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The Value of Downvoting, or, How Hacker News Gets It Wrong

(blog.stackoverflow.com)
61 points Anon84 | 2 comments | 09 Mar 09 05:11 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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hcho ◴[09 Mar 09 13:42 UTC] No.508366[source]▶
Downvoting loses more information than "no downvoting". Think about a submission with 110 upvotes and 100 downvotes, it is overall rating is 10. A submission with only 15 upvotes has a rating of 15. Surely a submission which attracts 210 user votes must be more valuable than the other one.
replies(1): >>508493 #
JeremyChase ◴[09 Mar 09 15:15 UTC] No.508493[source]▶
Downvotes and upvotes should both be shown for this reason as it calls to attention the divide in opinion.
replies(1): >>508521 #
1. hcho ◴[09 Mar 09 15:33 UTC] No.508521[source]▶
But how about ordering? At the end of the day, these votes determine which submission makes it to the front page. Allowing down voting but sorting by upvotes might be one solution.
replies(1): >>509443 #
2. codinghorror ◴[10 Mar 09 03:05 UTC] No.509443[source]▶
This is a good idea and conceptually similar to showing how many times something has been flagged as off topic.

Although I still maintain that upvote and "off-topic" are not symmetric actions.. but choosing between public visibility of data vs "cabal of secret editors" is a no-brainer IMO.