Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 81 posts

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

#61

Post by shiranaihito »

swombat wrote: post #58
rokhayakebe wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

news.ycombinator.com is less interesting to me now than when it was known as Startup News aka Evolution. EDIT: And for every single person who find HN less interesting, there are 100 new users who love what you have helped built. Be happy.

Hardly. Not to sound rude or anything, but I don't give a crap about the other 100 users. I care about what news I read. Ultimately this is pg's site and he can do whatever the heck he wants with it. Whenever I state my dislike of a specific article, I'm not making some grand statement about what YCNews should be to fulfill the purpose of the universe, only about what I personally would prefer to see (or not) on this…

> Not to sound rude or anything, but I don't give a crap about the other 100 users. I care about what news I read.

Fair enough.

In this case, I'm more concerned about how realistic the alleged 1:100 ratio of unhappy/happy users is.

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

#62

Post by Allocator2008 »

I would say no, anything stimulating should go, at least stuff relating to maths and science. Dijkstra said c.s. has as little to do with computers as astronomy does to telescopes. Meaning that computers are an aid to understanding the theory of computation and information, which for Dijstra is properly a branch of maths, and are not an end in themselves, just as telescopes are an aid to understanding the stars, not an end in themselves. Therefore as c.s. may be viewed as a branch of maths and science, it should seem fair to allow posts relating to other branches of math and science too.

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

#63

Post by lbrandy »

iamelgringo wrote: post #45
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…

* Lolcats

Aren't you supposed to keep that a secret?

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

#64

Post by stcredzero »

orib wrote: post #48
stcredzero wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

So it has the same problems as a lot of the news, then?

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

#65

Post by astine »

stcredzero wrote: post #41
mattmaroon wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The USA has inclusiveness in its charter. A social news site is free to be as inclusive or exclusive as it cares to be.

Sure, but that attitude still makes you an asshole.

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

#66

Post by meredydd »

mattmaroon wrote: post #29
sh1mmer wrote: post #6

I would add a forth choice personally: mostly cs/hacker stuff, with some intellectually stimulating stuff That's actually the balance I feel we have right now. I voted for "no, anything intellectually stimulating" because that seems to be what we have no and it seems to be working (for me).

I didn't put that in because as a guideline it's unenforceable. But given the current guidelines, it does seem to create what we have now (which I too like). I only posted this poll because the only thing I'm 100% sure is valueless and off-topic is the "this is off-topic" comment that invariably ends up on anything not overtly CS/startup related.

the only thing I'm 100% sure is valueless and off-topic is the "this is off-topic" comment that

Actually, I'm not even sure about that. It seems to me that the average opinion here is in favour of most posts being about technical/startup topics, but that it's good to have a few interesting posts that fall outside that category - provided they don't overwhelm the 'normal' content of the site.

In that case, then, the comments saying "This is off-topic" - and the degree to which they are voted up - provide a barometer: They indicate to what extent people feel that the 'off-topic' posts are: a) Low in quality, b) drowning out 'normal' tech/startup content. This, in turn, provides social pressure to reduce the number (and increase the quality) of 'off-topic' submissions.

(Of course, you then hit a form of Giles's paradox of social news sites: the people most likely to submit to this social pressure may be the ones with the most interesting 'off-topic' links to share)

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

#67

Post by meredydd »

greendestiny wrote: post #32
CaptainMorgan wrote: post #3

This is a tough vote for me, because I enjoy spending my time with CS/hacker related content and yet I fancy politics. But what I do have a problem with is the links to subscription-only content. Very often, it appears that the Wall Street Journal articles are submitted and approved to HN, but when I go to try and view this article(usually with a great title- often that might be something I would like to read), it tu…

Surely its not a CS/politics dichotomy? Really the voting system works quite well except for those articles where we vote to show our support. I think staying away from American politics is a good rule of thumb - there is little chance that articles will be rated on their quality or relevance.

...staying away from American politics...

Good gracious. Might I suggest that America does not have a monopoly on political controversy (nor on visitors to this site)? It may be an election year, and the country fairly heavily polarised at the moment, but fierce partisanship is no more exclusively American than apple pie is.

(For an immediate example, take a peek at the proportion of reddit currently obsessed with the situation in Georgia.)

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

#68

Post by DanielBMarkham »

Here's another thought: if we made people write a sentence or two before downvoting we'd get to know very quickly what kinds of articles we don't want here -- the ones which prompt people into having a mostly irrational, emotional responses.

I'm just guessing, but I think we want intersting, reasoned discussions -- whatever the topic.

In that sense, what's okay or not has less to do with the site than the people who populate it. I bet you could re-run some of the stuff from last year and get completely different user responses this time around.

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

#69

Post by LogicHoleFlaw »

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #55
rms wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the WSJ articles go subscription 1-2 weeks after they are published. So they are free for a while and then they disappear from the internet.

It doesn't appear to be as simple as that. Some new articles are accessible but others are not. It's confusing.

I've never seen a WSJ paywall on HN? Is it possible I'm blocking a cookie or something which disables them?

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

#70

Post by LogicHoleFlaw »

wheels wrote: post #44

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…

Maybe I'm just defending my own pride here, but I have to believe that "not currently working at a startup" and "has nothing to do with startups" are distinct, if not disjoint, sets.
Post reply on HN