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Ask HN: Where do you go for civil discussion on the Internet?

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Re: Ask HN: Where do you go for civil discussion on the Internet?

#121

Post by deepspace »

Tomte wrote: post #90
barrkel wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Metafilter is a borderline groupthink echo chamber, so heavy is the moderation. It's best for purely factual stuff. Stray into opinion stuff, and it's really narrow and slanted.

I'd call it "toxic", from the one and only discussion I participated in. Sure, probably an outlier. Bad luck. But I still hate thinking back to that experience, and I survived Usenet flamewars just fine.

No, not an outlier. Metafilter used to be great, but it has definitely deteriorated into a toxic echo chamber. Opinions that do not fit in with the groupthink are not tolerated there.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you go for civil discussion on the Internet?

#122

Post by joe_the_user »

zelon88 wrote: post #101

I frequent several private FB groups that cover a wide range of topics. Like technology, politics, and cars. I find that if you seek out specific groups of enthusiastic people who share your passions (but not neccesarily your perspective) the discussion is usually more insightful and respectful. You basically need to get off of main street and step into a little coffee shop to hear the gossip behind the gossip. Where…

Yeah,

On FB, there can be groups that are entirely uncivil and groups that are fairly - it depends on who sets them up and for what purpose, it doesn't necessarily depend on the subject matter.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you go for civil discussion on the Internet?

#123

Post by simonswords82 »

eloy wrote: post #13

I'd say Reddit. There are some heavy moderated subreddits for insightful discussions, like reddit.com/r/truereddit. Because Reddit has a voting system like HN, quality content is being upvoted and shown as first. If you search you can probably find some more subreddits with less general content. And HN is of course a really great website for such discussions, with a lot of highly intelligent people that post quite le…

Reddit's greatest strength (the subreddit architecture) is also its greatest weakness. Subs attract groups of likeminded individuals usually with a particular interest, and as such a default tone and set of opinions are preset within a sub before you arrive.

If you fail to understand what the preset rules of engagement and opinions are you're going to have a bad time. Worse still, if you happen to disagree with the general consensus of a sub your opinion will simply be downvoted and your voice will not be heard. You're very unlikely to be educated by existing sub members as to why your opinion is wrong with any real sense of perspective because the hive mind has kicked in and you're not aligned with it.

The larger the sub, the more this problem is exacerbated as there are more people ready and waiting to hit the downvote button. This means that you're very unlikely to encounter a balanced and sensible (aka civil) discussion on Reddit.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you go for civil discussion on the Internet?

#125

Post by dgb23 »

ultramancool wrote: post #71
creshal wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There's a site that indexes reddit's most downvoted posts Link?

http://notreddit.top Not much political stuff on the past day right now but if you look at the past month's posts about the US presidential candidates you'll see what I'm talking about.

Disclaimer: Observing your election from europe, I have no skin in the game.

It seems to me that your current election is a bit of a special entity, so this data might be a bit skewed. I don't know a single conservative/right/center minded person who would support the current repuplican nominee if she/he could. I think this comes from the fact that he is a very unique candidate. Saying that anti Trump is anti right doesn't acknoledge this.

There are also more general issues. Most public political discussions are not so much political but mostly ideological aka not meaningful. People who follow ideologies are self imposing an anti discussion barrier. Your two party system enforces this.

If I want political discussion and/or information then I talk to friends or read/share interesting long form articles. Democracy is complex and full of kompromises aka hard, so "quick and dirty" just doesn't cut it.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you go for civil discussion on the Internet?

#126

Post by ScottBurson »

simonswords82 wrote: post #123
eloy wrote: post #13

I'd say Reddit. There are some heavy moderated subreddits for insightful discussions, like reddit.com/r/truereddit. Because Reddit has a voting system like HN, quality content is being upvoted and shown as first. If you search you can probably find some more subreddits with less general content. And HN is of course a really great website for such discussions, with a lot of highly intelligent people that post quite le…

Reddit's greatest strength (the subreddit architecture) is also its greatest weakness. Subs attract groups of likeminded individuals usually with a particular interest, and as such a default tone and set of opinions are preset within a sub before you arrive. If you fail to understand what the preset rules of engagement and opinions are you're going to have a bad time. Worse still, if you happen to disagree with the g…

Exacerbated.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you go for civil discussion on the Internet?

#127

Post by simonswords82 »

ScottBurson wrote: post #126
simonswords82 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reddit's greatest strength (the subreddit architecture) is also its greatest weakness. Subs attract groups of likeminded individuals usually with a particular interest, and as such a default tone and set of opinions are preset within a sub before you arrive. If you fail to understand what the preset rules of engagement and opinions are you're going to have a bad time. Worse still, if you happen to disagree with the g…

Exacerbated.

It was a test to see if anybody read to the end. And thanks :)

Re: Ask HN: Where do you go for civil discussion on the Internet?

#128

Post by dgb23 »

andruby wrote: post #14
sergiotapia wrote: post #4

Almost all of the popular communities online lean left, take your pick. You have much slimmer pickings if you're a conservative. http://gab.ai recently launched as a pro free-speech twitter alternative, I would also check them out.

Maybe the world in general has a different definition of "center" than the US.

I can't speak for the world but in switzerland we have a similar distribution. The big exception is that we are way more skeptical towards people who put on a big show. We like it way more moderate. Wannabe alpha wolves get ridiculed here.

Re: Ask HN: Where do you go for civil discussion on the Internet?

#129

Post by daveloyall »

gunn wrote: post #17

I've been wondering: would it be practical to build a reddit/HN like system where the comments you see are by authors you've upvoted before, or authors they've upvoted before? This way everyone can comment, and the low effort jokes etc. can still exist but you personally only see them if that's what you enjoy. Currently we give every comment a single universal score. It's hard to come up with a simple set of rules th…

I think you're describing the algorithm behind the Facebook news feed (minus pay-for-play).

Re: Ask HN: Where do you go for civil discussion on the Internet?

#130

Post by thex10 »

losteverything wrote: post #68

If you are asking a place online that equates to in-person discussions, I would say there isn't any. As I told my kid when I showed him mosaic, the screen is not a human. Humans have kindness and compassion. The screen is to get things. To some it is a way to make a living. The screen can never be generous; that is learned at the home. Ann Landers and Dear Abby. Ever hear of them? Newspaper columnists who answered re…

> As I told my kid when I showed him mosaic, the screen is not a human. Humans have kindness and compassion. The screen is to get things. To some it is a way to make a living. The screen can never be generous; that is learned at the home.

I really like this, thank you for sharing.

As for getting advice on the Internet - there are many quandaries about which one might rather ask the Internet than a person they've met for a variety of reasons.

* They don't know anyone with expertise in $THING

* You want a more objective opinion (who better than someone you don't know?)

* Asking someone they know is likely to create bad consequences (makes them worry! makes them judge you! makes them retaliate! makes them jump to a crazy conclusion and attack someone else! makes them report you to $AGENCY)

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