But is every down/up voter sufficiently skilled, discerning and trustworthy? Is there any bar they have to cross to wield this power?
LW has tried to solve this with weighted voting power, and that has made a difference; I think vote totals here are meaningfully better than on Reddit, for instance.
But there are just so many people with vote strength 1 or 2 or 3, and it’s very easy for a popular (but really bad by the standards of rationality) comment to drown out an actually good one.
Strong upvote, strong agree. In particular:
LW has tried to solve this with weighted voting power, and that has made a difference; I think vote totals here are meaningfully better than on Reddit, for instance.
But there are just so many people with vote strength 1 or 2 or 3, and it’s very easy for a popular (but really bad by the standards of rationality) comment to drown out an actually good one.