Ask HN: When and why did HN comment scores go away? I found value in them.

Author: domador

Score: 37

Comments: 12

Date: 2021-11-29 15:32:29

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mindcrime wrote at 2021-11-29 16:26:29:

It was a pretty long time ago. On the order of years for sure. My "first blush" subjective guess would be that it was around eight or nine years ago.

Edit:

Based on this old post, it looks like it was at least ten years ago now.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2710225

Further edit:

Here's what appears to be the original thread (from 2009) where pg announced the change.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=844979

And another long thread of discussion on this topic from back in the day:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2485029

hobofan wrote at 2021-11-29 15:54:19:

I don't know what you are talking about. At least for me, I've never seen comment scores on HN discussions. The only ones I see are my own, and the fading effect of downvoted comments.

cpach wrote at 2021-11-29 18:13:12:

Imho it was a wise decision and I believe it made HN better.

minimaxir wrote at 2021-11-29 15:52:25:

Since around 2014? It's not a recent change.

detaro wrote at 2021-11-29 15:52:52:

as far as I know they were removed in early 2011, to try if they reduce flamewars based on people trying to out-score others.

uyt wrote at 2021-11-29 23:11:28:

I think you can still see scores in search? Or is that only for old comments?

rahimnathwani wrote at 2021-11-29 16:12:52:

If you want to know the # points for a specific comment, the easiest way is to find it on hn.algolia.com

theli0nheart wrote at 2021-11-29 15:50:42:

Are you sure that was ever a feature? I can’t remember comment scores ever being visible for anyone’s comments except your own, and those are still visible.

mindcrime wrote at 2021-11-29 16:33:01:

It was a feature at one time for sure. The change happened quite a long time ago.

theli0nheart wrote at 2021-11-29 16:40:16:

I joined in 2009 and I can't recall it at all. In any case, if it was removed, it certainly didn't happen recently (within the last five years).

mindcrime wrote at 2021-11-29 16:54:00:

Looks like you joined about two weeks before the change happened. So it stands to reason that you might not remember.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=844979

0xbadcafebee wrote at 2021-11-29 15:53:07:

So, you're telling us that you like having reinforcement of whether an idea is popular or not, and you know that that's problematic in social media, but you don't think it would be a problem here.

Why would you want a reinforcement of bias? And why would human social dynamics be different on HN compared to anywhere else?

theknocker wrote at 2021-11-29 16:16:11:

Because the alternative is just let Dan pick the winners, and he's the kind of asshole who decides, in advance and for everyone, what the "popular" ideas are via deindexing and shadow bans.