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Jessamyn West, Technology Lady (2015)

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Re: Jessamyn West, Technology Lady (2015)

#51

Post by Mz »

vikasg wrote: post #21
dang wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's just your opinion, which not everyone will share, and it is rather gauche to say it here. It is possible to compliment mefi on HN without insulting HN in the process.

Re: Jessamyn West, Technology Lady (2015)

#52

Post by gumboshoes »

deepspace wrote: post #22
ddellacosta wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 se…

To put it another way, the mods are modding. They're modding out reposts. Repetitiveness. Copypasta. The same-old rehashes. Trolls. Vitriol. Attacks on other users. Rule violations. Pile-ons. That's what makes it great and better than most of Reddit on any given day. That modding affects everyone. I had a comment deleted just last week: I was too chatty on an Ask Metafilter response and bloop, away it went.

Re: Jessamyn West, Technology Lady (2015)

#54

Post by DashRattlesnake »

arkitaip wrote: post #44
deepspace wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 se…

Cortex has been a member since 2001 and a mod since 2007. You mean it's been going downhill for a decade because cortex? C'mon, don't be silly now.

> Cortex has been a member since 2001 and a mod since 2007. You mean it's been going downhill for a decade because cortex? C'mon, don't be silly now.

That's a lot like trying to dispute the effect of Donald Trump's presidency on the US by noting that he has been an American since he was born.

Re: Jessamyn West, Technology Lady (2015)

#55

Post by archagon »

scrame wrote: post #4
jessamyn wrote: post #2

Hey!

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

I feel MeFi is a bit allergic to the politics of HN. For example, the recent Google discussion would have gone over very differently there. (I say this without passing judgement, since I tend to ping-pong back and forth between both sites.)

Re: Jessamyn West, Technology Lady (2015)

#56

Post by sillysaurus3 »

rwallace wrote: post #46
booksnobbery wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes anyone's needs or social status less valid than any other library patron?

I don't think it's valid to prioritize access on the basis of social status, but I do think it's valid to prioritize need before entertainment. If you're playing a game and someone comes along who needs to fill out a job application form and there are no free terminals, you have a moral obligation to give up your seat.

I'd disagree with this. Entertainment is one of the basic human needs. Many games also require a certain amount of time to complete, and some games have severe penalties associated with leaving because it ruins the experience for all the other players.

One way to deal with this situation is to disallow entertainment on certain computers. That way there are always computers available. Still, in the era of everybody having an internet-capable mobile phone, the original premise seems suspect. In fact, the people using library computers to play games seem more likely to be the ones who need it most. Many kids don't have a home PC capable of running the games, whereas pretty much everybody has the internet.

Re: Jessamyn West, Technology Lady (2015)

#57

Post by sien »

arkitaip wrote: post #39
sien wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. Everyone piling on and 'favouriting' how bad Conservatives | Trump | Business | Capitalism | Libertarians | Rupert Murdoch are is very dull. It's still good for some funny cat pictures and stuff though. Oh, and just for HN readers, MeFi thes…

Mefi has always been to the left, everyone knows it. Just because it doesn't align your your politics doesn't make it bad. Probably does you good to get out of your own bubble.

Sure, that's very true about it being to the left. But there was more dissent in the past and perhaps with fewer people who actually knew and respected each other there was better discussion.

Diversity of opinion is important. Having people present their arguments well is important. But that goes down when it's just a festival of agreement.

Oddly, it's better at HN. Perhaps because there is less politics and more stuff where people actually have useful expertise.

Re: Jessamyn West, Technology Lady (2015)

#58

Post by nether »

archagon wrote: post #55
scrame wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I feel MeFi is a bit allergic to the politics of HN. For example, the recent Google discussion would have gone over very differently there. (I say this without passing judgement, since I tend to ping-pong back and forth between both sites.)

If you want a taste of MeFi politics, here's a fun one: http://www.metafilter.com/151267/Wheres-My-Cut-On-Unpaid-Emo...

Re: Jessamyn West, Technology Lady (2015)

#59

Post by sien »

arkitaip wrote: post #41
acdha wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're the second person I've heard make that claim but I don't think it's anywhere near as accepted as you're presenting it. I personally don't see a quality hit so much as the general decline in all sites which aren't Facebook and when Google chose to cut their ad revenue by ~40% which forced them to lay off moderators: https://matt.haughey.com/on-the-future-of-metafilter-941d15e...

There has been no decline in quality and blaming cortex is utter bullshit. My guess is that the haters never liked mefi in the first place and are abusing the change in management to attack the site.

Blaming Cortex is nonsense.

But there are people commenting who say they have visited the site for a decade and got bored of it when it became an echo chamber.

Perhaps all sites like it decline. Slashdot, Kuro5hin and many others are a sad shadow of what they used to be.

Maybe HN in 5-10 years will be pretty sad too.

Re: Jessamyn West, Technology Lady (2015)

#60

Post by floatingatoll »

Chaebixi wrote: post #27
floatingatoll wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I wouldn’t know if it is or not. You could poll them, but they’re inactive, so they wouldn’t see the poll.
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