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Happy 15th birthday Hacker News

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Re: Happy 15th birthday Hacker News

#151

Post by kshacker »

sph wrote: post #144
cakeman wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to agree with berkut. I had to stop using a previous hn account because it was so incredibly frustrating when people would downvote me with no explanation. I would cite my comments with reputable sources but that never helped. It was enough to prevent me from contributing to the discussion until recently. Certain beliefs or opinions in the minority are not very well tolderated here. It's still certainly better…

I don't blame HN, I blame the invention of the downvote button. I find it easier to hold a slightly controversial opinion here than it has ever been possible on Reddit, especially the programming and tech subreddits which are very low quality in general. The downvote button is awful, but why is it surprising that controversial opinions are downvoted? Being downvoted is the proof the opinion is controversial. It would…

Talking of Reddit downvoted, I am not sure it is that bad. I have been downvoted to hell and I have downvoted. But my observation is that downvoted comments get hidden quickly so only the truly extreme comments are downvoted big or only the true believers go and find comments to downvote. Net net it happens but it is easier to get a 100 votes than to lose them and I think it may be easier to get 1000 votes than to lose 1000.

Re: Happy 15th birthday Hacker News

#152

Post by melenaboija »

tomrod wrote: post #74
melenaboija wrote: post #37

I have no doubt that the first page of HN made me the professional I am now and the comments helped me to forge strong opinions. It has been a while since I started using the HN search engine to know better about technical topics. Not sure who to but thank you.

pg, dang, and all others who work behind the scenes, as well as the scores of commenters and submitters who challenge by seeking to understand. I too am a beneficiary of this neo-polis of tech and philosophy.

Yup, that could be interpreted wrong.

Sure I am grateful to dang and all the members. of the community. I guess

I have a bit of conflict on the origin of the community, not saying there is anything wrong in what it is but maybe no connections with a private initiative would make me feel more comfortable, but I guess that it is what it is and I should say thank you to Y Combinator too.

Re: Happy 15th birthday Hacker News

#153

Post by sph »

kshacker wrote: post #151
sph wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't blame HN, I blame the invention of the downvote button. I find it easier to hold a slightly controversial opinion here than it has ever been possible on Reddit, especially the programming and tech subreddits which are very low quality in general. The downvote button is awful, but why is it surprising that controversial opinions are downvoted? Being downvoted is the proof the opinion is controversial. It would…

Talking of Reddit downvoted, I am not sure it is that bad. I have been downvoted to hell and I have downvoted. But my observation is that downvoted comments get hidden quickly so only the truly extreme comments are downvoted big or only the true believers go and find comments to downvote. Net net it happens but it is easier to get a 100 votes than to lose them and I think it may be easier to get 1000 votes than to lo…

Fair enough, the problem with Reddit downvotes is dwarfed by the fact that Reddit's "etiquette" is to promote witty and sharp one liners, compared to deep and thoughtful comments, and it is the opposite of HN, where you can have the witty but shallow takedowns but the amount of thoughtful comments is above any other discussion forum this size.

Re: Happy 15th birthday Hacker News

#154

Post by [deleted] »

melenaboija wrote: post #37

I have no doubt that the first page of HN made me the professional I am now and the comments helped me to forge strong opinions. It has been a while since I started using the HN search engine to know better about technical topics. Not sure who to but thank you.

[deleted]

Re: Happy 15th birthday Hacker News

#155

Post by laumars »

drumhead wrote: post #83

HN is what reddit used to be like when it first started. Links to interesting Tech, programming and science stories and high quality discussion compared to something like Digg. Thankfully HN hasnt dropped in quality on that front unlike reddit. Its still so good I dont even click on the link I click on comments to get a HN summary which gives me a pretty good idea if its worth reading or not. Most of the time the com…

The quality on HN has dropped massively in the last 5 years. It’s still better than Reddit but it’s definitely not where it once was.

