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Re: Hackernews.com

#121
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder what their take on racism in America is… oh… never mind…

HN is divided on topics where society at large is divided, just like any large-enough population sample. There's no "their" there, and defining the whole by the part you most dislike is a cognitive bias ( https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... ) - a common one. The people you disagree with are complaining just as much about how your side dominates. If there's a difference with HN, it's that t…

> In person, we automatically recognize and modulate such situations; even when we find someone's views abhorrent, we're more willing to take into account their different background, realize they're not working with the same information that we are, and go for persuasion and education rather than jumping straight into aggression and battle. But on an internet text forum where nearly everyone has excellent English, people are at the mercy of these misunderstandings and don't even realize it.

I really love this insight. It's something that we see so often on here as a point around Twitter, Facebook, and engagement. Mark Twain's quote about leaving your house (sure it was your community at the time) still rings true today: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”

Re: Hackernews.com

#122

It is already a lot more like Reddit than it used to be just a few years ago. For example, the comments on some submissions are full of stupid jokes now, gradually drowning out actually interesting discussion. IMO HN was better when it was dry, boring, and insightful. It is less and less of that every year. Example from this very submission: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28962122 I'm sure there are more people…

The perception that HN is trending Redditward has been around for so long, it even predates HN itself!

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13852

Of course there are vectors pointing that way, and datapoints on those vectors, but there are also countervailing forces. I think after 14+ years we can at least say it's not collapsing. That's the reason for the final guideline of https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html (note those carefully curated links! I spent an afternoon on that.)

Re: Hackernews.com

#123

It is already a lot more like Reddit than it used to be just a few years ago. For example, the comments on some submissions are full of stupid jokes now, gradually drowning out actually interesting discussion. IMO HN was better when it was dry, boring, and insightful. It is less and less of that every year. Example from this very submission: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28962122 I'm sure there are more people…

> It is already a lot more like Reddit than it used to be just a few years ago.

From the Guidelines:

> Please don't post comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit. It's a semi-noob illusion, as old as the hills.

Last few words are linked:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=926703

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=633099

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=582513

And three more, but I have other things to do.

Re: Hackernews.com

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s correct: https://help.netflix.com/en/node/13444 > Netflix is available in Ultra HD on Windows and Mac computers with: > - Microsoft Edge for Windows > - Windows 10 App > - Safari for MacOS 11.0 or later I believe this is for DRM reasons — Firefox is open-source, so they don’t want you modifying your copy of Firefox to bypass DRM or whatever.

Does spoofing your user-agent bypass that?

You probably can't spoof the DRM.

Re: Hackernews.com

#125
post #31

With a different registrar to ycombinator.com, this is likely not owned by Y Combinator, and therefore difficult to trust that it won't start being malicious in the future.

It's owned by YC now. We got it earlier this year. That's why it redirects to HN!

Out of curiosity, is it the result of this "Ask HN": Why is YC not owning the domain Hacker News.com yet? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25375903

Re: Hackernews.com

#126
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder what their take on racism in America is… oh… never mind…

HN is divided on topics where society at large is divided, just like any large-enough population sample. There's no "their" there, and defining the whole by the part you most dislike is a cognitive bias ( https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... ) - a common one. The people you disagree with are complaining just as much about how your side dominates. If there's a difference with HN, it's that t…

I appreciate the response, and yes I was being snarky. That said, I don’t think this is simply a matter of HN being divided the same way society is divided. HN has a bias in favor of capital, which I think is pretty observable in a typical thread on e.g startups, and if you don’t share my observation you can agree this is at least likely given the high rate of tech workers and would be investors on this site. I think open discussions of race and racism can be threatening to capital, particularly when one wants to believe that the system is good and just. Discussions of race usually have large societal change as their stakes, and that is not always to the benefit of the currently wealthy.

There is a claimed interest in open dialogue on HN, but it doesn’t go as deep as it seems. The HN community has rules about what counts as valid logic or what is appealing and worthy of upvote that favor the status quote. Further, because the population bends a particular direction you need to put in massive effort in order to make a point that contradicts this view, or else you will be swarmed with criticisms, which may be defeatable, but in sum are overwhelming. There are also tactics that are commonly employed in HN comments which shut down discussion but allow the commenter to retain the position of the rational freedom lover.

I can’t prove it to you without much more time and knowledge than I have, but I think it is none the less true that HN has a culture with a bias, and that it tends towards maintaining the status quo and shutting down revolutionary dialogues.

Re: Hackernews.com

#129
post #72

Ha - that'll make it easier to refer folks to the website. I hope to never need to utter - "Oh you should checkout Hacker News, go to news dot why combinator dot com, I think it will be right up your alley."

That's been my primary motivator behind "I read it online/on a forum," vs "I read it on news DOT why combinator DOT com."

The other reason is that I'd prefer not to navigate the conversation toward "why I'm on a website with 'Hacker' in the name." That's a separate issue for which I am ill-equipped to discuss, given the mainstream connotation.

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