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

Lobsters

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 212 posts

Re: Lobsters

#171

Post by xtracto »

rebeccaskinner wrote: post #103
Hakashiro wrote: post #32

I had an account here. I still do. Like some other people point out: Invitation-only means trolls are less likely to show up. But the higher end of quality is not significantly better than HN. If anything, it might be worse. My experience with the moderation there is that some people post clear self-promotion articles, but when I attempted to post my things, I get told that this content is not welcome on the site. Wh…

I had a similar experience. I simply deleted my account and left the site. If my contributions weren't welcome then that's the choice of the moderators, but I had no desire to try to participate in a forum where simply linking to relevant non-promotional content that happens to be posted on your own website will get you accused of being a spammer.

I remember once I mentioned something about lobste.rs in Twitter (trying to actually be positive for the community) and the creator went all crazy against me . shrug Thanks but no thanks

Re: Lobsters

#172

Post by lormayna »

nvm0n2 wrote: post #151
GaggiX wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm on this subreddit, but it doesn't really seem dead to me, where does "November 2021" come from?

Posts per day flatlined that month after being sustained at ~50 per day for years: https://subredditstats.com/r/italy ... implying that the sub was destroyed by its moderators.

The moderators of this sub are a bunch of fascists. Everyone that express an opinion that they don't like is banned. And this is the result

Re: Lobsters

#173

Post by lormayna »

eszed wrote: post #76
undersuit wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WTH happened in November 2021 to kill that sub?

Just Googling and guessing: Maybe, "Italy Announces New Restrictions For the Unvaccinated"? https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/24/world/europe/italy-vaccin... Or, right-wing stuff about immigration? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/25/matteo-salvini... Those are hot-buttons that have ruined other communities, so whatever the specifics for that sub, my guess is Political Controversy. Anyone on here know anythin…

I don't think those are the specific topics that ruined this subreddit. The moderators killed this subreddit: if you express a slightly different opinion than liberal left wing, you will be banned for being "not welcoming and create a bad mood". And you will be banned also to express any polite kind of criticism to all the minorities, except one: the catholics. For them, every insults is accepted.

Re: Lobsters

#174

Post by GaggiX »

nvm0n2 wrote: post #151
GaggiX wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm on this subreddit, but it doesn't really seem dead to me, where does "November 2021" come from?

Posts per day flatlined that month after being sustained at ~50 per day for years: https://subredditstats.com/r/italy ... implying that the sub was destroyed by its moderators.

Interesting, I couldn't really see any difference to before.

Re: Lobsters

#175

Post by bb010g »

jart wrote: post #155
stephenr wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It says you invited spammers. Did you try discussing the matter with the mods?

Lobsters doesn't have any contact information (I later learned they have an IRC channel) so I didn't get to hear an explanation from the Lobsters moderator until the topic came up here and ended up getting mediated in a Hacker News thread. The moderator was very clear that I was not only spamming myself, but I was encouraging my friends to spam too. For example, one thing I got specifically called out for was I invit…

> When the Lobsters algorithm said his account was too new to post a link, I thought I was vouching for and reviewing his project link by posting it myself.

I'm pretty sure this would be considered a normal vouching & introduction of a member to the site, if those members did not then repeatedly follow up your introduction with repeated self-promotion (including bonus violation of the spirit of the unseen domain policy). As someone inviting others to Lobsters, you were trusted with a small duty to introduce them to the site properly. For most of those you invited, you were both the person initially posting the invitee's relevant unseen domain and the inviter for that invitee. It's respectful there to warn new users of site policy that you don't expect them to know.

When I invited a friend to Lobsters a few months ago so they could post their cool new project there, I made sure to educate them about the self-promotion policy so that both they could continue to use the site and so that I didn't become a problem for the site.

Re: Lobsters

#176

Post by topato »

undersuit wrote: post #154
pixl97 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happened with conspiracy has a lot more to do with politics.

Well then where did all the politicers go? https://subredditstats.com/r/politics has a similar Subscribers to Commenters ratio decline that Conspiracy had.

