I think they're fishing for zaps. As long as they aren't getting zapped much they won't be getting rewards.
We should probably be downzapping them. My understanding is that if many of us downzap something, then it doesn't take very many sats to outlaw stuff.
Something I've been planning on writing up is why downzapping needs to be rewarded. I'll move that up in my queue.
downzapping is already included in your daily rewards. sats you used to downzap are going to SN daily pool and then back to you... so downzapping are not "lost" sats in the end.
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They don't count towards your ranking, though. I'll get into it in more detail at some point, but it's important to incentivize policing of common resources.
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Yes and it shouldn't count for ranking.
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Maybe not, but right now we have a freerider problem with respect to downzaps, because there's no direct incentive to do it.
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The incentive is curating our experience. If we allow direct sat incentives for downzapping, that seems like something that can get ugly fast.
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Right but it seems like muting is the most cost effective way of curating our personal experience.
Whereas downzapping curates EVERYONE's experience.
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It's important to get the incentives right, but this has been broadly and deeply studied by economists.
We know that communities under provision policing if individuals bear the entire cost of that policing. The incentive to free-ride is too high.
In the mean time, though, I'll start downzapping more often.
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Why is downzapping better than muting?
I guess because downzapping affects ranking for everyone, whereas muting just hides certain users from me?
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I look at muting as saying, "this content is not for me," while downzapping is saying, "this content actively makes Stacker News worse for everyone."
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That's right. Also, @k00b recently described how accounts that get lots of downzaps have reduced reach, so it helps with future spam posts too.
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42 sats \ 0 replies \ @ek 23 Jul
Yes, if enough past content was outlawed, their future content will start as outlawed.
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muting also works
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42 sats \ 0 replies \ @Cje95 23 Jul
I look forward to this! The two posts I had today about DC security and then the USSS director stepping down both started getting randomly blown up with these comments and I was super confused
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I havent downzapped yet. I want to be careful how I use it since I dont want to bring someone down based on my opinion.
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When zapping, you bring someone up based on your opinion and that's okay. So why would the opposite be wrong?
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That's a good question, but it does feel different for some reason.
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I guess that is true, but I havent really thought of it in that context.
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That's how I feel too. The ones I've done today have only been one sat. That way if I'm the only one who downzaps, then it probably won't do anything. However, if others do, then it makes a big difference having another downzapper.
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I also havent muted anyone, since I feel that would really ruin my experience here. Everyone should have a right to their opinion, even if I dont agree with it. Muting doesnt make the problem go away.
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I don't mute either. Depending on what the problem is, it might help. If it's spam, then muting reduces the chances of getting zapped and potentially makes the spammer give up.
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Right. Lately I have felt that that there is a lot of AI programs on here posting.
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