I think signal to author is served imperfectly by a random vote, in expectation. If you post two mediocre comments and updated twice on how much people on LW wanted to see these kinds of comments based on my “neutral” vote, that should cancel out. And I expect to see most people on LW at least a couple times that the karma mostly balances out within months.
The number of voters is a signal to other readers, having more people voting more often improves this signal. A react cannot replace this because you cannot know if someone both voted and reacted.
I think signal to author is served imperfectly by a random vote, in expectation. If you post two mediocre comments and updated twice on how much people on LW wanted to see these kinds of comments based on my “neutral” vote, that should cancel out. And I expect to see most people on LW at least a couple times that the karma mostly balances out within months.
The number of voters is a signal to other readers, having more people voting more often improves this signal. A react cannot replace this because you cannot know if someone both voted and reacted.