Don’t forget that HN is also self moderated through upvotes/downvotes (I’ve never used Reddit, does it have similar?). This does two things IMO—first, low quality posts become less and less readable which reduces incentive to make inflammatory posts, but second it also imposes self moderation (except for users that resort to throwaway accounts) since losing too many karma points removes some of your ability to participate on the site.
> but second it also imposes self moderation (except for users that resort to throwaway accounts) since losing too many karma points removes some of your ability to participate on the site.
Uh, absolutely not the case. All you need to do is to not post bullshit all the time to be in positive on karma.
It's even worse on reddit (if you want closest approximate it would be like HN instance-per topic(subreddit)) where karma is global so you could get karma on one subreddit and lose on another and be net positive even easier.
the up/down vote thing mostly works but in bigger communities it quickly turns from "quality/garbage comment" to "I agree/I disagree" button
