I'm wondering what the community consensus is around joking comments here on Hacker News. I used HN search to look up some previous comments on the issue that appeared in earlier threads, some as recent as yesterday. What do you think? Are we looking for jokes here on HN? Or is the community looking for something else from comments? Is it a matter of distinguishing insightful or deep jokes from lame or thoughtless jokes? What do you think? I'd appreciate your thoughts on this issue.
Ask HN: What is the role of jokes in Hacker News comments?
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Re: Ask HN: What is the role of jokes in Hacker News comments?
#2If I want jokes, I go to reddit. I think, for the most part, they don't belong here.
Re: Ask HN: What is the role of jokes in Hacker News comments?
#3beep boop boop boop i am a programmer and i am a robot boop boop beep boop
Re: Ask HN: What is the role of jokes in Hacker News comments?
#4If I want jokes, I go to reddit. I think, for the most part, they don't belong here.
I'm ok with clever, on topic jokes on HN but in general i agree.
Re: Ask HN: What is the role of jokes in Hacker News comments?
#5The best sort of jokes are those that are (a) funny and (b) implicit in some substantive comment.
Unfortunately most jokes here, as on most forums, fail on both counts. The most common way to fail (a) seems to be to recycle overused catch phrases in insufficiently novel ways.
Re: Ask HN: What is the role of jokes in Hacker News comments?
#6If I want jokes, I go to reddit. I think, for the most part, they don't belong here.
This sort of comment highlights the problem of not showing comment scores. I agree with David, so I upvote him. However, no one knows that I agreed with David unless I specifically comment with a "+1" or something else (such as this comment). The way it is now, only those who understand the inner workings of the site's comment showing algo know that, because David's comment is (at the time of this writing) the top comment, that means that either (a) David's comment has been upvoted the most, or (b) David has a high karma, or (c) etc, etc. I wish I could just see a (46) next to David's comment - that would validate my agreement with David moreso than just "Here - have an upvote".
Re: Ask HN: What is the role of jokes in Hacker News comments?
#7Most comments that don't add substantively to the discussion seem to generate downvotes. Which is too bad, as I like the funny.
That said, it seems like it would be hard to control for only occasional (and ideally funny) jokes in a community like this -- if jokes were generally rewarded, hn could become a jokefest like Reddit, dramatically reducing the signal-to-noise ration many of us appreciate it for.
TL;DR - use jokes sparingly, and make 'em good.
(edited for a typo)
Re: Ask HN: What is the role of jokes in Hacker News comments?
#8What is love?
Re: Ask HN: What is the role of jokes in Hacker News comments?
#9The best sort of jokes are those that are (a) funny and (b) implicit in some substantive comment. Unfortunately most jokes here, as on most forums, fail on both counts. The most common way to fail (a) seems to be to recycle overused catch phrases in insufficiently novel ways.
Thanks for the reply. I was wondering, because of a rather bizarre comment I saw (and replied to) earlier today. I thought the most charitable interpretation of the comment was that it was an attempt at a joke.
Re: Ask HN: What is the role of jokes in Hacker News comments?
#10They make the aspies nervous