<i>For the site owners, the money is in flame wars and troll-fests.</i><p>I know that for the Reddits at least this was not a conscious strategy. They didn't plan for Reddit comments to get they way they are now; it was just a byproduct of growth.
I've been thinking quite a bit recently on the subject of online forums; namely, why do they seem to inevitably deteriorate into a desperate, trolling flame-fest? More to the point, how can this be prevented? What can be learned from other forms of group communication, such as scientific journals?<p>The author makes a point that I hadn't really thought much about; namely, that observing the mayhem is itself entertaining to a large number of people, which in turn drives site owners to, at the very least unconsciously, permit nearly uncontrolled ass-hattery, in exchange for eyeballs and advertising revenue.<p>JoS seems to have maintained a decent signal-to-noise ratio; let's hope that Hacker News manages to do so as well.
<i>I have read that they [Y Combinator] give their investees t-shirts reading "Make what people want."</i><p>This is what happens when you believe everything you read: <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=157005" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=157005</a>
Drew Curtis says it well:<p>"right now everybody is talking about the wisdom of crowds, and all that—which is complete horse shit, and I think the next step is realizing that what crowds pick is pretty much pornography and Internet spam, and as a result you've got to have some editing involved there somewhere."<p><a href="http://www.smileypete.com/Articles-c-2008-03-31-75227.113117_What_the_FARK.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.smileypete.com/Articles-c-2008-03-31-75227.113117...</a>
I've been thinking that all other commenting systems suck compared to the one here. This is so nice and elegant compared to most. A little tweaking needed here or there maybe, but, aside from the unknown post links when you take too long to post, it's the best I've used.