In response to this old feature request to lower the score threshold at which answers are blurred here on Meta SE, @Shog9 replied (emphasis mine):
I've lowered the threshold to -8 for consistency with the score at which we drop questions from the homepage.
Ditto for the handful of other meta sites where this actually matters.
Now, this was over 6 years ago, and naturally the feature request is marked status-completed. But, more Meta sites have high activity today as compared to 6 years ago, so I request that we take another look at which of them could have their threshold lowered from -3.
I think there is an advantage to doing so simply because voting is different on Meta. And @BenjaminGruenbaum put it quite well in an answer to that feature request:
I think that this visual cue is not useful in meta where answers express agreement and disagreement rather than usefulness of the answer. Reading an unpopular opinion is useful and helps me make up my mind on a subject. I almost always read the majority of answers when reading a thread on meta where on SO I almost always only read the first, or top two answers. Again, this is because these unpopular opinions make sense in meta and may still be useful.
The sites that have the threshold currently set at -8 are also among the oldest sites on the network, and they are:
- Stack OverflowStack Overflow
- Server FaultServer Fault
- Meta Stack ExchangeMeta Stack Exchange
- Super UserSuper User
- MathOverflowMathOverflow
- Ask UbuntuAsk Ubuntu
- Stack Overflow em PortuguêsStack Overflow em Português
This list misses a lot of sites with heavy traffic today, including (but not limited to):
- English Language & UsageEnglish Language & Usage
- ArqadeArqade
- MathematicsMathematics
- Stack Overflow на русскомStack Overflow на русском
- Science Fiction & FantasyScience Fiction & Fantasy
- PhysicsPhysics
- Role-playing GamesRole-playing Games
Each of these sites has a large number of questions with scores less than or equal to -3 and -8 on their respective Metas (comparable, comparable with the sites in the first list, except (except SO and MSE, which are anyway exceptional).
I understand that lowering the threshold does not make sense for those sites with low Meta activity (in particular, with little voting) happening on their Metas. I don't have a cut-off in mind for what counts as "high activity", but I'm sure some line can be drawn that is more reasonable than the current status quo.
So, can the list of Meta sites that have -8 as the threshold score for blurring of answers on Meta be expanded to include more "high activity" Meta sites?
