Ask PG: Feature request, remove yourself from the leaderboard

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1045166

by jacquesm • 17 years ago

17 43 17 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I know that the top entry on the leaderboard, pg's is invisible. I've had one too many 'you're a karma whore' messages and wouldn't mind a checkbox in my profile so I can remove myself from the leaderboard.

Maybe others would like that option too?

vorador• 17 years ago

Why not remove the leaderboard altogether ? I don't see what it brings, except competition because people want to get listed.

pg2• 17 years ago

It rewards people for their contributions to the site.

vaksel5• 17 years ago

the real reward would be if the top 100 people got the ability to add live dofollow links in their profiles. that way people would get a little bit of Google juice for their sites

DenisM• 17 years ago

Personal leaderboard would serve better - who are the people I upmode the most? Who are the people they upmode the most?

cake• 17 years ago

I don't see any use of it either.

The term "Leader" makes me uncomfortable in the first place, English is not my first language, that's why maybe it resonate for me as in : "The persons who rules the others".

In my opinion "Top contributors" would be more appropriate.

gaius• 17 years ago

Leaderboard, one word, is a term from sports leagues meaning the highest scoring players or teams. Obviously in sports no-one gains "authority" over the other players by scoring more goals; it is a means of recognizing equals.

astine• 17 years ago

"Leader" doesn't necessarily have those connotations for English speakers. It means, "The person whom others follow." Generally, "the person who rules others," is the "Ruler."

"Leader" can imply "ruler," but it can also mean someone who is winning a competition (his opponent are behind in score and hence are "following" him) or someone whom other voluntarily follow.

It is generally considered a benign term.

_giu• 17 years ago

I think the leaderboard is a very good reward for the people who spend quite a lot of time on submitting quality links and contributing to discussions with good comments. every upvote on Hacker News (especially in the comments section) is hard-earned IMHO. the community upvotes quality, and that's one of the main reasons why I love to read links from Hacker News and take part on discussions here. for me it's really rewarding when I see that one of my comments / submissions got an upvote (note: I'm no karma-wh__e by any means!)

pg2• 17 years ago

This is a feature of pretty narrow appeal, so I don't think I'd want to clutter the source with it. (I'm not listed because no admins are, but the others don't have enough karma for it to matter.)

blasdel• 17 years ago

Well make jacquesm an admin then!

fnid• 17 years ago

It's a matter of privacy. You have created this feature to reward participation, but someone who should be receiving that reward is telling you it is actually a curse.

It may be a narrow appeal, but it is being requested by someone who has demonstrated significant contribution to the community to be rewarded in about the only way one can be rewarded here and you won't free him from that which he considers a punishment.

jacquesm9• 17 years ago

It's your call, I figured asking wouldn't harm. On my two bit websites adding that feature would take 10 minutes, and potentially the appeal is huge.

After all, for every person that removes themselves from the leaderboard another one gets the ability to make the decision.

Unless you think that the majority of the HNers is here to make it to the leaderboard, which is a possibility but I highly doubt that a majority here is taking the karma count as their reason for contributing.

edit: this is the third time in as many weeks that I get pretty negative email definitely caused by HN users, it's not at a level where I worry about it (that takes a lot more) but it is a nuisance and it spoils some of the pleasure of being here.

The biggest reason why I am here is because of the people, the second one is the ability to ask and answer 'Ask HN' style postings, the third is to learn and interact. None of that stands a chance of being harmed by a couple of idiotic emails.

I figure that by taking my name off the leaderboard I would make a statement about what I think HN is all about, which is not the leaderboard, anything but.

The silly emails just made me think about it, and in that sense they served a purpose. The alternative, to make another account is also a possibility but then I'm still taking up that slot.

Even if the leaderboard does serve a purpose, which to me is simply to distinguish the frequent contributors from the rest (but for that the leaderboard is actually too small since HN has far more than 100 frequent contributors). I have gone through ever single profile on the leaderboard and visited the sites of the people listed there to see what they're up to.

Kilimanjaro• 17 years ago

Just a checkbox in our profile and "if checked dont list" would suffice to make a happy customer happier.

Enough reasons to add the feature.

ntoshev• 17 years ago

Why don't you get a new username without the karma burden ;) You can keep yourself recognizable if you want, just use jacquesm2 and put a short comment in your profile.

vaksel5• 17 years ago

that's weird, I never had a single comment about my karma, and I have more than you.

jacquesm9• 17 years ago

Must be my charming personality :)

vaksel5• 17 years ago

do you get the hate mail via email or just in comments? Because if it's the former, that'd explain it, since I don't have mine in the profile

axod• 17 years ago

Maybe another way to achieve the same would be to allow optional anonymous posting. (With 2 caveats)

1. There's a way to recognize the same user in a thread - maybe color, or some way to say "This is the same user that you just replied to".

2. admins etc can see who you really are.

I think then you'd be able to truly let your comments win/die on their own.

mechanical_fish• 17 years ago

Why do you think that removing your name from the leaderboard will matter? Will the name-callers even notice?

Rude people are rude people. If they can't complain about your karma they will complain about your socks.

My advice is to ignore them and carry on. Don't take criticism seriously unless it's serious criticism.

jacquesm9• 17 years ago

> Why do you think that removing your name from the leaderboard will matter?

Because the leaderboard has positive and negative sides to it.

The negative sides have to do with the people that think that HN is all about 'being in the top 100'.

The positive side is that you can see fairly easily who are the people that have spent a lot of time on the site, in other words who is here for the long haul and who is passing through.

On /. you get a similar feeling by looking at people uid#, here we don't have that so the leaderboard has some of that function.

> Rude people are rude people. If they can't complain about your karma they will complain about your socks.

Ah, but they can't see my socks :)

> My advice is to ignore them and carry on. Don't take criticism seriously unless it's serious criticism.

It gets a little tedious after a while and the negative returns from being on the leaderboard seem to outweigh the positive ones, hence the request.

msc• 17 years ago

Even if you remove yourself from the scoreboard, they can still see your karma by just going to your profile, I don't think the name calling would stop.

tptacek3• 17 years ago

There's already a way to decouple your posts from the leaderboard: change your nick slightly.

jacquesm9• 17 years ago

You suggest I create another account ?

That has other effects too, such as splitting the posting history / comment history across several accounts. And the 'sockpuppet' detector might not like that.

tptacek3• 17 years ago

We can argue ad nauseam about the pros and cons of different approaches, but if you just posted as jacquesm_, the trolls who are under your skin about karma won't get their ammo, and the people that care to read your whole history can figure out how to get the rest of it.

tokenadult• 17 years ago

Feature requests belong on the feature request thread.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=363

jacquesm9• 17 years ago

I thought you were going to say that.

jhancock2• 17 years ago

Perhaps this thread made sense at one time, but this is the first I've noticed it. Its a hell of a long thread and I'm not sure the HN tools are oriented to glean value from old and lengthy threads that few know about.

Thanks for letting us know. There must be a better way though.

swombat• 17 years ago

What, you mean HN isn't about karma-whoring one's way to the top of the leaderboard?

Damn, I've been had!

jhancock2• 17 years ago

jacques, sorry to hear you're getting harassed enough to make this feature request. I don't pay any attention to the leader board (or my own karma), but I guess some do.

I think most of us can tell the difference between a great contributor such as yourself and a karma-whore.

Ask PG: Feature request, remove yourself from the leaderboard

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