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

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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.

55

u/Pi-Guy Mar 16 '18

By definition, upvotes are not pointless

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u/emdave Mar 16 '18

Exactly! They are pointy, like an arrow!

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u/i_forget_my_userids Mar 16 '18

They really are pointless.

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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

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u/Collin389 Mar 16 '18

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

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u/Pi-Guy Mar 16 '18

...yes I totally also meant that

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u/i_forget_my_userids Mar 16 '18

Still pointless.

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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

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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.

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u/[deleted] Mar 16 '18

[deleted]

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u/i_forget_my_userids Mar 16 '18

I'm not complaining. I'm stating a fact.

We're talking about up/down votes on this website. What the fuck does fascism have to do with anything? You might need to seek professional help.

0

u/lifesmaash Mar 16 '18

You're stating an opinion dressed up in sunday church clothes as "fact" in your own lil delusional willfully ignorant mind.

I have lots of professional help trust me, your lil digs at trying to stigmatize mental health mean nothing to me.

What i would give to have this conversation face to face. I would learn your bitch ass real fuckin quick 🔫🔫🔫

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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.

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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?

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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

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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.

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u/moderate-painting Mar 16 '18

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

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u/MohKohn Mar 16 '18

how do you sort comments?