I remember this system. I had to apply to do it after my account was old enough, then they’d give me a little bit to rate at first. Then IIRC they gave me more to rate after it was clear I wasn’t abusing it.

They had a guideline page I had to read before I started to rate comments and I don’t think those attributes were optional. So, comments got a primary attribute associated with their rating.

I wasn’t able to rate comments that I saw as I browsed but rather it was a collective rating system where volunteers were served comments (with expandable context) to curb the tendency to downvote just because you disagree with something.

At the height of Slashdot the discussions on there were incredibly educational and thoughtful and that rating system worked very well.

Thirded.

Thank you, Mr. PipedLinkBot.

Check these out:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tc4ROCJYbm0 AT&T Archives: The Unix Operating System (check channel for more)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DdoGPav3fc Computer Chronicles: Unix (search the channel for more related videos)
• https://www.redhat.com/en/command-line-heroes/season-1/os-wars-part-1 The podcast series Command Line Heroes produced by Redhat includes many episodes that get into history related to Linux. Pick your way through the different seasons and pick out some episodes. Browse the companion site for supplemental material, for example, this post: https://www.redhat.com/en/blog/linux-and-enduring-magic-unix