HN comments are underrated

Post by Ar-Curunir » Sun, Oct 23, 2016, 11:16 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #131

toxican wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I still think HN probably has the better median, the quality of what you're exposed to on reddit is mostly up to you. Ditch the defaults and Reddit's median skyrockets. Ditch some of the more popular non-defaults, it skyrockets some more. Start building a list of well-moderated subreddits with a strong sense of community, and it jumps some more. Not that you're doing this with your comment, but it has always st…

So that's the obvious response, and I agree, I think --- the comparison does get trickier if you take just, say, AskHistorians versus HN (there are casual Redditisms condoned even on well-moderated subreddits that are annoying enough to keep the comparison tricky). But if you compare the basket of subreddits relevant to HN --- programming, crypto, etc --- right now, I feel like HN is winning handily. Reddit only star…

Post by cperciva » Sun, Oct 23, 2016, 11:21 PM UTC

kuschku wrote: post #294

VodkaHaze wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This: > The subreddit arguing that it’s reasonable to give companies power over democratically legitimated governments Is a massive strawman if you're referring to ISDS (which is what it seems). If you want a trade agreement, the terms need enforcement to be unilateral. But political actors in each respective countries will be incentivized not to respect that by internal pressures. So there needs to be a way to settl…

> Go look at supreme court cases The supreme courts are democratically determined and justified. For ISDS courts, half of the judges are appointed by the company that is suing. For ICS courts, all the judges are appointed by the nations taking part. That’s why ICS is acceptable, but ISDS is not. > Democratically elected governments can act in ways just as abhorrent as any other entity Correct, but democratically elec…

Post by steveklabnik » Sun, Oct 23, 2016, 11:40 PM UTC

pjc50 wrote: post #180

anexprogrammer wrote: post #3

HN comments are full of naive political opinion, groupthink, and a tendency to blind optimism on all things technology or new. Often older ways have merit too. It's also probably the only place left on the net where, from comments, I'll find out rapidly, and bluntly with citations, when I'm wrong (and, yes I'm often wrong on the Internet!), usually learn something new on the topic, and sometimes talk with the guy who…

I keep meaning to scrape my comments over the years, collate the most upvoted ones, then publish in a blog/ebook somewhere with a bit of commentary on what it appears that HN "likes". The API doesn't quite facilitate this, unlike most sites which will just let you sort your comments by votes. On HN politics, while the comments often have a substantial presence of doctrinaire libertarians, I feel that the voters skew…

Post by BeetleB » Sun, Oct 23, 2016, 11:50 PM UTC

latch wrote: post #60

coldtea wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Because there are a lot of topics, even in my professional field, that I simply don't have the necessary foundation. And what makes you think that the "majority vote" on them will be correct? Most often, it's the majority that doesn't have the necessary foundation.

It's not an all-or-nothing. It's an extra piece of information. There might be valid reasons to remove it (it hurts the community, it leads to negative behavior, .... I forget why they took it off). But when it comes to trying to assess the quality of the comment, more data is better than less. Then you have the option to weigh it as you see fit, including ignoring it.

Post by tomcam » Mon, Oct 24, 2016, 12:09 AM UTC

anexprogrammer wrote: post #3

HN comments are full of naive political opinion, groupthink, and a tendency to blind optimism on all things technology or new. Often older ways have merit too. It's also probably the only place left on the net where, from comments, I'll find out rapidly, and bluntly with citations, when I'm wrong (and, yes I'm often wrong on the Internet!), usually learn something new on the topic, and sometimes talk with the guy who…