I still don’t like the idea of the indiscriminate whole-thread toll
It looks like that idea has already been replaced with hiding subthreads rooted on comments that are −3 or lower from recent and top comments.
I like the idea of hiding bad subthreads, but wish it’s a manual moderator action instead of based on votes. A lot of discussions that descend from downvoted comments are perfectly fine and do not need to be hidden.
I’ve thought of another option: maybe prohibit a user from posting anywhere in a subthread under any significantly-downvoted comments of their own?
I don’t think that’s a good idea. What if its a non-troll user who just made a bad comment? They wouldn’t be able to come back and admit their mistake or clarify their argument. An actual troll on the other hand could just make a new account and keep going in that thread.
hiding subthreads rooted on comments that are −3 or lower from recent and top comments.
I endorse this, incidentally. (Not that there’s any particular reason for anyone to care, but I’ve expressed my opposition to various other suggestions, so it seems only fair to express my endorsement as well.)
I also share the belief that automatic actions are more likely to apply in situations their coders would not endorse. That said, I also endorse the desire to reduce the workload on administrators. (And I appreciate the desire to diffuse social pressure on those administrators to avoid or reverse the action, though I’m more conflicted about whether I endorse that.)
It looks like that idea has already been replaced with hiding subthreads rooted on comments that are −3 or lower from recent and top comments.
I just noticed that cousin_it suggested this last year. Also, Eliezer asked:
Does anyone have any strong reasons why LW is better off six months from now if there’s a preference option instead of just an automatic behavior to hide such comments? If not, I would just like to see the behavior.
If anyone can think of a strong reason, they should probably follow the link above and comment there.
Thanks for the link. I don’t expect that filtering of what’s presented is a good strategy, as it aims at shaping the perception of the community culture, not at shaping the culture itself. It’s more important to shape the culture, and perception can’t be automatically filtered in a way that presents a picture that’s significantly different from the unfiltered picture (for some sense of “significantly”).
I think the idea is that if people don’t see new replies to the hidden subthread in recent comments, they’ll be much less likely to respond to those replies, so such threads will die out much more quickly. This will also cause trolls to not have as much fun trolling here so they’ll be more likely to leave us alone in the future.
ETA: On the other hand, perhaps we should talk about non-technical ways to change the culture as well. Do you have any ideas?
ETA2: A lot of previous discussion can be found here.
It looks like that idea has already been replaced with hiding subthreads rooted on comments that are −3 or lower from recent and top comments.
I like the idea of hiding bad subthreads, but wish it’s a manual moderator action instead of based on votes. A lot of discussions that descend from downvoted comments are perfectly fine and do not need to be hidden.
I don’t think that’s a good idea. What if its a non-troll user who just made a bad comment? They wouldn’t be able to come back and admit their mistake or clarify their argument. An actual troll on the other hand could just make a new account and keep going in that thread.
A trivial low-cost solution, roundly ignored by EY and the rest of the forum management.
A related quote:
“Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.” -- Howard Aiken
If you want to try harder at this “ramming”, you could follow the link I posted above and present your idea there as a comment. :)
Done.
I endorse this, incidentally. (Not that there’s any particular reason for anyone to care, but I’ve expressed my opposition to various other suggestions, so it seems only fair to express my endorsement as well.)
I also share the belief that automatic actions are more likely to apply in situations their coders would not endorse. That said, I also endorse the desire to reduce the workload on administrators. (And I appreciate the desire to diffuse social pressure on those administrators to avoid or reverse the action, though I’m more conflicted about whether I endorse that.)
I just noticed that cousin_it suggested this last year. Also, Eliezer asked:
If anyone can think of a strong reason, they should probably follow the link above and comment there.
Thanks for the link. I don’t expect that filtering of what’s presented is a good strategy, as it aims at shaping the perception of the community culture, not at shaping the culture itself. It’s more important to shape the culture, and perception can’t be automatically filtered in a way that presents a picture that’s significantly different from the unfiltered picture (for some sense of “significantly”).
I think the idea is that if people don’t see new replies to the hidden subthread in recent comments, they’ll be much less likely to respond to those replies, so such threads will die out much more quickly. This will also cause trolls to not have as much fun trolling here so they’ll be more likely to leave us alone in the future.
ETA: On the other hand, perhaps we should talk about non-technical ways to change the culture as well. Do you have any ideas? ETA2: A lot of previous discussion can be found here.