[paulmd]

The Reddit model (including HN) is inherently bad. Being downvoted for proposing a contrarian opinion is not a good model for discussion. I say this as someone with a moderate (small) amount of karma here.

If you value minority opinions more than what the hivemind thinks, the reddit model is inherently broken. The merit of the traditional forum model is that you can't suppress minority opinions - they are always there to read (unless removed by a mod). No downvoting, no flagging, no "dead" posts that are too negative to show up.

The SA model (pay $5 to register, if you are violently breaking the rules you get banned and you have to pay another $5 to unban your account) is massively better. It funds moderators. It funds server bills. It puts a direct pricetag on being a fucktard. It does not suppress dissenting opinions.

Lots of people will hate it. The quality of posting will also improve. Grandfather everyone who posts here in, ban them if they are fucktards, the quality of posting improves.

[bena]

It's bad on the small scale of say like a post, but I think it works on the larger scale of the community at large.

If you make a post and it goes into negatives not because you're being an ass, but because it just goes against the groupthink, whatever. Your overall karma will go down a touch. There comes a point where no one post is going to devastate your overall standing.

But if every post you make gets downvoted, isn't that indicative of a larger problem?

But that's looking at the problem solely from a "user" perspective.

It's still bad from a content perspective because it means good, relevant content that goes against the groupthink gets buried.