Item — HN Reader

I understand your point, but I have a different view. Sometimes there are MANY comments on a thread, and looking at the Karma can help you decide which comment you want to take a look at.

Besides, it would be nice to test this feature and see how it works, no?

1 comments

Individual comments are sorted on a page according to how many upvotes they have. New comments go at the top and sink down over time if they don't get upvoted. There is also some evidence that the commenter's karma affects how quickly a new comment sinks. So, each comment is sorted according to how much people like its content, not on how much people like the user.

Thanks for clarification; I already had a pretty good idea of how this worked. I still believe that we should map what happens in real life, which is: "if someone influential says something, you listen more carefully". Do you think this makes sense on HN?

There are a lot of topics discussed on HN. If someone has relevant experience that really changes how the comment should be taken, they can say so in the comment. It doesn't always make sense to believe people on one thing if they have made good comments about some other subject.

sp332, it seems that I cannot nest another comment again.

Don't you think that your conclusion means that the Karma system on HN is fundamentally flawed?

I think all karma systems are flawed :) But I like HN's better than most. It has been tweaked over time to fit the community.