[dead]

Re: Lobsters

#177

Post by jart »

bb010g wrote: post #175
jart wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lobsters doesn't have any contact information (I later learned they have an IRC channel) so I didn't get to hear an explanation from the Lobsters moderator until the topic came up here and ended up getting mediated in a Hacker News thread. The moderator was very clear that I was not only spamming myself, but I was encouraging my friends to spam too. For example, one thing I got specifically called out for was I invit…

> When the Lobsters algorithm said his account was too new to post a link, I thought I was vouching for and reviewing his project link by posting it myself. I'm pretty sure this would be considered a normal vouching & introduction of a member to the site, if those members did not then repeatedly follow up your introduction with repeated self-promotion (including bonus violation of the spirit of the unseen domain poli…

I thought I was. It's just no one told me about the Lobsters policy. I consistently violated the Lobsters policy for several years and no one warned me. I'm just someone who quit her job at Google Brain to build open source code all day in service to the commons. The thought never occurred to me there's people out there who view what I do as spamming and self-promotion. Before I got banned, I'd never heard the word spam used that way, which is why I was so confused. I wish I'd known beforehand that I wouldn't be welcome there, since then I wouldn't have engaged. Honestly I think the real victims here are the Lobsters community members. My work still gets promoted on Lobsters, even though I'm banned. When I publish something new or end up in the news, there's usually a Lobsters thread about it. The only difference is that now I'm not allowed to make myself personally available to my fans, answering their questions, and fixing the bugs they encounter. So I feel like I'm gaining publicity unfairly since Lobsters denies me the ability to fulfill my moral obligation to serve the people whose respect I'm earning.

Re: Lobsters

#178

Post by stephenr »

jart wrote: post #177
bb010g wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When the Lobsters algorithm said his account was too new to post a link, I thought I was vouching for and reviewing his project link by posting it myself. I'm pretty sure this would be considered a normal vouching & introduction of a member to the site, if those members did not then repeatedly follow up your introduction with repeated self-promotion (including bonus violation of the spirit of the unseen domain poli…

I thought I was. It's just no one told me about the Lobsters policy. I consistently violated the Lobsters policy for several years and no one warned me. I'm just someone who quit her job at Google Brain to build open source code all day in service to the commons. The thought never occurred to me there's people out there who view what I do as spamming and self-promotion. Before I got banned, I'd never heard the word s…

> I think the real victims here are the Lobsters community members.

And yet Lobste.rs members aren't the ones complaining ad nauseum about it.

> the people whose respect I'm earning.

I'm not sure there's much danger of that with anyone who reads through all this.

Re: Lobsters

#179

Post by schmudde »

Hakashiro wrote: post #32

I had an account here. I still do. Like some other people point out: Invitation-only means trolls are less likely to show up. But the higher end of quality is not significantly better than HN. If anything, it might be worse. My experience with the moderation there is that some people post clear self-promotion articles, but when I attempted to post my things, I get told that this content is not welcome on the site. Wh…

The moderation is quite arbitrary. Here are three specific examples I've noted:

1. "Don't hate Jira, hate your manager." https://lobste.rs/s/n4v6a8/you_don_t_hate_jira_you_hate_your... is okay but "Making time for planning" https://lobste.rs/messages/h9z5ee is not (Management is off-topic.)

2. "A normal week (in tech)" https://blog.ignaciobrasca.com/work/2023/05/01/a-normal-week... is not okay (Article does not relate to computing.) but "What are you working on this week?" is okay.

3. "What Punch Cards Teach Us About AI Risk" https://bcantrill.dtrace.org/2023/11/26/what-punch-cards-tea... is not okay (Business history is off-topic) even though specific implementations of punch card machines are discussed

There will always be sharp edges to moderation but I've generally found more permissive policies to be more fair.

Re: Lobsters

#180

Post by ksec »

losvedir wrote: post #94

I like lobsters. One of my main use cases is on my phone in the middle of the night (while rocking my newborn), since it actually has a legit dark mode, unlike HN, which blinds me and lights up the room. I don't understand how HN doesn't...

Dark Mode has been promised since 2020 but we still don't have it yet.
Post reply on HN