On improving the quality of submissions (on the top/front page)

Question

I noticed that I now sometimes write negative comments for poor/incorrect posts which in the past I would have merely ignored. At first I felt bad about doing so but was compelled nonetheless. On reflection I think it's a response to the number of low-effort/low-quality or factually devoid/incorrect stories that do sometimes make it to the front page.I see value in a feedback mechanism for raising the bar of top voted submissions. Since posts aren't downvoted flagging is reserved for other use, what other acceptable means is there for providing this signal? At the same time, if there's not already discussion on such a post, even a negative one is engagement which could further popularize it.Another thing I've started doing is being more liberal with my upvotes to get them above the floor of low-quality post scores.Does this seem like what's happening and a fine way to approach it, or should something else or nothing be done?

potamic · Accepted Answer

I believe this is what flagging is for. The guidelines suggest to use it for spam and caution against feeding such discussions.Now, when to pass along a bit of feedback is a judgement call only you can make, but I think in most cases people will also learn by trying and failing.

carlosjobim · Answer

There is only one remedy against low quality content: Post high quality content.Your OP is the same OP that has been posted hundreds of thousands of times by this point, on different forums and usergroups. And the answer is the same as it has always been: Drown out low quality content by posting high quality content.

bjourne · Answer

HN has a nursery. Go there and kill of the nonviable and nuture those with prowess. Since the distribution of popularity on HN is exponentially distributed this has an over-sized effect on the top page (and is easily gameable to everyone's chagrin).

PaulHoule · Answer

I don&rsquo;t think comments make a story more visible on HN, it&rsquo;s not likehttps://tildes.net/My belief actually is that visibility of posts is suppressed if they get, say, 20 comments and already have 50 votes.So if you want to be systematic about posting comments with some &ldquo;tough love&rdquo; go right ahead.