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I'd argue that HN got better after they hid the karma (net of 1 + up - down) on a per-comment basis (even though I was initially opposed to the change at the time).

They can still use like/dislike metrics to decide which videos to offer you and in what sort order, so there's still some signal available.



That's the opposite change. HN hid likes, while keeping the dislikes visible.


HN still fades text if a comment is below a certain threshold.


IMO, HN's fade is worse than just showing the like/dislike ratio. I believe some users see a faded comment and subconsciously get a preference to hit the downvote before even fully reading a comment.

Imagine if Youtube automatically showed unpopular videos in a permanently faded mode; this would be even more user-hostile.

Just give the users the count or ratio, and let them interpret (or ignore) it.


Investing 30 seconds reading a comment vs 12 minutes on a video is not the same thing.




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