zlacker

I think it's a capacity problem. Right now, the "system" (legit HN users) have the capacity to deal with dull and inane comments currently provided by dull and inane human commenters. If the dull and inane comments become automated they can arbitrarily increase their number until the system lacks the capacity to deal with them.

If there was one or ten bad comments on this thread - no problem. What if there were ten thousand bad comments?

>>ALittl+(OP)
But it has always been easy for simple bots to mass-produce bad comments. Nothing changes if they're still bad.

I'm concerned that too-well-written posts will be thrown out-- a race to the bottom in legibility and grammar just to make posts more human-like, even if written by bots.

>>ALittl+(OP)
>What if there were ten thousand bad comments?

The thread collapse "[–]" already exists.

>>ALittl+(OP)
To what benefit?

HN karma is pretty worthless outside of enabling a few capabilities here, and it's rather easy to attain those thresholds with some thoughtful participation.

What would be the point of flooding HN with tens of thousands of bot comments?

>>SoftTa+1l1
Maybe adding a few more hay bails to your Stylometry fingerprint?

>>SoftTa+1l1
> What would be the point of flooding HN with tens of thousands of bot comments?

Malice.