I like the idea that I can post a comment with insight that doesn't need to be a pun or meme. I've also become frustrated with the moderation that happens on reddit.
Well, part of the reason for my tone is that I very much don't want this to become reddit, and one of the things that characterizes reddit is that the best quality comments are often halfway down the page because so many people upvote irrelevant rants and one-line jokes.
For some websites I like reading comment sections too.
Perhaps a good moderation strategy would be to have a minimum length rule for each comment? It would not prevent spammers and bots, however putting those aside only people who want to deliver a thought-out message would participate. Not saying there wouldn't be controversial messages though.
While I agree that generally the quality is high, I do feel that over the past two years (or so) that I've been active here, I've been seeing more and more reddit-like puns or empty comments. They're not overwhelming, and generally harmless enough, content-wise, but I do find them annoying. I welcome this attempt to fix the situation before it becomes too bad.
Agreed, and most of there comment sections are badly moderated in the first place. I find more insightful comments on Reddit and other platforms anyway.
maybe the problem isn't comment moderation, but rather the expectation that anyone should be able to "control" the dissemination of human thought through mediums like the internet?
the sooner news companies etc drop this notion of control the better chance they stand in the future.
Fundamentally it is to have a good signal to noise ratio, in the name of efficiency.
I'd rather read/parse quickly 50 insightful comments, that 300 where most of them are jokes, puns, etc.
Sure more jokes would likely give a more friendly or relaxed atmosphere, but there are already so many of these informative not-too-serious-but-fun-to-read communities, that I am grateful to have at least one place where I know the comment quality and information density is quite high.
I agree too. I am able to comment and add to a thread without feeling like I have to then defend my opinion or go back and answer replies. There's no responsibility, in a way, with commenting. I can add an anecdote, or ask a rhetorical question, or even crack a joke, and then move on with my curiosity. It's a good system, and makes it feel very calm here.
I think the disconnect is believing it has to be insightful. There's a large area there where you can work within to make a comment more signal than noise. Just explaining why you agree is usually sufficient.
Some forums are perfectly fine without a distinction of contribution, such as reddit. Others, such as here, have a culture that tries to promote more substantive comments. Neither is better than the other, but both excel at specific things. If I want reddit style comments (and I do, often), I'll visit reddit. If I want HN style comments, I visit HN. Forcing redditors to be more serious or HN users to be less serious doesnt serve either community well, and would likely cause both to be similar and mediocre compared to what they were before.
The whole point is that this is a place where someone can dive deep on the differences in etiquette and culture between reddit and HN and not worry too much about being called out for being too serious or cramping other people's good time, because some people find a discussion like that a good time even if they also like 10+ comment chains of jokes and crowd sourced movie quotes at other times.
For that reason, I don't really expect you to get downvoted. You explained and justified your position, which I find is usually all most people here really expect as a minimum.
I agree with but and I find it difficult to avoid those types of comments myself, I need to try to control it.
Something I found very cool was in one subreddit where the OP could tag the post to exclude any off topic comments, then comments like jokes etc. were deleted (I believe by moderation, or users reporting, not sure) then the post would only contain on topic discussions, I found it very interesting. Not perfect but definitely seems better.
To stop the place becoming like reddit, where all insightful comments are buried under a torrent of jokes. I've had my fingers burnt a few times and then sulked for a few days after one of my many hilarious quips was down-voted into oblivion.
Oh man i hope you manage to continue this bold and positive direction in moderation! At times it seems I have to wade through an entire thread just to see one or two comments about the content and not about something vaguely related.
Worse, the constant reinforcement of this sense that comment threads will be full of random unrelated diatribes leads more people to post their own such comments. It is incredibly hard to take a stand against them because they are often well spoken and interesting in their own right.
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