HN Malicious Downvoting

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39102628

by verisimi • 2 years ago

3 11 2 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Does anyone know - if someone has 500 karma and can therefore downvote, can they then downvote another person's historical comments without end? Is there a limit to how much downvoting one user can inflict on another?

mooreds• 2 years ago

I'm not aware of any software limits on down voting, though the mods don't publish every limit.

tlb• 2 years ago

A user can only downvote (or upvote) a given comment once, so the most a user with a grudge can do is reduce your average comment score by 1.

Also, comments become unvotable after a while (I think a month).

verisimi3• 2 years ago

yes - I'm asking whether if there is a limit to how many downvotes - ie can someone can go through last month's history, and downvote every single comment if they don't like you.. Or can they only downvote 4 times, as another user suggests... Although, it is - as they point out - possible to test this yourself - by downvoting a user to see the limit (or not) and then un-downvote.

dang2• 2 years ago

A comment can only be downvoted for 24 hours.

dang2• 2 years ago

The upvote window is 2 weeks, but the downvote window is only 24 hours.

pestatije• 2 years ago

there seems to be a limit...i could only downvote 4 of your comments (undowned afterward)...but i think all the karma thing is a kids game, it should disappear

verisimi3• 2 years ago

Hey!! Ah... ok! lol

the karma thing is ridiculous - I just want to know the rules/boundaries!

incomingpain• 2 years ago

Ive had that multiple times. I usually quit HN when this happens.

I'll comment on a dead thread from the previous friday, rss feeds ftw. Say nothing particularly controversial or anything, a positive message.

Then I'll hit an active thread and say something thought invoking. I'll end up -10 on the dead thread comment.

Basically there are groups here which curate content using downvotes.

Luckily it only works against the last couple days. So HN is incentivizing you to only make 1-2 comments per day and no discussions are allowed. Which makes it easier for those curating content to do what they do.

Worse yet, when you get targeted like this a few times, you end up shadow banned on HN for 'low quality posting' but it's really just people curating content.

verisimi3• 2 years ago

Basically there are groups here which curate content using downvotes.

Yes - it does seem that way to me too. Someone doesn't like what you said, so they go the whole hog and downvote as many comments as possible! (4 another user says..) And then get their mates to do the same.

I'd at least like to know my stats - rather than the result - eg: If I 4000+ and -3999 all I see is +1... But it be so interesting to realise there was a lot of polarity to it.

Thanks for your thoughts.

jalapenos• 2 years ago

Seems like an odd thing to worry about. Why, can you convert these niche internet points to cash?

tptacek• 2 years ago

Unfortunately not.

HN Malicious Downvoting

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