HN Explorer

Ask HN: I often don't read the stories I upvote and vice-versa

4 points by johnwheeler ↗ HN
The HN content I get the most value out of is not always the content I upvote.

Sometimes, I'll hit the back button in the middle of an article to altruistically upvote it, but often, I'll upvote based on other signals even though I don't end up reading the articles.

For example, I looked at my history just now. I upvoted

"Solid – A set of conventions and tools for decentralized social applications (mit.edu)"

because MIT + Bootstrap Page + Tim Berners-Lee = Upvote

In retrospect, that was the extent of the mental calculus I did. I did not read the article and don't know what Solid is.

Would HN vote buttons that detected a third-party cookie and reduced the friction to vote off HN (like Facebook Like buttons) mitigate this? Or, do you all generally upvote what you read and vice-versa?

4 comments

[ 4.1 ms ] story [ 19.5 ms ] thread
rufusjones
In high school, I had a poster that said "EAT SHIT-- Five Billion Flies Can't Be Wrong!!!"

Your approach reminds me of that. You upvote things you don't read, because you figure they're probably pretty good?

How about we mitigate this by forcing you to attend Donald Trump rallies until your brain melts?

mtmail
That's fine. It's impossible to read every article. I regularly upvote submissions in /new that sounds interesting in the sense of "I'm not an expert, but this should make an interesting discussion" or questions in /ask that I can't answer myself. Usually I do click to make sure the submission isn't too short or linkbait. With stories on the frontpage I regularly upvote after reading comments without touching the article. Overall the voting system seems to work, I won't claim wisdom-of-the-crowd, just that on average enough care is taking place.
johnwheeler
I think the more interesting part in my question is the vice-versa. I read a lot of stories, but don't go back and upvote them because I'm either engrossed in the article, or it has infinite scroll and I don't want to lose my place, or whatever. Usually, I'm lazy and don't want to overcome the friction to upvote. I realize it's selfish, but it seems like a usability issue that could be fixed with on page buttons
mtmail
Relevant example: Currently 5 upvotes for a story submitted 30 minutes ago "Swedish rape warrant for Wikileaks' Assange cancelled" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12289509

The article is from 2010. I'd say at least half the upvotes where for the headline, not the story.