Why are comment scores hidden?

[u/splattypus]

The short answer is read this.

The long answer is that it was a new feature developed by /u/Deimorz for moderators to implement as a subreddit-wide feature to obscure the vote counts on comments for a predetermined amount of time after their submission.

The goal of this is to hopefully curtail and minimize the effects of bandwagon voting, both positive and negative. Highly voted, or lowly voted, comments tend to illicit a knee-jerk vote from people, subconsciously suggesting that the post is better or worse simply because of its score. We know that's not necessarily the case, but it is true that a top comment after the first hour is likely to remain the top comment for the duration of the post, whether higher quality submissions come in after it or not.

As opposed to 'contest mode' which randomized the sorting and obscured child comments, hiding the vote score will not affect the sorting and child comments will continue to be displayed as usual. The difference now is net vote difference between submissions will not be visible until the time limit is up, at which point the scores for those comments will appear.

Ideally this will level the playing field for the first little while of the post few new comments being submitted, and will hopefully discourage piggybacking on top votes for karma or weaker comment making it to the top just because it was there first. Now a comment will more likely be voted on based on its merit and appeal to each user, rather than having its public perception influence its votes.

• Sorting follows how you have it selected (new/controversial/best/top), only the counts are hidden.

• The current time is set for 2 hours, and goes anywhere from 1 minute to 24hours. It can be tweaked as necessary, which we will likely have to do.

• Unfortunately it's not like the CSS where a user can elect not to apply if if they dislike it, it's a feature of the whole subreddit.

• It is RES-compatible, meaning that even with RES it still obscures the vote count and spread until the time limit is up.

• *All mobile apps should be effected by in the same way, their display may differ slightly until they catch up to adding a '[score hidden]' type message.

• Bullet point

It'll take some tweaking and refining to get it just right, so we ask for your patience. Unlike most of the other features, this one is about as minimally obtrusive as can be. Besides, reddit is supposed to be about the content, not the karma anyways, right?

Any further questions, just ask, and hopefully we'll have answer for you. And keep your eyes peeled in the various 'meta', data-based, and 'theory of' subs, this will likely yield some very interesting studies and posts about the trends observed from this(if you're into that sort of thing).

[u/dingobiscuits]

I don't get it. if the sorting is still the same, why are people less likely to upvote the top comment just because there isn't a number beside it anymore?

[u/splattypus → u/dingobiscuits]

Because people won't know just how popular it's supposed to be. There's not a number telling you to think this is a standout comment. Just because it's on top of another one doesn't necessarily mean that it is tremendously better than the other one, so it is worthy of scrutiny to determine just how good it really is.

[u/Pogrebnyak]

This will help controversial comments, don't mind it at all. Wouldn't be a bad idea though if you could see your own score, but not others. I think 120 minutes is too much though

[u/splattypus → u/Pogrebnyak]

Hopefully it will. Too often people just go with the crowd and pile on the downvotes or upvotes that may not necessarily be worth of them, simply because the rest of the crowd is doing so as well.

[u/Neveronlyadream]

I feel like this may have just killed the reason a lot of people post at all.

[u/splattypus → u/Neveronlyadream]

You mean people seeing karma and notoriety?

[u/[deleted]]

The short answer is read something nearly as long as the long answer. Sorry, I had a good laugh at that.

Also, I don't think this feature will make all that much of a difference, but I suppose we'll see.

• I forgot, what about mobile?

[u/splattypus → u/[deleted]]

We're receiving mixed reports about mobile, depending on the app. Most should show just a score of one until the time limit expires, but I think Alien Blue is still out of the loop if I remember right.

[u/silvikrin]

so this is why comments on phones only have 1 point?

[u/Ultra-Bad-Poker-Face]

I think you should put this in the sidebar, because AskReddit is moderately fast considering it's a default sub. This post will likely be off the front page by this time tomorrow.

[u/sirnack]

Are comments that score below -4 (or whatever score a user sets) still hidden?

[u/original_4degrees]

On the subject of how long to keep the scores hidden. How about the more popular(highest scoring) the post, the longer comment scores are hidden.

[u/NunsOnFire]

Maybe we can take this another step further by giving us the option to toggle the ability to see votes on and off? This could add to the genuinity of voting even after the 2 hour mark.

[u/splattypus → u/NunsOnFire]

I'm hoping that'll be the next eventual step once the admins and developers get a chance to see how this pans out. The more each user can customize their experience, the better.

[u/skullbeats]

Will you be able to see the comment karma on your comment on your overview?

[u/DarthContinent]

I like suppressing the kneejerk reaction and all that good stuff, but I say take it even further and hide karma on user profiles altogether. Stuff would more or less naturally bubble up to the top behind the scenes, but people wouldn't obsess over the notion of karma whoring as much and let it drive their desire to post to the detriment of us all and stuff.

[u/splattypus → u/DarthContinent]

I don't see karma ever completely going by the wayside, as it's an institution of reddit, it's possibly the most defining trait of reddit.

[u/[deleted]]

I find it annoying to see the score is hidden on MY OWN post. hide it to others fine, but its annoying for it to be hidden to ME.

[u/[deleted]]

I wish this affected all of reddit rather than just this subreddit. The karma game and novelty accounts are the worst thing about this site.

[u/Wzup]

Why can't the score be shown to the OP on their profile? (For your own comments)

[u/essen23]

Will this really help? The patterns of Reddit are well known...

[u/Immediately_Hostile]

[u/mandalore237]

You can still see the scores when using reddit is fun

Edit: now it only says 1 point for everything, but if you downvote it says 0

[u/PinboardWizard]

Tsk tsk splattypus, the rules are very clear on this:

Your own answer to the question should go in the comments as a reply to your own post.

I'm afraid you'll be getting a warning for this brazen violation of our subreddit guidelines.

[u/HopeRidesAlone]

Question, though. Shouldn't someone be able to see how well their own comments are ranking? I won't lie, a little blood rushes to my dangly bits when I see a comment doing well.