[crazyirish]

Who cares if a user is contributing to the discussion by comments if the articles they submit contribute to the discussion?

[stcredzero]

If a user is only out to get traffic for their sites, then they will tend to submit much and comment little. However, there are bound to be other users who are sincerely contributing who just happen to prefer submitting over commenting. (Should we call them "submissives?" jk)

So there is a reason to care, but distinguishing the exploiters isn't straightforward.

[huhtenberg]

Show me a HN account that earned its karma exclusively from up-moded article posts.

[chengmi]

ok...

http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=gongfudoi 268 submissions, 2 comments, 388 karma

http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=jkopelman 81 submissions, 1 comment, 613 karma

http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=charzom 145 submissions, 6 comments, 890 karma

http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=jmorin007 803 submissions, 39 comments, 2974 karma

[davidw]

It would be an interesting statistic to see the range of ratios, from those who get their most points from articles to those who get the most from comments and raw points.

[parenthesis]

For two contrasting examples:

You have about 3.1 comment points for each submission point.

I have about 2.9 submission points for each comment point.

http://searchyc.com/user/davidw

http://searchyc.com/user/parenthesis

[alnayyir]

raises hand sheepishly I'll admit, it's where the vast majority of mine come from.

I ask you guys questions all the time :D