrules:
“Hi, Welcome to the Non-Karmic-Casual-Discussion-Thread.
This is a place for [purpose of thread goes here].
In order to create a causal non karmic environment for every one we ask that you
-Do not upvote or downvote any zero karma posts
-If you see a vote with positive karma, downvote it towards zero, even if it’s a good post
-If you see a vote with negative karma, upvote it towards zero, even if it’s a weak post
-Please be polite and respectful to other users
-Have fun!”
Establishing a norm, within a single thread, of voting to keep posts karma neutral should be enough if the thread has a significant number of users / readers since most posts do not naturally get very high or low karma scores and not a lot of votes would be needed to keep karma neutral.
Those who like the karma system and do not want to see low quality conversations immune to being hidden should of course feel free (or, if they wish, obliged) to downvote all comments in such a thread without exception.
I strongly support making this thread as soon as possible!
Might even do it myself if I remember to when it’s less late.
Do look at how the first thread of this type turned out, and if you decide to go ahead I expect the post will fare better if you explicitly state that voting on the post itself is encouraged rather than prohibited and distinguish the post from comments in the statement of the other rules.
Oh, somehow missed that thread. Guess this is not happening then. :(
I agree with wedrifid, and would prefer that this doesn’t happen.
One problem is comments are “non-local”, as long as they are above the bad-comment threshold, they appear in the recent comments. Allowing people to have stupid discussions freely will pollute the recent comments section (and this was actually one of the reasons for the recent implementation of the karma threshold).
If LW supported marking some threads as “comments don’t appear in recent comments”, then it wouldn’t be such a problem, although there is also the risk that the low-quality will start overflowing into the rest of LW (maybe?).
Hmm. The non local nature of comments is a good point and one I had not considered. I had initially been thinking that this might be helpful to some, and that most folks (myself included) would opt out. Since everyone sees the recent comments I am now desuggesting my suggestion.