Should Hacker News add Sort-By-Controversial comment sorting?

Question

Would you use Sort-By-Controversial comment sorting?Context: Interesting & creative comments get pushed down on Hackernews due to popularity-based sorting. Reddit offers sort-by-controversial which highlights more creative & stimulating comments. I would like to see that applied to Hackernews threads.Is it worth asking the team to add this feature?

gnicholas · Accepted Answer

I doubt it would happen because this would draw more attention to political statements and other polarizing topics that HN doesn't seem interested in highlighting.I'd be curious to know what comments you're thinking of that you believe are highly controversial and should be boosted. My guess is there are some, but they are massively outweighed by comments on topics that are inherently controversial.

brudgers · Answer

Reddit offers sort-by-controversialIt seems to me as if using Reddit is the simplest thing that might work.

ThrowawayR2 · Answer

People would gamify it by actively trying to be the most controversial so no.

romanhn · Answer

Turning on showdead in the profile is probably the closest approximation. Wouldn't say you're missing much.

xhkkffbf · Answer

Definitely. As someone who is sometimes down voted and sometimes up voted, I would say that the more interesting stuff can be sent into oblivion if it rubs a few people the wrong way. The feeling is that everything should be kind of tepidly optimistic.

weird_user · Answer

Maybe you should read less HN if you are constantly seeking interesting stuff - there is never an end to internet surfing.Also, you might like a curated version of HN: https://hn.build-your-own.org/

millzlane · Answer

Couldn't you just collapse the threads and read the comments you find controversial? Do you need someone to tell you which comments are creative and stimulating?How would you measure which comments are creative and stimulating?

mejutoco · Answer

Maybe sort by trending, where it is not about absolute popularity but about the speed at which a post gained votes.
Also, since we are on this topic, I always thought someone would execute better on slashdot's karma system, where you upvoted on different axes for humor, insight, etc.
Having said that, I would leave hn as it is. It is nice to have a stable platform on the web.

sourcecodeplz · Answer

No, because I read them all anyway. I like reading.

mikewarot · Answer

Adding a second dimension to voting is a good start, but I think truth/false should join the interesting/low effort dimension we already have.

moremetadata · Answer

Surprised you dont have a tool for this!

mdwalters · Answer

this really should be in hn

MrMan · Answer

sort by new