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TheOtherDave comments on Tallinn-Evans $125,000 Singularity Challenge - Less Wrong
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One solution is to try and convince people to downvote more aggressively.
A second solution, which is one of my current research projects, is to develop a more effective automatic moderation mechanism than screening out low karma posts. If there is enough interest, it may be worthwhile to discuss exactly what the community would like automatic moderation to accomplish and the feasibility of modifying it to meet those goals (preferably in a way that remains compatible with the current karma system). Depending on the outcome, I may be interested in helping with such an effort (and there is a chance I could get some funding to work on it, as an application of the theory).
Another solution is to change the karma system to remove the psychological obstacles that may keep people from downvoting. It feels a little mean to directly cause a comment to be filtered, even when it would probably improve the mean quality of discourse. It may be a little easier to express your opinion that a comment is not constructive, and have a less direct mechanism responsible for converting a consensus into moderation / karma penalty.
Something I've thought about (in the context of other venues) is a rating system where vote-totals V are stored but not displayed. Instead what gets displayed is a ranking R, where R=f(V)... a comment utility function, of sorts. That way a single vote in isolation does not cause a state transition.
The same function can apply to user "scores." Which may reduce the inclination to stress about one's karma, if one is inclined to that.
To pick a simple example, suppose (R=V^.37). So 1 upvote gets R1, but a second upvote stays R1. The 3rd upvote gets R2; the 12th gets R3; the 30th gets R4. Downvoting an R2 comment might bring it to R1, or it might not. Eliezer is R68, Yvain is R45, Alicorn is R37, cousinit and weidai and annasolomon are all R30, I'm R13, and so forth.
(The specific function is just intended for illustrative purposes.)
The function needn't be symmetrical around zero... e.g., if R=(-1*ABS(V)^.37) when V<0, rankings go negative faster than they go positive.
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Along a different axis, it might be interesting to allow voters to be nymous... for example, a preferences setting along those lines, or a mechanism for storing notes along with votes if one chooses to, visible on a different channel. The idea being that you can provide more detailed feedback without cluttering the comment-channel with meta-discussions about other comments.