I also think the peer moderation on here is broken. Again, it’s better than Reddit but I still think HN can improve things. I have a few ideas on how that could work but I don’t think there’s any incentive to change the status quo (and I sympathise with why too).

Re: Happy 15th birthday Hacker News

#156

Post by hunterb123 »

Kye wrote: post #45
chris123 wrote: post #41

The good old days, most fantastic. Now it's to degenerated into some combination of echo chamber and safe place, with no lively debate, certainly not about anything controversial. Very sad.

You're baiting flags and downvotes here, intentional or not. It will seem to confirm your faulty view of HN. Isn't that handy?

I agree with him partly, and at least two other users voiced the same concern, one albeit in an abrasive manner. It's still the best place to have a debate though.

There are some topics that are very predictable, some of them are noticeably left issues, some things more loosely connected. Crypto, Tesla, Brave, Facebook, Israel, etc. are all subjects you'll most likely get heavily downvoted and probably flagged if you don't view the common (to here) opinion.

HN is not immune to group think and talking points get parroted here often, dissenting views flagged and downvoted. But not always, it's definitely nowhere near Reddit bad.

Like I said at the top, it's the best place on the internet to have a discussion, but not perfect, and seemingly getting a worse slowly, the way it always seems to go.

Re: Happy 15th birthday Hacker News

#157

Post by [deleted] »

drumhead wrote: post #83

HN is what reddit used to be like when it first started. Links to interesting Tech, programming and science stories and high quality discussion compared to something like Digg. Thankfully HN hasnt dropped in quality on that front unlike reddit. Its still so good I dont even click on the link I click on comments to get a HN summary which gives me a pretty good idea if its worth reading or not. Most of the time the com…

[deleted]

Re: Happy 15th birthday Hacker News

#158

Post by tomrod »

melenaboija wrote: post #152
tomrod wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

pg, dang, and all others who work behind the scenes, as well as the scores of commenters and submitters who challenge by seeking to understand. I too am a beneficiary of this neo-polis of tech and philosophy.

Yup, that could be interpreted wrong. Sure I am grateful to dang and all the members. of the community. I guess I have a bit of conflict on the origin of the community, not saying there is anything wrong in what it is but maybe no connections with a private initiative would make me feel more comfortable, but I guess that it is what it is and I should say thank you to Y Combinator too.

In this context, "behind the scenes" == keep the place running, like moderators I did not name, IT support, etc.

Re: Happy 15th birthday Hacker News

#159

Post by throwaway894345 »

jgwil2 wrote: post #139
throwaway894345 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my view Reddit and Twitter occupy the same rung with respect to discourse. There’s a lot of variation between the subreddits and between the various pockets of Twitter, but on average the lowest common denominator is not an inaccurate characterization of those communities.

I think that Reddit is a degree better than Twitter: it's still possible to find long, substantive discussions on Reddit, but the artificial length constraint on Twitter really pushes all users toward pithy "burns" and other toxic forms of discourse.

As a counterpoint, Twitter "threads" are a thing and you can find a lot of good discourse on them. I don't know how I feel about the length constraint--part of me thinks that the people who for whom the constraint is a toxicity trap are going to be the same people who don't avail themselves of Reddit's lack of length constraint and thus come across as baity and otherwise toxic no matter the platform.

Similarly, I think that Reddit optimizes for groupthink even more than Twitter does. Good luck having an insightful conversation in /r/pol or /r/conservative or even some technology subreddit.

And mind, I think Twitter Inc is absolutely awful and Twitter is a societal ill. I just don't perceive a significant degree of difference between it and Reddit with respect to discourse.

Re: Happy 15th birthday Hacker News

#160

Post by Red_Tarsius » 

  Fifteen years gone by
  watching tech fads come and go.
  Was that time well spent?
This website had a huge influence over my worldview and I often find myself searching through the archived comments for all sorts of topics. Here's to 15 more years!
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