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Yesterday's post where the indie hacker was making 45k a month is a good example. So many comments deriding his businesses, his revenue, or suggesting he was lying (???).
Have things changed or do I remember the past with rosy glasses?
In the past part of that perception has been a difference in social standards, I think. Here we get people who can be enthusiastically adoring of an idea and doing their best to offer their ideas to improve it: and others (including the person they're trying to communicate with) may take it as unalloyed negative criticism.
Part of is may be the twitter September people too. Its always the n00bs, after all. Everything was so much better before they showed up.
I don’t believe you! I jest, but I find technical spaces have lots of cynicism floating around. I’ve not been a reader that long so not really sure - but a certainly get the sense it is somewhat normalised here.
Starting a comment with 'No.' is a sure-fire sign of this. As is seeking to never be wrong driving a long comment train where OP seeks to assure others they're both never wrong while also modest. This is especially bad when trying to limit self-perceived reputation damage when using their real name as a handle - isn't HN privacy-centric now? Should we not all the throwaway or anonymous cowards? Let the content matter, not the ego.
As HN's popularity has increased, especially with that have never compiled Slackware while walking up a hill backwards, in a blizzard, carrying a tree, so have the numbers of people starting spewing combative comments. Usenet never had flamewars, and frankly if I were to launch my GUI for rsync anywhere, it'd be there.
In terms of sentiment analysis of a 10 year window, I have yet to see someone try and attempt that. It would be a good exercise and would be concrete proof that comments have devolved to a sort of Reddit-esque commenting style.