It took you 8 years to realize that's how that place operates? Hell, that describes the culture on HN pretty well.
Freewheeling downvoting was a flawed idea from the beginning. 20 years later it turns out Slashdot had the right model for moderation.
The best part was you could set your personal filters to exclude “funny” comments, or boost “offtopic” ones if you want. With thresholds! So the funniest stuff could still break through, but you didn’t have to wade through a million pun posts to find the serious comments.
They also have a metamoderation system where others’ moderation choices are shown to you and you agree or disagree.
Never seen another site like it. Kinda hope /. makes a resurgence.
And this is another thing I think made that mod system good. Only so many points available.
I have to say the most enjoyable comments were often those that got to +5 but with a negative label, like (+5, Flamebait).
Soylentnews also exists based on the slashdot source, and uses the same/similar moderation.
You're right, it was a pretty good way to do moderation. As in everything with software, what old is new, right?
