Comments would be better if there was a enforced delay in the conversation, and you would have to sign off on what you wrote. 24h laters, the rage of the past would be seen indignified by many.
To throw a couple of ideas into the "tech solutions" pile, I wonder what would happen to the quality of comments in a community if a mandatory 1 minute delay was put in before the text area would appear. This would I think have two benefits: 1. it would for commenters to think about what they were saying for at least a minute. 2. It would raise the barrier of entry to the point that posting a worthless one liner doesn't seem worthwhile or satisfying.
Commenting is almost no-friction and there is an immediate psychological reward in getting your voice heard. This makes it extremely easy to knee-jerk. Perhaps you can A) make commenting cost more or B) delay the reward long enough to force a re-evaluation before the comment goes public.
For A you might try making commenting cost karma in certain situations.
For B I've got no ideas. I'm thinking about how I sometimes will write an emotionally charged email and then wait a day before sending it because I know I'm unable to think clearly. Emotions will have cooled by then and the email looks like it was written by a crazy person. There's not any way to force delays on commenting that I can think of since the articles and discussions here move so fast.
It's an interesting idea, but you'd end up with a situation where the worse the comment, the more discussion it generates due to the forced replies, which is sort of the opposite of what you want.
Its interesting that simply restricting immediate commenting might at least deter useless comments. People who are commenting in order to elicit a response, i suppose, probably have less important things to say. Or maybe they wouldn't say them if they are not granted the immediate satisfaction.
I assume it would kill some collaboration/innovation like on HN or a meaningful subreddit, but maybe no one really ever has anything meaningful to say when reacting to general news...
I guess it would also produce duplication from many people not knowing something was said already (however, the duplicate reactions could be monetized later down the line maybe...)
1) No comments on a post until its at least an hour old
2) More time to delete my comments. I made one just a few hours ago I'd like to delete because of its tone.
3) A "stop being a jerk" flag. It would only be shown to the commenter, anonymous, and have no impact on points.
4) Alternative to #3: same flag, still anonymous, but too many flags "mutes" the commenter for 1 day.
Ultimately, of course, its a culture problem. We all need to take personal responsibility for our behavior. Whether or not that can persist in a forum of size remains to be seen (I am optimistic that it can).
Maybe the delay when you are allowed to reply to comments? I think this is a pretty good idea and certainly has managed to keep me from getting too carried in "heated" discussions.
I do it too & I hate it. My worry is that if I don't say it immediately I'll forget my comment/argument. I've tried scribbling it down and raise them later. But not very consistent in this process.
It has other anti-yelling-past-each-other features. For example, after a comment is made, there's a delay before anybody is allowed to reply.
I doubt anybody in the middle of an argument would cool down and change their minds, but it does provide an opportunity to go look at something else and forget about going back and dropping that zinger you planned to launch...
I think curiously what this would encourage is a slower way of thinking. I.e., not quick comments, but longer, more thoughtful ones.
I don't comment much, but when I do think back on the comments I have made that have been somewhat popular, they are of this longer type. Maybe there's something to this.
But just be aware you're positioning yourself as kind of a catalyst in the opposite direction of most small, quick messaging fora.
Maybe that's good for us. Maybe it will come to be appreciated. Maybe people will abandon it for something easier.
Eternal comments might actually be a pretty bad design pattern. Humans forget things that other humans say in face to face conversations. By conversing naturally with each other over a casual electronic medium, our brains might be tricked into believing they're in a similar context, when in reality they're in a context where one unrecoverable slip of the fingers could cost them their job, earn them infamy for the rest of their lives, etc.
See also the right to be forgotten. The immutability of comments also imposes a chilling effect on controversial or unconventional speech (if it doesn't go down well with the masses, you'll be paying for it forever).
When they can't be deleted, immutable electronic comments eventually become more important than face to face conversations simply because most of the latter get forgotten. I'd argue isn't a trend we want to encourage (unless you own a forum and want to feed Googlebot and slap ads on more things, of course).
So he should wait until the point where posting a comment would just result in it being buried?
Maybe a better solution would have been to reply to those "bad" comments instead of creating one, but it's kind of rare to see so many free bashing in HN that you don't really want them to stay on top for too long.
Meh, 24 hours is too long to wait. By that time, I likely no longer care to read any comments on the subject, so they all go unread. I mean who is going to return to a blog post a day later just so they can read comments? Might as well just leave the comments off. Let's face it, the author is still working through his trauma from a time when he apparently left comments unmoderated and unrestricted and got burned, and this is his therapy. He's making his way back into the social, but he's taking baby steps.
Also, when you're boasting of feats like inventing blog comments, you might be slightly more prone to being trolled than your average blogger.
Preventing 'flame wars' by making conversations more awkward and difficult to follow as time goes on just seems to create friction for everyone. And it doesn't prevent flame wars - people who are emotionally invested in an argument will follow a thread on their own accord. We've all seen them, i'm kind of ashamed to say i've participated in a few.
But, notifications could be opt in by default and opt out by choice, and they wouldn't necessarily have to be by email - you could be shown the last few replies to your comments in your account.
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