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Poll: Would you like to see this site become CS/Startup related only?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Poll: Would you like to see this site become CS/Startup related only?

#41

Post by stcredzero »

mattmaroon wrote: post #36
vaksel wrote: post #4

if you want cs/hacker + politics, go to reddit. I personally think the way the site is no is perfect, sure some offtopic stuff goes to the front page, but almost all of the content is cs/hacker/startup only

Reddit is cs/hacker + socialist politics + flamewars. Also, I find that comment to be very akin to "if you don't like something about America, move to another country."

The USA has inclusiveness in its charter. A social news site is free to be as inclusive or exclusive as it cares to be. If the mix of topics on HN is not to someone's liking, then moving elsewhere is a valid suggestion. For me, it wouldn't be a good one, though.

Re: Poll: Would you like to see this site become CS/Startup related only?

#42

Post by stcredzero »

finebanana wrote: post #25

I'll be happy to see anything here but TechCrunch links. The f kin TechCrunch links for god sake!

I'm curious to know why TechCrunch is not appreciated. Has it, in your opinion, become some sort of new "Startup Mainstream" that purveys a consensus that's become a bit separated from reality?

I find TechCrunch to be a good news source for its particular niche. But I don't always find news intellectually stimulating.

Re: Poll: Would you like to see this site become CS/Startup related only?

#43

Post by stcredzero »

mattmaroon wrote: post #33
tjr wrote: post #12

Ambivalent. I began reading this site for the startup/programming articles and discussion, and if the site were to adhere strictly to such topics, I wouldn't mind at all. However, folks here are generally quite intelligent and civil. I do enjoy seeing and participating in discussions on a wide variety of topics here -- from religion to politics to economics to whatever -- where the discussion stays mostly kind and th…

Right. I feel that even as this site covers slightly more mainstream topics, it does so in a much different way than Reddit. The bar is higher, the discussion more intelligent and civil. You really can't go to Reddit/Digg for intelligent "mainstream interests". You can go there for unintelligent ravingly liberal interests. I find myself slightly left of center, but those sites seem to border on socialist.

I hope we can avoid rabid libertarianism here. It seems to me that I've been downmodded recently because I might disagree with that ideology, even though my position was entirely orthogonal.

Re: Poll: Would you like to see this site become CS/Startup related only?

#44

Post by wheels »

A poll, naturally, will convey what the group of people here voting tend towards, which seems rather pointless. You can get a feel for what the voting crowd would like by seeing how they vote.

The important question in my mind is, "Why did you come here and what will make you stay?" And for me personally, another important question is, "What is your connection with startups?" A much more interesting poll I found was this one:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=223846

It established that most of the voting crowd here actually has nothing to do with startups and only one in five of the folks that vote here have founded one.

From my perspective that, if the trend continues, endangers my reason for being here (and I suspect the reason that most of of came here in the first place). If Hacker News moves in the direction of simply being another nerd-news outlet, it'll be a second-rate one. The opinions I value, honestly, are not that of the majority, but of the interesting minority that are the raison d'être of this site.

Re: Poll: Would you like to see this site become CS/Startup related only?

#45

Post by iamelgringo »

christefano wrote: post #7

I wish I could vote for 1 and 2, like "yes, cs/hacker stuff that's intellectually stimulating." news.ycombinator.com is less interesting to me now than when it was known as Startup News. In the year that it's been called "Hacker News" the posts have been far more general than I'd like. If I wanted that I'd spend time at Reddit.

I'm actually finding more hackerish stuff on Reddit than here now that Reddit is so customizable. The re-write really helped people to adjust the signal to noise ratio on Reddit. I just don't think that too many people have tried it out, yet.

My current sub-reddits:

    * Worldnews
    * Programming
    * Business
    * Geek
    * Python
    * Scifi
    * Cogsci
    * Politics
    * Funny
    * Science
    * Technology
    * Linux
    * Lolcats
    * Energy
    * Math
    * Ruby
    * Haskell
It gives me a pretty decent mix of Hackerish news with some fun stuff and politics mixed in as well. The startup news and quality of discussion on this site is still far superior to Reddit, however.

Re: Poll: Would you like to see this site become CS/Startup related only?

#46

Post by jonknee »

mattmaroon wrote: post #39
finebanana wrote: post #25

I'll be happy to see anything here but TechCrunch links. The f kin TechCrunch links for god sake!

TechCrunch seems to fit within everyone's definition of on-topic here.

I didn't see baseless hype/analysis anywhere in the definition.

Re: Poll: Would you like to see this site become CS/Startup related only?

#47

Post by orib »

I really do want to see more bias towards science/computer science stuff, but this is one place where I can come for general intellectually stimulating reads.

So long as the content continues to be mostly well written/well thought out, with a geeky bent I'll be happy.

Re: Poll: Would you like to see this site become CS/Startup related only?

#48

Post by orib »

stcredzero wrote: post #42
finebanana wrote: post #25

I'll be happy to see anything here but TechCrunch links. The f kin TechCrunch links for god sake!

I'm curious to know why TechCrunch is not appreciated. Has it, in your opinion, become some sort of new "Startup Mainstream" that purveys a consensus that's become a bit separated from reality? I find TechCrunch to be a good news source for its particular niche. But I don't always find news intellectually stimulating.

Because it tends to be a linkbait machine, and generally doesn't seem to be intellectually stimulating, newsworthy, well researched, or well written.

Re: Poll: Would you like to see this site become CS/Startup related only?

#50

Post by notdarkyet »

Locke wrote: post #35

I'd like it if the site were a little less self conscience. As a lot of sites like this grow, it seems like they all go through a sort of navel gazing, meta lovefest. This is odd to me because the whole voting thing should mean that whatever the site is , is what we want . There should be enough wiggle room for the site to magically change with our changing interests. And, yet, not so much wiggle room that it can be…

The reason that I frequent this site is because of the self consciousness that most individuals uphold to allow themselves to compose thoughtful and meaningful posts. I don't think the concern for most of the community is the genre of the articles, rather, the quality of those posts and the conversations that follow. There really is use and interest in talking about such matters within the community because for the most part, the HN community is mostly composed of refugees from sites like reddit and digg that no longer find a use in wasting their time in thought and contribution to a hopeless cause. The greatness of this community is the ability scale yet retain users that post over one sentence and thankfully avoid trying to be the thread clown and get the wittiest post (yet when they are lacking in quantity they make up for in quality).

I don't know if I have made my point clear (which is not out of the ordinary), but there always seems to be posts on the current state of the community which to me is always a good thing. When the most sites grow they tend to be come deluded and the core users become disenfranchised and subsequently the site runs on a wild course. I have had a long day and I don't even know what I am talking about at this point, but to me the greatest fear this community should have is the quality of posts, not the topic of conversation (the focus should be on intellectualism).

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