It gives a lot of extra power to fast-acting activist or high-karma minority to squelch pushback with downvotes. If I know that arguing an unpopular view sets me up for downvotes, and that as a result, I not only will see my post collapse but may be seriously impacted in my ability to use the site, that makes me a lot less eager to make such arguments.
This is a solid point.
I’ve found many interesting comments and posts from many folks on LW that weren’t too far from neutral, i.e. −10 < karma < 10 (after excluding low effort trolling and such)
Where the highly upvoted stuff is usually far more predictable and not nearly as interesting.
The exact ratio depends on how popular the topic is overall, how long it stayed on the front page, etc., but I would agree that punishing the bottom half would almost certainly reduce the number of these intriguing writings.
It might also cut down on the low-effort posts so I’m not certain it would be a net negative. Maybe this requires a gut-feel decision by the moderating team?
This is a solid point.
I’ve found many interesting comments and posts from many folks on LW that weren’t too far from neutral, i.e. −10 < karma < 10 (after excluding low effort trolling and such)
Where the highly upvoted stuff is usually far more predictable and not nearly as interesting.
The exact ratio depends on how popular the topic is overall, how long it stayed on the front page, etc., but I would agree that punishing the bottom half would almost certainly reduce the number of these intriguing writings.
It might also cut down on the low-effort posts so I’m not certain it would be a net negative. Maybe this requires a gut-feel decision by the moderating team?