The existing karma system does a good job of addressing the first two possibilities, but the last three cases are still pretty hard to distinguish. Kaj_Sotala seems to be talking about cases 4 and 5, more or less.
As long as we’re talking about a technical solution, it seems like the relevant dimension that Kaj is talking about is difficulty/understandability as opposed to agreement or general quality, and I can imagine a few different solutions to this[1]. That said, I’m not convinced that this would tell you the information you’re after, since readers who have a strong technical background will be more likely to read difficult, technical posts and may vote them as relatively easy to understand. And the situation is the same with less technical readers and easier posts.
The third case could be addressed to a certain extent just by tracking number of views and displaying that somewhere. Maybe also with summary statistics like (upvotes—downvotes) / views. Views could be triggered when a post is clicked on, voted on, or just visible for greater than, say, 10 seconds, which will produce some false positives and false negatives but might be better than nothing.
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[1] E.g. two new voting buttons (“too basic”, “too difficult”), a larger set of radio buttons, or a slider. Not sure what the icons would be, but maybe something like “1,2,3” for basic and integral signs for difficult.
Point one is addressed with “like” “favorite” “star” or any number of “upvote” mechanisms; it should be a relatively solved problem in our present context. This applies to point two with the equivalent downvote button.
I am unsure about the fifth point. Reviewing this comment as I draft it, I realize that it can form a sort of branching point for discussion within this comment section, and I wonder if I should or ought to be allowed to ask you to edit your post to serve as the main branching point so the I might delete mine and tidy up the discussion, or else edit out redundant parts and leave certain parts, this paragraph in particular, for later discussion analysis. I feel as though it is then proper to encourage the upvoting of your post aloud so as to make it appear at the top of the thread for having outlined the best known catalog and being a branching point for discussion.
See also: Warnock’s Dilemma http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warnock%27s_dilemma
The problem with no response is that there are five possible interpretations:
The post is correct, well-written information that needs no follow-up commentary. There’s nothing more to say except “Yeah, what he said.”
The post is complete and utter nonsense, and no one wants to waste the energy or bandwidth to even point this out.
No one read the post, for whatever reason.
No one understood the post, but won’t ask for clarification, for whatever reason.
No one cares about the post, for whatever reason.
—Bryan C. Warnock
The existing karma system does a good job of addressing the first two possibilities, but the last three cases are still pretty hard to distinguish. Kaj_Sotala seems to be talking about cases 4 and 5, more or less.
As long as we’re talking about a technical solution, it seems like the relevant dimension that Kaj is talking about is difficulty/understandability as opposed to agreement or general quality, and I can imagine a few different solutions to this[1]. That said, I’m not convinced that this would tell you the information you’re after, since readers who have a strong technical background will be more likely to read difficult, technical posts and may vote them as relatively easy to understand. And the situation is the same with less technical readers and easier posts.
The third case could be addressed to a certain extent just by tracking number of views and displaying that somewhere. Maybe also with summary statistics like (upvotes—downvotes) / views. Views could be triggered when a post is clicked on, voted on, or just visible for greater than, say, 10 seconds, which will produce some false positives and false negatives but might be better than nothing.
–––––
[1] E.g. two new voting buttons (“too basic”, “too difficult”), a larger set of radio buttons, or a slider. Not sure what the icons would be, but maybe something like “1,2,3” for basic and integral signs for difficult.
Another possible interpretation:
Disagree with the post; can’t personally refute it, but believe that someone who shares my views (and is more knowledgeable) could.
And Wei Dai’s Agree, Retort, or Ignore?
Point one is addressed with “like” “favorite” “star” or any number of “upvote” mechanisms; it should be a relatively solved problem in our present context. This applies to point two with the equivalent downvote button.
The third point is the one that seems most relevant to our present context, as discussed in http://lesswrong.com/r/discussion/lw/iq6/inferential_silence/9ssf
The fourth point seems largely relevant to the comment directly preceding yours chronologically: http://lesswrong.com/r/discussion/lw/iq6/inferential_silence/9ssp
I am unsure about the fifth point. Reviewing this comment as I draft it, I realize that it can form a sort of branching point for discussion within this comment section, and I wonder if I should or ought to be allowed to ask you to edit your post to serve as the main branching point so the I might delete mine and tidy up the discussion, or else edit out redundant parts and leave certain parts, this paragraph in particular, for later discussion analysis. I feel as though it is then proper to encourage the upvoting of your post aloud so as to make it appear at the top of the thread for having outlined the best known catalog and being a branching point for discussion.