Ask PG: Why don't you hide the points in stories? | Hacker News Reader

Ask PG: Why don't you hide the points in stories?

6 pointsganis8 comments

if hiding the comments' scores will increase the quality of the discussions, hiding the points in submitted stories will do the same thing (at least increasing the quality of stories).

if you don't agree, then I think we can put back the comments scores?

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Not necessarily, because people don't submit stories in the same way that they write comments.

Comments, and the links they comment on, are different things, so we should not be surprised if the best solutions for ranking them are different.

There is already precedent for treating them differently --- it is possible to downvote a comment, but impossible to downvote a link.

Great points, but I think you misunderstood it. The way HN rank them is the exactly same. The different is in presentation, points in comments are hidden while in stories aren't.

Can you elaborate why comments and stories are 2 different things? I think stories are just like comments but presented in different websites.

Maybe HN should allow users to downvote stories as well? Since some are complaining about their quality.

Comments are usually written off the cuff, and take place within the context given by the story.

Stories are usually more considered (yes, I know people link to tweets sometimes, personally I find that tiresome). They make their own context and are often (mostly?) written by people who haven't heard of HN.

Also, I think you misunderstand my usage of a "ranking system" --- it includes not only the method of crunching the numbers, but also the way the votes are solicited.

>it is possible to downvote a comment

Speaking about that, do you know when that gets enabled? I was thinking it'd happen when I reached 100 karma, but I'm at 131 and still can't downvote. I'm not particularly worried about it...but am curious.

I think it's changing, ala inflation.

I believe that it is at 500 karma now, though it might be higher. It's occasionally adjusted to counteract inflation.

Maybe we need a footer for every comment

-----

1. At this time, this story has 2 points, my comment has 1

2. At this time, this story has 5 points, my comment has 3

If story points were to be hidden that would devoid HN of any feedback whatsoever. I already pretty much stopped voting on comments. Not to mention that it would simply make HN way more useless.

I don't think groupthink on HN can be solved by hiding point scores – there is only so much diversity you can have when you gather similarly minded people together.

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