> I think it's more than "interesting theory". I've seen dang comment more than once to the effect that comments > upvotes = off the front page.
The plural of anecdote is not data. I believe you. Also, I'm not going to set my priors on 0% chance it's not something else 100% of the time.
> Let's say that an article has 50 upvotes and 20 comments. Posting 31 comments
You're coming from an intentional actor angle. I was more thinking: people who are riled up and don't like something are more likely to post multiple comments (rage bait). So whether or not they intend to have that outcome, their emergent behavior has that effect. And if they're starting flame wars they only need N/2 number of comments if every comment draws a response. Fewer if multiple respond (which is usually true for the most horrible takes). I think it's cheaper and easier to do than you make out. If they can draw 5 responses per comment, they only need 7 comments total (round up).
The book "Building Successful Online Communities: Evidence-Based Social Design" by MIT press for where my head is at.
How did you stumble on this comment thread in a nuked (for whatever reason) post anyway?
The plural of anecdote is not data. I believe you. Also, I'm not going to set my priors on 0% chance it's not something else 100% of the time.
> Let's say that an article has 50 upvotes and 20 comments. Posting 31 comments
You're coming from an intentional actor angle. I was more thinking: people who are riled up and don't like something are more likely to post multiple comments (rage bait). So whether or not they intend to have that outcome, their emergent behavior has that effect. And if they're starting flame wars they only need N/2 number of comments if every comment draws a response. Fewer if multiple respond (which is usually true for the most horrible takes). I think it's cheaper and easier to do than you make out. If they can draw 5 responses per comment, they only need 7 comments total (round up).
The book "Building Successful Online Communities: Evidence-Based Social Design" by MIT press for where my head is at.
How did you stumble on this comment thread in a nuked (for whatever reason) post anyway?