We also have some new features to prevent flamewars. The most conspicuous is an exponential delay before reply links appear on deeply nested comments. We’d noticed these were rarely the most interesting comments on the site. We’re hoping that instead of killing stupid arguments, it will be sufficient to apply gradually increasing drag to them.

— 29 Apr 2009: Faster, Fewer Flamewars

— Paul Graham

2012.02.03 Friday ACHK