Good tools already exist to do automated sentiment analysis. It would be extremely interesting to build forum software for HN that detects when a commenter is going too far with negativity and then gently guides that person to tone it down a bit while the comment is still being composed.
Maybe a few gentle prompts at the right moment is all it really takes.
I'd love to be wrong about this, but believe that the sentiment tools are too crude to rely on. They tend to get the nuances of conversation wrong, and those are the life blood of HN threads.
We do intend to try it, though, when we have the cycles. It might be useful as a supplement, or if nothing else a fun experiment.
Good tools already exist to do automated sentiment analysis. It would be extremely interesting to build forum software for HN that detects when a commenter is going too far with negativity and then gently guides that person to tone it down a bit while the comment is still being composed.
Maybe a few gentle prompts at the right moment is all it really takes.