I have noticed this effect as well. Many of my comments fluctuate massively; up to +10, down to -8, back to 2, down to -5, ...
I think this basically means that we are a few months away from being Reddit. Pretty soon, any comment containing $HILARIOUS_MEME will be upmodded regardless of its applicability or actual humor value. (We are already Reddit with respect to downmods; say something bad about the iPhone or something good about the GPL, and the downmods start almost instantly. Also, I think there used to be articles about programming here, but I haven't seen any in a while. Maybe today I can read about how programmers are smarter than everyone else, or how to sell a $35,000 watch. Tomorrow, I look forward to some cat pictures.)
Anyway, moderation is a waste of time. Hitting "flag" will get comments and articles that you disagree with censored a lot quicker.
Unfortunately that's something of the lifecycle of online communities. Once they reach a critical mass people that probably shouldn't belong start congregating, sooner or later there seems to be a tipping point where things start racing down to the LCD of humor and insight. People start leaving and form another community.
HackerNews is surprising for the length of time it's managed to exist without turning into that. I have noticed that the quality of submissions has decreased over the past year.
I think this basically means that we are a few months away from being Reddit. Pretty soon, any comment containing $HILARIOUS_MEME will be upmodded regardless of its applicability or actual humor value. (We are already Reddit with respect to downmods; say something bad about the iPhone or something good about the GPL, and the downmods start almost instantly. Also, I think there used to be articles about programming here, but I haven't seen any in a while. Maybe today I can read about how programmers are smarter than everyone else, or how to sell a $35,000 watch. Tomorrow, I look forward to some cat pictures.)
Anyway, moderation is a waste of time. Hitting "flag" will get comments and articles that you disagree with censored a lot quicker.