We're actively trying to avoid the nastiness that seems to take over so many online discussions. That's why there are fewer down-arrows here, for example. I suspect that down arrows are more often clicked on stupidly than up arrows, that if you don't have down arrows you give people fewer ways to inject stupidity into the system.
I'll probably never get around to supporting bold text in comments either, for the same reason.
To some extent news.yc is protected by being about a topic only a small number of comparatively smart people care about. With any luck we'll never have the full-blown trolls you find on general news sites. I have some ideas for solutions if trolls do start to appear.
I've joined well over 50 social networks and what I've noitced is that freedom to choose appeals more to people than the right choices already made for them. More features, more niches, more startups, more choice. Users might complain about features, but fundamentally they like choice.
The more time a user spends making choices on a network, the more loyal he or she becomes. You don't spend 12 hours of your life customizing your profile if you don't plan on sticking to it.
Lastly, too much of anything is bad. The state should have control over medical supplies, education and energy. But beyond that, it should trust the consumer with running the country.
I think you're doing the right thing by retaining the down arrow on comments, however. When someone writes a comment you dislike, there are four things you can do with it:
1. Ignore it
2. Downmod it
3. Write a quick reply
4. Write a thoughtful reply
Option 4 is ideal, of course, if you have the time, but you usually don't. Quick replies are what we want to avoid. That's how flamewars start. Ignoring the post is going to be unsatisfactory for the flamewar-prone. That leaves the down-arrow as a sort of relief valve. So I think its presence can actually reduce nastiness.
Aha! I'd not had the realization that the the downmod arrow only appears probabilistically. It meshes interestingly with a notion that dfranke and I were discussing earlier tonight, namely the appropriate ratio of up to down mods. By controlling the prevalence of options to downmod, you can exert some control over that ration--very sly. :)
I love the bareness of this site so far. Keeping it simple may hopefully maximise the honeymoon period before the deluge of crap that any small web success appears to attract.
I suspect the ability to successfully transition from this honeymoon period to moderate popularity will become a defining battle for a certain class of social web start-ups.
I'll probably never get around to supporting bold text in comments either, for the same reason.
To some extent news.yc is protected by being about a topic only a small number of comparatively smart people care about. With any luck we'll never have the full-blown trolls you find on general news sites. I have some ideas for solutions if trolls do start to appear.