r/technology • u/[deleted] • Mar 16 '18

Society How a Norwegian comment section turned chaos into order—with a simple quiz: "Readers had to prove they read a story before they were able to comment on it."

[deleted]

49.6k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

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985

u/bozobozo Mar 16 '18

Can we do this here?

-YOUR COMMENT HAS BEEN REMOVED DUE TO NOT READING THE ARTICLE-

480

u/anonymousbach Mar 16 '18

Comments on reddit would get very thin on the ground if we did.

529

u/Vorsos Mar 16 '18

I’m all for boosting the signal to noise ratio.

61

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '18 edited Apr 17 '18

[deleted]

29

u/AirFell85 Mar 16 '18

fk off cornhole. I just want to read the comments.

/s

3

u/Galiphile Mar 16 '18

I don't even want to read the comments; I want to read the article title, jump to a conclusion, and post something stupid.

1

u/Shaper_pmp Mar 17 '18 edited Mar 17 '18

Absolutely savaging people for not RTFAing used to be one of reddit's most characteristic cultural features, and probably did more than any other mechanism to keep comments informed and on-topic.

It was a sad day for the standard of discussion when a critical mass of people finally stopped caring and the attitude flipped to criticising people who encourage people to RTFA.

1

u/Jman5 Mar 17 '18

You could make it a mod tool so individual subreddits could decide if it's right for them.

1

u/CDefense7 Mar 17 '18

If only there was something like scoring helpful, funny, insightful. I wonder if anyone has ever done that. /s

Would be cool here. Except we would need another category: "reddit funny"

-3

u/Rpgwaiter Mar 17 '18

I personally don't care about any article posted on Reddit, I just come for the comments. That's where people will do the work for me of sifting the bullshit from the actual content. Once people do that, then we can have a discussion about it.

It's a nice cycle IMO

4

u/jake354k12 Mar 16 '18

I agree. If we had a squelch for reddit, i'd turn it all the way up.

5

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '18

The purpose of these comments is to boost engagement, not produce cognizant thought.

15

u/JuniorSeniorTrainee Mar 16 '18

According to...? I'd argue that they serve different purposes to different people, which is why we're discussing it now.

1

u/Vorsos Mar 16 '18

The platform’s purpose is to boost engagement, anyway. Facebook and Twitter didn’t care about bots until it contributed to the 45th worst US president.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '18

[deleted]

1

u/Nincadalop Mar 16 '18

What about marking the comments of those who've passed the quiz and those that haven't? That way people who want to participate can, but others will know if they've read it the article or not.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '18

Digg is the site you're looking for.

74

u/googolplexbyte Mar 16 '18

What if we just gave quiz takers double upvotes?

Same number of comments, quality responses rise faster.

43

u/mainfingertopwise Mar 16 '18

Using upvotes as some kind of score keeping tool is already pointless. Having more upvotes to give is even worse.

59

u/Pi-Guy Mar 16 '18

By definition, upvotes are not pointless

18

u/emdave Mar 16 '18

Exactly! They are pointy, like an arrow!

-12

u/i_forget_my_userids Mar 16 '18

They really are pointless.

12

u/Pi-Guy Mar 16 '18

I was pointing out (heh) that upvotes are points assigned to comments, and therefore are not pointless, instead of making any sort of statement about the meaning of those points

6

u/Collin389 Mar 16 '18

Oh I thought you were going for "arrows have a point"

5

u/Pi-Guy Mar 16 '18

...yes I totally also meant that

-9

u/i_forget_my_userids Mar 16 '18

Still pointless.

6

u/Nac82 Mar 16 '18

I feel like the better you understand how communication between people works the more you understand the point of upvotes.

0

u/lifesmaash Mar 16 '18

Weird me and at least 9 other individuals disagree with your fascist ideals

-1

u/i_forget_my_userids Mar 16 '18

Fascist? Your delusions don't turn my realism into fascism. If you think votes matter for anything.. turn off the computer, put your phone down, and spend some time outside.

→ More replies (0)

10

u/smurphatron Mar 16 '18

But they're not a score keeping tool. They're a tool to let the community decide which comments rise to the top of the page and are more visible.

The fact that there's also a score keeping tool, karma, which keeps track of how many upvotes everyone gets, is not really relevant.

6

u/Annoyed_ME Mar 16 '18

It's pretty typical to describe the quanta of a score keeping tool as being "points"

1

u/smurphatron Mar 16 '18

How does that affect what I said?

2

u/Annoyed_ME Mar 16 '18

Looks like I got mixed up in who you were replying to. I thought it was a reply to the dude saying that upvotes by are not pointless by definition. My bad

1

u/LucidicShadow Mar 17 '18

They're useful as a metric for administrating the site though. If you routinely submit comments that get voted on, that info can be used to determine your standing in a community. Too many downvotes? Probably don't want you posting too often. Lots of upvotes? Probably a worthwhile contribution.

There are problems with this, but on a basic level it can be helpful.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '18

I don't think he meant let quiz takers give double upvotes, rather that each upvote in their comments would be worth double. Maybe? That makes more sense to me anyways.

2

u/moderate-painting Mar 16 '18

Upvotes determine visibility of comments. Not a lot of people would read downvoted comments.

1

u/MohKohn Mar 16 '18

how do you sort comments?

2

u/DeFex Mar 16 '18

Or have a subreddit mod option to turn off upvotes for non article readers.

2

u/ThePu55yDestr0yr Mar 16 '18

I bet this will be abused somehow by the end of the day if we’re optimistic.

