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Instead of plain up- and downvotes, you rated a given comment with one of several positives (insightful, interesting, funny, informative) or negatives (troll, f

Instead of plain up- and downvotes, you rated a given comment with one of several positives (insightful, interesting, funny, informative) or negatives (troll, flamebait, offtopic) The best part was you could set your personal filters to exclude “funny” comments, or boost “offtopic” ones if you want. With thresholds! So the funniest stuff could still break through, but you didn’t have to wade through a million pun posts to find the serious comments. They also have a metamoderation system where others’ moderation choices are shown to you and you agree or disagree. Never seen another site like it. Kinda hope /. makes a resurgence.

Scarblac 3y ago
And it would show the sum of the +1 and -1 votes, and the most applied label, e.g. (+3, Informative). I have to say the most enjoyable comments were often those that got to +5 but with a negative label, like (+5, Flamebait).
wmoser 3y ago
If I remember correctly, you also couldn’t moderate on posts that you had commented on so it prevented using downvoting as extra signaling that others agreed with you in an argument. Also, you got 5 moderation points sort of randomly, you didn’t have the option to always be moderating. I browse Slashdot occasionally but once I found HN, the topics and discourse interested me here more, haven’t really spent much time there in years.
- function_seven 3y ago
  Thanks. I forgot about the 5-at-a-time thing! But now I remember the tiny delight when I was entrusted with that little clutch of power. I “spent” them wisely. And this is another thing I think made that mod system good. Only so many points available.
  - cobbaut 3y ago
    It used to be 10-at-a-time. And you could game the system by moderating 'underrated' or 'overrated' which were never metamoderated iirc.
thefourthchime 3y ago
Man, I haven't been on Slashdot in like 15 years. My username has four characters. To give you an idea how long ago that was. You're right, it was a pretty good way to do moderation. As in everything with software, what old is new, right?
- Corrado 3y ago
  I only have a 5 digit Slashdot ID, but I remember the early days. I really, really liked /. back in the day. I don't remember what happened to drive me away but going back now the content seems to be very similar to what's on the HN front page now. However, there's something about the look and feel that is off-putting to me. Maybe its the fonts or the stuck in the 00's design.
Rebelgecko 3y ago
IIRC, they also limit the base scores from - 1 to +5, while only giving people a limited number of points to distribute. It helped avoid what you see on reddit sometimes where a comment gets piled on for no reason.
jasonjayr 3y ago
Also -- people would randomly be given moderation points, and you only had so many at a time. I think people's chance of getting moderation points was weighted by how 'good' of a community member you were (account age, participation in moderation, metamoderation 'agreement') Soylentnews also exists based on the slashdot source, and uses the same/similar moderation.

Scarblac 3y ago

And it would show the sum of the +1 and -1 votes, and the most applied label, e.g. (+3, Informative). I have to say the most enjoyable comments were often those that got to +5 but with a negative label, like (+5, Flamebait).

wmoser 3y ago

If I remember correctly, you also couldn’t moderate on posts that you had commented on so it prevented using downvoting as extra signaling that others agreed with you in an argument. Also, you got 5 moderation points sort of randomly, you didn’t have the option to always be moderating. I browse Slashdot occasionally but once I found HN, the topics and discourse interested me here more, haven’t really spent much time there in years.

function_seven 3y ago
Thanks. I forgot about the 5-at-a-time thing! But now I remember the tiny delight when I was entrusted with that little clutch of power. I “spent” them wisely. And this is another thing I think made that mod system good. Only so many points available.
- cobbaut 3y ago
  It used to be 10-at-a-time. And you could game the system by moderating 'underrated' or 'overrated' which were never metamoderated iirc.

thefourthchime 3y ago

Man, I haven't been on Slashdot in like 15 years. My username has four characters. To give you an idea how long ago that was. You're right, it was a pretty good way to do moderation. As in everything with software, what old is new, right?

Corrado 3y ago
I only have a 5 digit Slashdot ID, but I remember the early days. I really, really liked /. back in the day. I don't remember what happened to drive me away but going back now the content seems to be very similar to what's on the HN front page now. However, there's something about the look and feel that is off-putting to me. Maybe its the fonts or the stuck in the 00's design.

Rebelgecko 3y ago

IIRC, they also limit the base scores from - 1 to +5, while only giving people a limited number of points to distribute. It helped avoid what you see on reddit sometimes where a comment gets piled on for no reason.

jasonjayr 3y ago

Also -- people would randomly be given moderation points, and you only had so many at a time. I think people's chance of getting moderation points was weighted by how 'good' of a community member you were (account age, participation in moderation, metamoderation 'agreement') Soylentnews also exists based on the slashdot source, and uses the same/similar moderation.