RFC: Proposed comment policy change

Posted Nov 20, 2004 8:59 UTC (Sat) by hppnq (guest, #14462)
Parent article: RFC: Proposed comment policy change

To me, the quality of the site matters most, so I would vote in favour of some mechanism that optimizes the S/N ratio. But I also like the idea that anyone can participate in the discussions, and I think one has to accept the fact that there will be a certain (low) amount of abuse of the comment system.

Currently I don't think there's a real need to change anything, but I fear the Groklaw effect, so LWN would do good to have some sort of remedy ready for that.

I am a subscriber, by the way, if that matters. I think anyone who reads LWN regularly and who can afford it should subscribe. But those who can't should not be shut out from the discussions if it can be prevented.

RFC: Proposed comment policy change

Posted Nov 20, 2004 19:49 UTC (Sat) by bluefoxicy (guest, #25366) [Link]

To me, the quality of the site matters most. Removing a chunk of content (i.e. comments) consisting of x% of its class, with n% of the content removed being good, removes f(n,x)% = ((n*x)/100)% of the good content in that content class. The limit as (n) approaches 100 of f(n,x) is (x); so if (n) is sufficiently high, you are effectively simply removing (x)% of the good content with ~0 benefit.