If it’s a huge problem we can change the karma algorithm. Before then, the mods are very active users themselves and have huge vote strength which means we can shift total karma of posts quite a bit (if everyone on the LW mod team strong-votes on something that’s like 50+ karma in any direction). We also can take it into account for curation which sets the tone of the site quite a bit, and can use it to counteract some cultural trends. We can also change the UI of voting to make various things different (like doing things that makes it more likely that people vote on stuff retroactively after a few days or weeks to get more signal from voting).
Is this a problem that mods can solve? I mean if I 100% convinced you, what would you do about it?
If it’s a huge problem we can change the karma algorithm. Before then, the mods are very active users themselves and have huge vote strength which means we can shift total karma of posts quite a bit (if everyone on the LW mod team strong-votes on something that’s like 50+ karma in any direction). We also can take it into account for curation which sets the tone of the site quite a bit, and can use it to counteract some cultural trends. We can also change the UI of voting to make various things different (like doing things that makes it more likely that people vote on stuff retroactively after a few days or weeks to get more signal from voting).
FYI I think this is fairly obviously a problem, or at least, a real distortion (but, I don’t have a strong sense that it’s easy to do anything about).
Gotcha, I’ll at least consider writing a more comprehensive argument. Don’t mind including examples in a private context.