HN Explorer

HN Suggestion: Virtual downvotes

7 points by jdunck ↗ HN
I understand why it requires some karma to downvote something, but I've been a long-time reader on HN, and still don't have the karma needed.

I think this is a shame, because I do care about the quality of the site, and I'd love to be able to downvote stuff.

In any case, you're ruling out a data vector here-- wouldn't it be interesting to gather how users with little karma would vote, if they could?

I'm suggesting that people with low karma be able to click a down-arrow without any tangible effect, other than to let them feel better (and possibly hide the item from their own view). Over the long term, you might be able to use the voting pattern's similarity with the high-karma population in order to grant real votes, and the crossover point wouldn't be broadcast.

5 comments

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gsmaverick
I totally agree with this suggestion. I think it allows you to get the best of both worlds!
izaidi
It doesn't take that much karma to downvote. In fact it looks like you crossed the threshold with this post. :)
adnymarc
I have lurked here for a while and have only recently began submitting stories and am starting to participate. My personal opinion is that people who haven't frequented the site enough to obtain the karma required to downvote (such as myself currently) do not understand the culture of the site enough to know what is that should stay vs. go. By reaching a certain level you are proving that you are working effectively on behalf of the community here and that your opinion should be taken more seriously. Just my take on it though.
jdunck
To me, you're proving you know how to play the game. The data-gathering aspect of my suggestion was, to me, the most interesting part.
stcredzero
I've made a suggestion like this before. Have downvotes, but make them function like "kill files" on the old usenet. The downvotes would affect the ranking of articles as they appear to me only.

Hmm, I wonder if Bayesian filters would work for social news?