Since this will probably be the last time a comment of mine appears in HN due to the new system I figured I'd give my take on it.
I'm someone who doesn't join in threads pretty often; I'll chime in if I find the topic to be something I'm interested in but my ignorance to most other matters leaves me from wanting to join into threads because of a fear of people piling on negative responses or "schooling" me in terms of the topic at hand.
I don't submit new articles because most things I'm interested in are discovered by more well connected individuals so I'm usually late the party so my score is relatively low despite how long I've lurked.
I'm fearful this new system discourages my participation further; if I don't add some insightful comment or my ignorance of a topic causes others to question whether my opinion is worth discussing I'll be kept from participating because I haven't built up a score. I won't even have the chance to join future conversations because my comments will be pending so until someone decides my opinion has merit I'll be censored from joining into other aspects of an article.
I may not be the most social of the HN folks here on the board but I do like to join into conversations when the topic is of interest to me. I guess this sort of system just makes me feel unwelcome because I'm being punished for not joining in earlier.
Even the most negative comments incite conversation; a person who may have an unwelcome opinion or whose ignorance prevents them from understanding a topic can learn from discussions based off their response.
I understand the reasoning for this and I think, for the most part, it'll help keep the comments section fairly civil. I'm just worried by solving this issue you're throwing away a part of the community who haven't had a chance to prove ourselves over time. I'm regretful I haven't spent time building up my karma in retrospect.
Why wouldn't your comments get endorsed and be seen as much as anyone else's?
Have you perhaps misunderstood the karma restriction to mean that people with less karma will have their comments be less visible? That's not the idea.
The problem isn't that I think my comments won't be endorsed. It's more I'll self censor my comments that I think would be less popular because I'd be afraid if I'm censored I wouldn't have a chance to join in future conversations until someone would agree with me.
If I release more popular opinions by the majority I'll be instantly accepted and have a chance to further join in conversations. From a gaming perspective the correct choice to better adapt to the system would be for me to always speak to the majority to increase my odds of being accepted until I am part of the elite caste of folks who can vote.
You're missing two important facts: first, that your pending comment eventually (after 24 hours) expires of its own accord, and second, that you can always delete the comment if it's taking too long and holding you up on a better comment you could have written.
In reading a thread (say, over the course of 5-15 minutes), I will often want to post comments at various points. Because I am not in a popular HN timezone, if I needed to wait for comments to be endorsed, I would find this seriously frustrating. Waiting and checking to see if a comment had been approved would be a huge time sink.
Edit: I think that limit has been lifted to five now.
I'm someone who doesn't join in threads pretty often; I'll chime in if I find the topic to be something I'm interested in but my ignorance to most other matters leaves me from wanting to join into threads because of a fear of people piling on negative responses or "schooling" me in terms of the topic at hand.
I don't submit new articles because most things I'm interested in are discovered by more well connected individuals so I'm usually late the party so my score is relatively low despite how long I've lurked.
I'm fearful this new system discourages my participation further; if I don't add some insightful comment or my ignorance of a topic causes others to question whether my opinion is worth discussing I'll be kept from participating because I haven't built up a score. I won't even have the chance to join future conversations because my comments will be pending so until someone decides my opinion has merit I'll be censored from joining into other aspects of an article.
I may not be the most social of the HN folks here on the board but I do like to join into conversations when the topic is of interest to me. I guess this sort of system just makes me feel unwelcome because I'm being punished for not joining in earlier.
Even the most negative comments incite conversation; a person who may have an unwelcome opinion or whose ignorance prevents them from understanding a topic can learn from discussions based off their response.
I understand the reasoning for this and I think, for the most part, it'll help keep the comments section fairly civil. I'm just worried by solving this issue you're throwing away a part of the community who haven't had a chance to prove ourselves over time. I'm regretful I haven't spent time building up my karma in retrospect.