Jessamyn West, Technology Lady (2015) • Hacker News Board

Re: Jessamyn West, Technology Lady (2015)

#21

Post by vikasg » Thu, Aug 10, 2017, 9:09 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #19

vikasg wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While MeFi has its own blind spots, it is definitely one of the nicest communities online because of: (1) $5 fee to sign up. (2) It doesn't believe in absolute "free speech" like Reddit or HN. The moderators will tell you to cut it out.

Good grief! I'm not sure where you got that, but https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&prefix&page=0&dateRange=... and https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&prefix=false&page=0&date... and https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html .

I don't dispute that moderation exists on HN. I just think MeFi makes better trade-offs.

Re: Jessamyn West, Technology Lady (2015)

#22

Post by deepspace » Thu, Aug 10, 2017, 9:19 PM UTC

ddellacosta wrote: post #11

deepspace wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately you are several years too late. The site and community used to be amazing when Matt and Jessamyn ran the show, but went it started going downhill after Josh Millard took over and is now a shadow of its former self.

How has it gone downhill?

Maybe its just me, but back in the day (early 2000s) we used to have raucous (but still very civil) discussions about controversial topics, with little or no moderator interference.

Shortly after cortex joined, submissions and comments which did not conform to a very narrow set of socio-political viewpoints started getting censored, and these days there is pretty much no room for controversial content.

Sure, I can see that the site would look highly civil and somewhat interesting to a new user coming from, say, Reddit, but to me the fanatic censorship has turned the place into a boring echo chamber compared to what it used to be.

Re: Jessamyn West, Technology Lady (2015)

#23

Post by floatingatoll » Thu, Aug 10, 2017, 9:19 PM UTC

scrame wrote: post #4

jessamyn wrote: post #2

Hey!

Makes me wonder how much cross-pollination there is between HN and MeFi.

Indeed :)

Re: Jessamyn West, Technology Lady (2015)

#24

Post by floatingatoll » Thu, Aug 10, 2017, 9:21 PM UTC

deepspace wrote: post #9

jordigh wrote: post #6

> the community blog Metafilter, which is like the civilized version of Reddit. Wait, what? That sounds wonderful, I'm signing up.

Unfortunately you are several years too late. The site and community used to be amazing when Matt and Jessamyn ran the show, but went it started going downhill after Josh Millard took over and is now a shadow of its former self.

This statement does not necessarily reflect widely-held views of the active MetaFilter community.

Re: Jessamyn West, Technology Lady (2015)

#25

Post by markbnine » Thu, Aug 10, 2017, 9:22 PM UTC

Our local library is more like a free internet shop with half the terminals taken up by transients and the other half by kids from the nearby jr. high, playing shoot-em ups. It's impossible to get a terminal. They also have a huge DVD collection that rivals the old blockbusters. Not sure who's checking out books anymore.

Re: Jessamyn West, Technology Lady (2015)

#26

Post by mrbill » Thu, Aug 10, 2017, 9:37 PM UTC

deepspace wrote: post #9

jordigh wrote: post #6

> the community blog Metafilter, which is like the civilized version of Reddit. Wait, what? That sounds wonderful, I'm signing up.

Unfortunately you are several years too late. The site and community used to be amazing when Matt and Jessamyn ran the show, but went it started going downhill after Josh Millard took over and is now a shadow of its former self.

I beg to differ, I've seen nothing of the sort.

Re: Jessamyn West, Technology Lady (2015)

#27

Post by Chaebixi » Thu, Aug 10, 2017, 10:20 PM UTC

floatingatoll wrote: post #24

deepspace wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately you are several years too late. The site and community used to be amazing when Matt and Jessamyn ran the show, but went it started going downhill after Josh Millard took over and is now a shadow of its former self.

This statement does not necessarily reflect widely-held views of the active MetaFilter community.

I'm skeptical "the active MetaFilter community" is actually representative of "the MetaFilter community." It seems like is just the fraction who likes or at least tolerates the way it is now.

Re: Jessamyn West, Technology Lady (2015)

#28

Post by sien » Thu, Aug 10, 2017, 10:27 PM UTC

dws wrote: post #16

deepspace wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately you are several years too late. The site and community used to be amazing when Matt and Jessamyn ran the show, but went it started going downhill after Josh Millard took over and is now a shadow of its former self.

Huh? I've been hanging around Metafilter for many years. There have been changes since it ran on a box under Matt's desk, but "used to be amazing" to "going downhill"? Not seeing it. It's still one of the most civil places around.

It is very civil. But that's because it's an echo chamber where everyone must have the same views.

The parent is dead right. MeFi was interesting was then was civil disagreement.

It's still good for some funny cat pictures and stuff though.

Oh, and just for HN readers, MeFi these days seems to think Silicon Valley is full of Libertarian Brogrammers. There are comments saying how terrible HN is. Perhaps because there is more diversity of opinion here.

Re: Jessamyn West, Technology Lady (2015)

#29

Post by Chaebixi » Thu, Aug 10, 2017, 10:32 PM UTC

ddellacosta wrote: post #11

deepspace wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately you are several years too late. The site and community used to be amazing when Matt and Jessamyn ran the show, but went it started going downhill after Josh Millard took over and is now a shadow of its former self.

How has it gone downhill?

What was once an open place is now very, very constrained. The acceptable range of viewpoints has ratcheted into a narrower and narrower consensus, to the point where the discussions are boring and you have to be careful to not make them interesting. The viewpoint racheting alienated a lot of people from the site who used to feel like they were part of the community.

Re: Jessamyn West, Technology Lady (2015)

#30

Post by sanderjd » Thu, Aug 10, 2017, 10:35 PM UTC

markbnine wrote: post #25

Our local library is more like a free internet shop with half the terminals taken up by transients and the other half by kids from the nearby jr. high, playing shoot-em ups. It's impossible to get a terminal. They also have a huge DVD collection that rivals the old blockbusters. Not sure who's checking out books anymore.

My library is like that as well, except that there is a good "reserve a computer" system that means you just have to wait a bit to get one, and lots of people (including me!) are still regularly checking out books.