So… let’s imagine that one day the website will attack e.g. hundreds of crackpots… each of them posting obviously crazy stuff, dozens of comments each… but most people will hesitate to downvote them, because they would remember that doing so reduces their own karma.
Okay, this will probably not happen. But I think that downvoting is an important thing and should not be disincentivized per se. Bad stuff needs to get downvoted. Actually, other than Eugine, people usually don’t downvote enough. (And for Eugine, this is not a problem at all; he will get the karma back by upvoting himself with his other sockpuppets.)
I think it is already too easy to get a lot of karma on LW just by posting a lot of mediocre quality comments, each getting 1 karma point on average. Sometimes I suspect that maybe half of my own karma is for the quality of things I wrote, and the remaining half is for spending too much time commenting here even when I have nothing especially insightful to say.
Thank God you agree, and thus I think it’s value as a thought experiment is nil.
But I think that downvoting is an important thing and should not be disincentivized per se.
Disincentivising downvoting discourages frivolous use of downvotes, and encourages responsible downvoting usage.
If you just disagree with someone, you’re more likely to reply than downvote them if you care about your karma for example.
Actually, other than Eugine, people usually don’t downvote enough. (And for Eugine, this is not a problem at all; he will get the karma back by upvoting himself with his other sockpuppets.)
On StackExchange upvotes and downvotes from accounts with less than 15 rep are recorded but don’t count (presumably until the account gains more than 15 rep). LW may decide to set her bar lower (10 rep?) or higher (>= 20 rep?), but I think the core insight is very good and would be a significant improvement if applied to LW.
So… let’s imagine that one day the website will attack e.g. hundreds of crackpots… each of them posting obviously crazy stuff, dozens of comments each… but most people will hesitate to downvote them, because they would remember that doing so reduces their own karma.
Okay, this will probably not happen. But I think that downvoting is an important thing and should not be disincentivized per se. Bad stuff needs to get downvoted. Actually, other than Eugine, people usually don’t downvote enough. (And for Eugine, this is not a problem at all; he will get the karma back by upvoting himself with his other sockpuppets.)
I think it is already too easy to get a lot of karma on LW just by posting a lot of mediocre quality comments, each getting 1 karma point on average. Sometimes I suspect that maybe half of my own karma is for the quality of things I wrote, and the remaining half is for spending too much time commenting here even when I have nothing especially insightful to say.
Thank God you agree, and thus I think it’s value as a thought experiment is nil.
Disincentivising downvoting discourages frivolous use of downvotes, and encourages responsible downvoting usage.
If you just disagree with someone, you’re more likely to reply than downvote them if you care about your karma for example.
On StackExchange upvotes and downvotes from accounts with less than 15 rep are recorded but don’t count (presumably until the account gains more than 15 rep). LW may decide to set her bar lower (10 rep?) or higher (>= 20 rep?), but I think the core insight is very good and would be a significant improvement if applied to LW.