I don't think it will be a problem in practice, both because women will be able to endorse comments and because during the test period people endorsed most comments. The only comments that weren't endorsed were troll comments.
The most recent test period was brief (just a couple hours) so it isn't representative of how it will work out in practice, but that's why I think we should turn it on for 24 hours and see what happens.
EDIT: On reflection, I apologize for how dismissive my comment must've sounded. It wasn't my intention.
> The only comments that weren't endorsed were troll comments.
I have always browsed HN with showdead on; I occasionally see dead "troll comments" and I hardly ever see not-dead "troll comments" that are not at least slightly downvoted. It would seem to me that the downvote and flag mechanisms are already sufficient, therefore, against this class of "troll comments".
The real question is whether serious comments--maybe even ones some users would consider "highly informative"--that also happen to have "negative affect" (or, even more difficultly, which are subtly dismissive) will actually have a difficult time getting the endorsements required to be posted on the site.
(Separately, there is then the issue as to whether one's own biases alter what they even consider "negative affect". There are some other comments on this thread that talk about "tone policing" which point out some subtle issues in how people perceive the tone of others when they are in disagreements.)
I also will note that even if getting endorsements is not a problem, it seems important to not discount the emotional complexity of forcing people to submit themselves for "endorsement" to the group of people they may already feel are being dismissive of their viewpoint. I wrote more on this here:
I don't see that a brief test period is much of a model for sustained use. I think people will get tired of endorsing any strangers and mostly just look for friends' postings to let in.
The most recent test period was brief (just a couple hours) so it isn't representative of how it will work out in practice, but that's why I think we should turn it on for 24 hours and see what happens.
EDIT: On reflection, I apologize for how dismissive my comment must've sounded. It wasn't my intention.