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If people were to pick one reason HN has 'gone downhill', disrespectful comment replies would top the list. A controversial feature request- when a new account

If people were to pick one reason HN has 'gone downhill', disrespectful comment replies would top the list. A controversial feature request- when a new account reaches a negative karma level within a certain period, HN will display all other usernames associated with the IP address of the throwaway.

logain2006 15y ago
I disagree. Disrespectful comments are just a symptom of the disease. The disease is people saying unbelievably idiotic things, with no regard to fact or logic. Now, if no one were to post retarded bullshit like "Steve Jobs is so much like Stallman", it would be damn difficult for me to disrespect him/her. PS - The mere fact that many people decided to downvote the obvious facts in my previous post just says this place has quickly managed to fill up with fucking idiots.
- rhizome 15y ago
  You're making it worse.
  - logain2OO6 15y ago
    @rhizome: Please return to sticking your head back up your ass and pretending that what you do on Rails is actually "coding".
  - logain2006 15y ago
    @rhizome Please return to sticking your head back up your ass and pretending that what you do on Rails is "coding".
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
rbanffy 15y ago
I'd suggest something different. Reduce the value of throwaway logins by making it impossible to comment for, say, 40 days. We can then modulate the quarantine period according to the level of hostility present on the site. Of coursesmart, flagging and hellbanning remains as usual.
- jeffreyg 15y ago
  Yeah. My idea isn't great, just a frustrated response to this person who claims to have been here for a long time yet still feels it's appropriate to make offensive posts about others here. I like the idea of an incubation period, but I've seen valuable comments posted from new accounts- I bet a ton of people lurk for months before seeing a thread they feel they can make a valuable contribution to.
  - rbanffy 15y ago
    You may allow them to contribute - just make them work a little for it. Trolls are lazy - they won't go through a captcha just to harass other people - they'll go to Digg instead. And those who use throwaway logins to troll are also cowards, who don't want to be exposed as who they really are. We can work with that too.
- logain20O6 15y ago
  It is a technological arms race. You'll never be able to prevent throwaway logins. E.g. the iPhone is probably the world's most locked up device, yet it gets jailbroken after every major update. In the end, you'll end up with the HN equivalent of the DRM measures some media companies use... PS - @jeffreyg: Free speech. I am guaranteed the right to be as offensive as I'd like. If you dislike that, I suggest you move to the North Korean HN.
  - rbanffy 15y ago
    We don't have (or, really, want) to prevent the use of quasi-anonymous logins. All we need is to make life more miserable to trolls than they make it for everyone else. With enough frustration, trolls will gravitate towards places where they can sublimate their frustrations more easily and, hopefully, leave HN for those who really want to engage in civil conversation.
    - logain20O6 15y ago
      I suppose that would work for some trolls. Then again, trolls here tend to have advanced degrees in Computer Science, so might be more difficult to keep them out. PS - No, I'm not alleging that I have an advanced degree in CS. Nor am I denying it.
Zirro 15y ago
While this wouldn't be a bad idea (for this reason) if every IP-number was only linked to a single person behind the screen, I would expect a lot of people on HN to be hidden behind VPN's and other solutions for masking IP-addresses. These normally use the same IP-addresses for several people.
sdellysse 15y ago
How about a "silent shadow" system? When an account reaches a slope on the negativekarma-time graph, just make it so that a very small, random group of users are the only ones who actually see what they posted. To everyone else, it would be as if they hadn't posted at all. All the while, if what they do post gets a large percentage of upvotes compared to the amount that see the post, shorten the "shadow silent" accordingly. It will not be made known to the user that their posts cannot be seen. They will have no reason to use alts, and we will have no reason to IP tracking, which could affect non-troll users.
- logain2006 15y ago
  That is indeed, a pretty fucking retarded solution. I suggest the next time you see a "troll" post, you just tape over your monitor.

logain2006 15y ago

I disagree. Disrespectful comments are just a symptom of the disease. The disease is people saying unbelievably idiotic things, with no regard to fact or logic. Now, if no one were to post retarded bullshit like "Steve Jobs is so much like Stallman", it would be damn difficult for me to disrespect him/her. PS - The mere fact that many people decided to downvote the obvious facts in my previous post just says this place has quickly managed to fill up with fucking idiots.

rhizome 15y ago
You're making it worse.
- logain2OO6 15y ago
  @rhizome: Please return to sticking your head back up your ass and pretending that what you do on Rails is actually "coding".
- logain2006 15y ago
  @rhizome Please return to sticking your head back up your ass and pretending that what you do on Rails is "coding".
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]

rbanffy 15y ago

I'd suggest something different. Reduce the value of throwaway logins by making it impossible to comment for, say, 40 days. We can then modulate the quarantine period according to the level of hostility present on the site. Of coursesmart, flagging and hellbanning remains as usual.

jeffreyg 15y ago
Yeah. My idea isn't great, just a frustrated response to this person who claims to have been here for a long time yet still feels it's appropriate to make offensive posts about others here. I like the idea of an incubation period, but I've seen valuable comments posted from new accounts- I bet a ton of people lurk for months before seeing a thread they feel they can make a valuable contribution to.
- rbanffy 15y ago
  You may allow them to contribute - just make them work a little for it. Trolls are lazy - they won't go through a captcha just to harass other people - they'll go to Digg instead. And those who use throwaway logins to troll are also cowards, who don't want to be exposed as who they really are. We can work with that too.
logain20O6 15y ago
It is a technological arms race. You'll never be able to prevent throwaway logins. E.g. the iPhone is probably the world's most locked up device, yet it gets jailbroken after every major update. In the end, you'll end up with the HN equivalent of the DRM measures some media companies use... PS - @jeffreyg: Free speech. I am guaranteed the right to be as offensive as I'd like. If you dislike that, I suggest you move to the North Korean HN.
- rbanffy 15y ago
  We don't have (or, really, want) to prevent the use of quasi-anonymous logins. All we need is to make life more miserable to trolls than they make it for everyone else. With enough frustration, trolls will gravitate towards places where they can sublimate their frustrations more easily and, hopefully, leave HN for those who really want to engage in civil conversation.
  - logain20O6 15y ago
    I suppose that would work for some trolls. Then again, trolls here tend to have advanced degrees in Computer Science, so might be more difficult to keep them out. PS - No, I'm not alleging that I have an advanced degree in CS. Nor am I denying it.

Zirro 15y ago

While this wouldn't be a bad idea (for this reason) if every IP-number was only linked to a single person behind the screen, I would expect a lot of people on HN to be hidden behind VPN's and other solutions for masking IP-addresses. These normally use the same IP-addresses for several people.

sdellysse 15y ago

How about a "silent shadow" system? When an account reaches a slope on the negativekarma-time graph, just make it so that a very small, random group of users are the only ones who actually see what they posted. To everyone else, it would be as if they hadn't posted at all. All the while, if what they do post gets a large percentage of upvotes compared to the amount that see the post, shorten the "shadow silent" accordingly. It will not be made known to the user that their posts cannot be seen. They will have no reason to use alts, and we will have no reason to IP tracking, which could affect non-troll users.

logain2006 15y ago
That is indeed, a pretty fucking retarded solution. I suggest the next time you see a "troll" post, you just tape over your monitor.