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401 sats \ 21 replies \ @Undisciplined 23 Jul \ on: Low value, throw away comments - why are they made? meta
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.
muting also works
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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 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.