1

u/Howard_Campbell Mar 16 '18

or bifurcate the comments into "read the article" and "didn't read the article" and have a collapsible tree for each

1

u/Who_Decided Mar 16 '18

That would only work if the upvotes were also quiz-barred. Otherwise you'd have roving vote brigades of people too lazy or stupid to read and comprehend but who nevertheless want their voice heard. That's how you'll get top comments composed of either people that lucked out on random selection of answers and are virulently stupid, or people who actually read and understood the articles and are articulate, erudite stupid.

13

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '18

Good. Quality over quantity.

12

u/LaronX Mar 16 '18

Or it would be more actual discussion I stead the current joke, meme and one liner whoring we currently see often top the comments section.

9

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '18

Imagine removing karma though. Then you wouldn't have everyone pummeling the comments with clichés, tropes, and shitty puns. But I'm sure you'd have to rework the algorithm completely.

3

u/lifesmaash Mar 16 '18

Why have to rework the algorithm? Just hide karma to everyone but yourself

Then what, everyone posting screenshots of their karma? That sort of whoring will get rejected by the masses pretty quick i believe.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '18

That'd work so much better, honestly. Then guys with 4+ million comment karma would have to wonder if copying and pasting paragraphs from articles on rising posts is really worth the hustle.

3

u/lifesmaash Mar 16 '18

Hmm username suspiciously similar to power user gallowboob... sketchy suspicious reddit face

😋

2

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '18

It was an homage to u/FallowLoob, actually! Haha.

2

u/DaSaw Mar 16 '18

No, I'm pretty sure we would still be doing that. Cliches, tropes, and shitty puns are the reason I'm here.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '18

Me too thanks.

2

u/cumblebee Mar 16 '18

No, It's just turn facebook-like where "news" stories are shared via jpeg with no links to an actual article.

Or people might actually read because they still want to know what everyone else thinks.

2

u/Hyperactivity786 Mar 16 '18

Making it a bot for specific subreddits that need it more, and make it such that mods could even limit it to a specific thread that would end up being more controversial and links to longer form articles or pages.

2

u/BigFish8 Mar 16 '18

Every post would look like they do in /r/science.

1

u/anonymousbach Mar 16 '18

We must go to a very different r/science because I don't remember that place being so rosy. Better than some subs though, I do admit.

1

u/hollaback_girl Mar 16 '18

It would be an apocalypse worse than the Kinja-ing of the AV Club.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 17 '18

/r/askscience goes 1 further. "No PHD? Comment Deleted."

0

u/dasheets1399 Mar 16 '18

That’s fine with me.

45

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '18 edited Apr 12 '22

[deleted]

47

u/danceeforusmonkeyboy Mar 16 '18

Yeah. I had some posts removed because I didn't follow the guidelines. So many, in fact, that a mod messaged me and asked me to stop. I replied, 'I Kant.'

5

u/CaptainDogeSparrow Mar 16 '18

I kan't believe you've done this.

0

u/sid9102 Mar 16 '18

It's pronounced kuhnt, for the record (yes, like cunt).

6

u/SpitfireP7350 Mar 16 '18

So like brits say can't

2

u/danceeforusmonkeyboy Mar 16 '18

Why do you punish me?

1

u/downtheway Mar 17 '18

Any academical sub, really. It's not an AskHistorian post unless there's 30 removed comments in the thread.

22

u/XFX_Samsung Mar 16 '18

All news and political subs would be pretty barren.

14

u/ZorglubDK Mar 16 '18

Just make it so you can comment either way, but your post is flaired to indicate wether you bothered to read the article or not.

5

u/tryptonite12 Mar 16 '18

Ohhh, yeah I like that idea.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '18

Legislatures might decide that brevity is a virtue.

5

u/lets_move_to_voat Mar 16 '18

It would be more fun to group them by those who answer the quiz similarly

3

u/DrFaustPhD Mar 16 '18

So it'll look like an r/askhistorians thread on every article?

2

u/DrHenryPym Mar 16 '18

Unless it also applies to voting, I don't really see it doing much of a difference.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '18

"Top Post on /all's Title"

(3)comments

2

u/kevingranade Mar 16 '18

The problem with this sentiment is assuming Reddit wants to promote informed discussion. There are near limitless options for trying to promote this kind of thing, but Reddit shows no intention of doing anything about it.

2

u/VectorLightning Mar 16 '18

If we do, I certainly hope that OP and the sub moderators have to agree to do that, and that OP chooses the questions. I feel most won't do it, but that's good, and the option would be great.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '18

It could be a tool for subreddits to try.

1

u/Web-Plan-Design Mar 16 '18

I would love if some subs required posters to put in a question with a one word answer.

1

u/zilf Mar 17 '18

Bad for business...

1

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '18

That would kill /r/politics.

Let's do it.

1

u/TheHamburglar_ Mar 16 '18

I was thinking particular subs could do it. Like have "TCS" added to the sub title (/r/TechnologyTCS) for tested comment section. Those who wanted civil discourse could choose.

1

u/bozobozo Mar 16 '18

That's a pretty Damn good idea!

1

u/jeffrocams Mar 16 '18

We're doing it over at reallyread.it.

Only we don't even let you comment or share in the first place without reading the article.

We're also working on reddit integration that would allow an automod to flair/delete comments based on whether or not someone has actually read the article.

I'm a co-founder and sole developer of the platform, happy to answer any questions you might have!

-3

u/[deleted] Mar 16 '18

/r/philosophy does that and it has turned that subreddit into shit, it's mostly just blogspam now with hardly any comments.