I think that it is very important to look at how much work the commenter put into their comment.
One thing that kills discussion boards is that the conversations become too cliched. Mr. A makes the standard comment. Mr. B make the standard rebuttal. Mr. A makes the standard defence. Mr. B makes the traditional follow up.
When Mr. A makes the standard comment, is that for real, or is it just trolling? Tough question. I think that there comes a point at which one has to get tough and do drive-by downvoting on valid, on topic comments, because they are common place and threaten to destroy the discussion by making it too familiar, swamping the discussion with the banal.
The other side to this it if Mr. A makes a three paragraph comment. 1)His point. 2)The standard rebuttal. 3)Why he thinks his points survives the standard rebuttal. At this point we know that Mr. A is not a troll. He has put in too much work to count coup on getting a bite. He is making a effort to move the discussion on briskly so that it can reach unbroken ground. He has earned an explanation of why his comment is crap, and I would say that he has earned the right to an actual typed in criticism instead of a down vote.
There are other kinds of work worthy of respect. It is easy to make a long general response, either by being a fast typist and rattling it off, or by use of cut and paste. A comment is worthy or respect if the commenter has taken the time to tailor it so that it is clear how the general point applies to the particular case under discussion. Gathering up and checking relevant links eats time. If some-one has gone to the trouble of decorating his comment with relevant links, that should earn him immunity from drive-by down voting.
One the other hand, there is discussion in the blog sphere of turning off comments altogether. Some people say that if the comments are there they feel obliged to read them, but actually they are mostly the same-old-same-old and a waste of time. Which ends up with the reader feeling that they are wasting their time reading the blog and giving up altogether. Short, mildly entertaining, chitchatty comments that fill the fleeting hour with work not done will eventually kill LessWrong. I think readers should be very free with downvotes for lightweight comments.
I think that it is very important to look at how much work the commenter put into their comment.
One thing that kills discussion boards is that the conversations become too cliched. Mr. A makes the standard comment. Mr. B make the standard rebuttal. Mr. A makes the standard defence. Mr. B makes the traditional follow up.
When Mr. A makes the standard comment, is that for real, or is it just trolling? Tough question. I think that there comes a point at which one has to get tough and do drive-by downvoting on valid, on topic comments, because they are common place and threaten to destroy the discussion by making it too familiar, swamping the discussion with the banal.
The other side to this it if Mr. A makes a three paragraph comment. 1)His point. 2)The standard rebuttal. 3)Why he thinks his points survives the standard rebuttal. At this point we know that Mr. A is not a troll. He has put in too much work to count coup on getting a bite. He is making a effort to move the discussion on briskly so that it can reach unbroken ground. He has earned an explanation of why his comment is crap, and I would say that he has earned the right to an actual typed in criticism instead of a down vote.
There are other kinds of work worthy of respect. It is easy to make a long general response, either by being a fast typist and rattling it off, or by use of cut and paste. A comment is worthy or respect if the commenter has taken the time to tailor it so that it is clear how the general point applies to the particular case under discussion. Gathering up and checking relevant links eats time. If some-one has gone to the trouble of decorating his comment with relevant links, that should earn him immunity from drive-by down voting.
One the other hand, there is discussion in the blog sphere of turning off comments altogether. Some people say that if the comments are there they feel obliged to read them, but actually they are mostly the same-old-same-old and a waste of time. Which ends up with the reader feeling that they are wasting their time reading the blog and giving up altogether. Short, mildly entertaining, chitchatty comments that fill the fleeting hour with work not done will eventually kill LessWrong. I think readers should be very free with downvotes for lightweight comments.
IAWYC.