71–80 of 126 posts
Put your contact info in the "about" section of your profile (the "email" is private). Just wanted to emphasize this as it seems to confuse a lot of people.
I think a good point is to avoid jokes, especially weak ones. They're easy and distract from the original topic(s).
HN has a really bizzare, inconsistent relationship with humour. Best to avoid it altogether.
If it's just funny, and not elucidating, gentle humour that does not rely on the sudden glory of the reader often gets upvoted.
Often someone will ask you a question, and unless you check you will never know.
I particularly like this example, which the author acknowledges is extreme: "3. Be positive. "This can really be hard when smart people debate, but try it anyway. Notice the difference between: "Person A: Water is dry. "Person B: No it's not. You're full of shit. "and "Person C: Water is dry. "Person D: Not in my experience. What data have you encountered to cause you to arrive at that conclusion?" I really like thos…
There's really nothing to say about software patents at this point that hasn't been said many times before.
In some ways this is an extension to the guideline of not introducing flamewar topics, but even less interesting as pretty much everyone agrees.
Here's another suggestion: flag sparingly. A lot of long-time HN'ers are frustrated at the "flag patrols" -- people of one group who don't like such-and-such author and flag them and their submissions. I've heard several people complain to me about having normal articles flagged and I've done my share of complaining. Don't be the guy who takes out your personal grudges in the form of flagging. Let the votes work. The…
And if you happen to come across an interesting article about hacking or startups, vote it up -- it might even make it to the front page.
Here's another suggestion: flag sparingly. A lot of long-time HN'ers are frustrated at the "flag patrols" -- people of one group who don't like such-and-such author and flag them and their submissions. I've heard several people complain to me about having normal articles flagged and I've done my share of complaining. Don't be the guy who takes out your personal grudges in the form of flagging. Let the votes work. The…
On the contrary, I think people should flag away -- but go to the new stories page first. There's plenty of spam and politics and duplicate content and other off-topic humdrum. And if you happen to come across an interesting article about hacking or startups, vote it up -- it might even make it to the front page.
This means that a very few people could prevent huge chunks of legitimate stories from being seen by fellow HNers by flagging.
Flagging, for whatever reason, is much more powerful than voting. If you flag, you not only note that the article is bad, you prevent others from having a choice. That's why it should be used sparingly. If everybody flagged 10 articles a day, it's not that lots of bad articles would get sorted out, it's that nothing new would appear on the front page at all.
Voting means "I don't like it" Flagging means "I decide nobody else should look at it" It's a completely different thing.
Also appropriate material for HN is material of interest to hackers, not just hacking or startups. If you're flagging it because it's not hacking or startups, you're actively preventing the rest of us from seeing material that might be considered pretty good if we had a chance to rate it.
You probably already know all of that. Just wanted to point it out for those who didn't.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, but on the other hand one should read and reread and reread again before posting.
That would be easier if the reply box was bigger than the address window on an envelope. It's like the bad old days of trying to use the Eclipse IDE where most of your screen real estate is taken up with tabs and buttons and you only get a narrow 5x80 window on the world. Except that in this case instead of the screen being taken up with masses of widgets, it is consumed with vast tracts of whitespace. Good job there…
Here's another suggestion: flag sparingly. A lot of long-time HN'ers are frustrated at the "flag patrols" -- people of one group who don't like such-and-such author and flag them and their submissions. I've heard several people complain to me about having normal articles flagged and I've done my share of complaining. Don't be the guy who takes out your personal grudges in the form of flagging. Let the votes work. The…
I've heard several people complain to me about having
normal articles flagged
Does the OP of an article get notified?
I particularly like this example, which the author acknowledges is extreme: "3. Be positive. "This can really be hard when smart people debate, but try it anyway. Notice the difference between: "Person A: Water is dry. "Person B: No it's not. You're full of shit. "and "Person C: Water is dry. "Person D: Not in my experience. What data have you encountered to cause you to arrive at that conclusion?" I really like thos…
I've asked some "pointed questions" and been downvoted. What I learned from this is that while some discussion threads are about questioning and learning, others are about something else... I'm not sure what exactly... Hearing what you want to hear? Maybe someone else can provide some insight.