It crashed in latest Safari pretty much soon as the chat started...
Show HN: Mest – Place to talk with those you disagree with
71–80 of 234 posts
Re: Show HN: Mest – Place to talk with those you disagree with
#72Your bundle.js file is 4.4MB and took 30 seconds to load (given several attempts). I would consider getting that under control, at the very least gzip the file.
How can a site like this require that much clientside javascript?
It probably shouldn't but JS doesn't have much of a standard library so it's easy to make unfair comparisons.
How big do you think a java client to do the same thing would be?
Re: Show HN: Mest – Place to talk with those you disagree with
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
How can a site like this require that much clientside javascript?
it's 2016
What a horrible place 2016 is.
The JavaScript is uncompressed and has 6 columns of comment characters on every line. There's really no excuse. This site did not even need JavaScript.
Re: Show HN: Mest – Place to talk with those you disagree with
#74There are disagreements over opinions and there are disagreements over basic facts, and I'm just done with arguing with crazy people who have their own weird realities.
Re: Show HN: Mest – Place to talk with those you disagree with
#75While I think that tech tools like this have the potential to be great, so far I think technology has made the problem worse. My conclusion from my recent experiences over the last year or so with the election and before (and volunteering/organizing volunteers therefor) is that people don't just need to communicate, we need to interact, and my observation is that this needs to happen (or at the very least works best) face to face. Talking to someone over the phone or maybe with video chat could work but anything that separates you from the person you are communicating with creates barriers for that communication (I am convinced). Communicating with people face to face (whether they agree with you or not) is one of the most basic and satisfying parts of being human and we're finding more and more ways to not do that.
Re: Show HN: Mest – Place to talk with those you disagree with
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
A two party system is a large part of this problem. One group validates itself by demonizing the only other player in town. It's toxic and it energizes the most self-serving of us.
Do they actually want different things though? In the UK it seems like all the politicians want the same - and all the people want the opposite.
They want to get elected. So, in that regard they want the same thing. What you say to get elected is largely irrelevant, particularly if you can suggest the opposing party is more evil.
The goal isn't to be a good candidate, qualified, or even ethical... its to get elected out of a contest of two people.
Who ever uses the media most wins. It doesn't even have to be favorable news coverage or even make sense. Who ever appears on the screen the most or gets their name mentioned the most wins. Again, its only a contest out of two people and the general population is easily energized by emotions.
Re: Show HN: Mest – Place to talk with those you disagree with
#77Great idea, trying to use it but it seems broken. Chat cuts off after two lines. Have tried it about 10 times. Please fix?
Re: Show HN: Mest – Place to talk with those you disagree with
#78There are disagreements over opinions and there are disagreements over basic facts, and I'm just done with arguing with crazy people who have their own weird realities.
Even in the face of basic facts, people are still not very forthcoming in wanting to engage in a rational discourse.
For instance, people who lost their minds that Bush misled the public on the WMD's in Iraq, were just fine arguing the fact that Obama lied when he said if I like my doctor, I can keep my doctor or when he said my health care costs would go down $2,500/year. I'm sorry, but you can't accuse one party of lying, then defend your guy when he lies.
The problem with where we are now is that people's realities are too closely tied with their political views. So even when they are presented with facts, it's hard for them to accept it as being true or reliable.
Re: Show HN: Mest – Place to talk with those you disagree with
#79Came across this paper this AM regarding the attempts to get non-alike people to mingle:
"In this paper, we hypothesize, first, that previous approaches have not worked because they have been direct -- they have tried to explicitly connect people with those having opposing views on sensitive issues."
Re: Show HN: Mest – Place to talk with those you disagree with
#80Really like the idea. Messages wouldn't go through though after a few interactions and couldn't submit a bug.
There is clearly a need for dialogue after such a divisive campaign, it would be even better before people cast ballots though. The media clearly don't help facilitate interaction between different elements of society, but rather act as an echo chambers for a lot of people. Whether it is The Guardian, Washington Post or Fox News and Breitbart. I'm British and was surprised by Brexit, however this didn't catch me by surprise. Such a huge disconnect has formed in both the US and UK. Although there are valid concerns as to how we implement dialogue the potential is huge. If we don't take these attempts seriously we risk becoming so polarised that ugly outcomes will be guaranteed.