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The Website Hacker News Is Afraid to Discuss

daringfireball.net

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Re: The Website Hacker News Is Afraid to Discuss

#281

Post by philipkd »

theshrike79 wrote: post #250
philipkd wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe a dumb question, but how can you brigade against on Hacker News if there is no downvote of submissions?

When you get enough karma, you can "flag" submissions. If enough people flag a submission, it gets buried and won't show up on the front page anymore.

And just to clarify, if enough people flag submissions, but not enough people, then it can get buried but not get the "flagged" tag? Because very few of the DF posts actually seem to get that tag.

But maybe even some light flagging, plus high engagement-to-view ratio (esp. if engagements go many levels deep fast), may cause some "unwanted" content to be buried.

Re: The Website Hacker News Is Afraid to Discuss

#282

Post by jgruber »

spopejoy wrote: post #273
jgruber wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How then do you explain DF being #3 from 2007-2021 and #72 from 2021-2025? It’s clearly not blacklisted, but clearly is shitlisted, no?

Have to say, you copy-pasting this response over and over in this thread tells me a lot about your writing without ever having read a single one of your posts: - You ask leading questions with questionable assertions. E.g., I doubt that for every moment of a 14 year period you were the unquestioned, constant #3 hotness on HN (I've been here for most of that and didn't see a single one?), yet you present this as uncon…

“I have strong opinions about something I proudly admit I’ve never read” is quite the take.

Re: The Website Hacker News Is Afraid to Discuss

#283

Post by jgruber »

micromacrofoot wrote: post #266
JohnBooty wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you looked into the linked article? That's not what gruber is questioning. 1. Obviously, a political article on DF is a poor fit 2. But DF's non-political articles are also seemingly pooplisted, even ones that are clearly relevant to HN's audience 3. There have been quite a few political articles from other sites that have gotten traction on DF without being pooplisted yeah I dunno it doesn't add up to me. i'm n…

You have to also consider a shift in reader affinity, which is impossible to measure I bet his overall blog traffic has dipped

No, but it did seemingly peak a decade or so ago and stay there.

Re: The Website Hacker News Is Afraid to Discuss

#284

Post by photonerd »

ttepasse wrote: post #175
jgruber wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How then do you explain DF being #3 from 2007-2021 and #72 from 2021-2025? It’s clearly not blacklisted, but clearly is shitlisted, no?

For anecdotal feedback I'm taking myself as an example, although I don't flag, I just don't upvote anymore. (At the same time I think there is a flag problem on HN. I'd recommend /active for a better view into HN discussions.) Historically I should be your target group, I'm a Mac user since it was uncool (and tribal), I think I have DF in my subscriptions since NetNewsWire 1. But I'm just not interested anymore, I fe…

> Recently I tried helping someone to get a file from a PC to their iPhone. The best options were either weird file sharing services or an USB stick like a barbarian.

Those… aren’t even close to the best options. Hell, if they have iCloud it’s a simple upload on a website away at least. There are other easy ways too.

> I blame Apple

Yes, I’m sure you do, taking responsibility is hard for some people.

Re: The Website Hacker News Is Afraid to Discuss

#285

Post by kevadk »

Most posts that I see from Daring Fireball remind me of ribbonfarm's "Internet of Beefs."

It would be difficult to lean in harder than this one does. For me, this is a sign to tune out. Not above drama, but I prefer it in media that activate a wider range of emotions.

Re: The Website Hacker News Is Afraid to Discuss

#286

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

tiltowait wrote: post #238
js2 wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is paranoid conspiracy-theory stuff. Or it's bait. It's also not falsifiable. Dang can disclaim it but Gruber's next step would just be to write "of course dang would say that." Frankly, I find this submission and Gruber's followup insufferable and it makes me want to read him less. I say that as a regular reader of his blog who's purchased several of his t-shirts over the years. But really, these posts alone ma…

The treatment of Daring Fireball articles does feel inorganic to me, but if it is, no one who's talking can say whether it's because of mod abuse or a group of users who really hate the site and want to punish it. And ... while I can understand frustration and disappointment on his end, the long post yesterday, let alone a second post, and apparently now discussion of it on a podcast where he was a guest, is overboar…

I can't comment of DF specifically, but as someone who uses the "flag" link when I think it's appropriate, I see people complaining all the time that their pet topic was flagged/downvoted, and then they instantly go to "the mods"/conspiracy mode, and I'm thinking "I'm just an average HN user, and I just thought the topic sucked or was inappropriate for HN. No 'conspiracy' needed, we just don't like your content."

All I can say is that I found this particular DF post annoying and narcissistic to the extreme. I'm glad it was flagged.

Re: The Website Hacker News Is Afraid to Discuss

#287

Post by CarlitosHighway »

colonel-e-hutz wrote: post #255
alsetmusic wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But overall the algorithm has kept HN an interesting place. Any good moderation policy has side effects and tradeoffs. I don’t think so. From his follow-up: > My thesis is that the above might once have been an accurate summary of how Hacker News functions, but hasn’t been for years, and that there now exists a cabal of moderator/admins with their thumbs on the scale, and their personal predilections are the primar…

If someone is putting their thumbs on the scale to suppress Gruber’s articles after he posted that Palestinian civilians being subject to war crimes, denied food, water and electricity was "fucking around and finding out"… well good honestly. Suppress this genocide apologist.

What genocide?

Re: The Website Hacker News Is Afraid to Discuss

#288

Post by CarlitosHighway »

proline wrote: post #190
jgruber wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How then do you explain DF being #3 from 2007-2021 and #72 from 2021-2025? It’s clearly not blacklisted, but clearly is shitlisted, no?

Have you looked into how much of DF was about Apple and how much was about Donald Trump during the affected time periods? It seems that you write about tech a lot less and politics a lot more. Which is fine, it's your blog! But don't expect tech enthusiasts to automatically be interested in your opinion on immigration or whatever.

This touches on the actual reason, IMHO. A significant number of HN users is obviously leaning towards supporting the cult, and of course do the part which cult members are supposed to do - scour the internet for inconvenient speech and then downvote, barricade, and whine.

Re: The Website Hacker News Is Afraid to Discuss

#289

Post by adamlett »

js2 wrote: post #207
alsetmusic wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But overall the algorithm has kept HN an interesting place. Any good moderation policy has side effects and tradeoffs. I don’t think so. From his follow-up: > My thesis is that the above might once have been an accurate summary of how Hacker News functions, but hasn’t been for years, and that there now exists a cabal of moderator/admins with their thumbs on the scale, and their personal predilections are the primar…

This is paranoid conspiracy-theory stuff. Or it's bait. It's also not falsifiable. Dang can disclaim it but Gruber's next step would just be to write "of course dang would say that." Frankly, I find this submission and Gruber's followup insufferable and it makes me want to read him less. I say that as a regular reader of his blog who's purchased several of his t-shirts over the years. But really, these posts alone ma…

It's also not falsifiable. Dang can disclaim it but Gruber's next step would just be to write "of course dang would say that."

If all Dang did was deny, then yeah, it would be quite reasonable to not trust him. But presumably Dang is able to provide a reasonable alternative explanation and has the receipts to back it up.

Re: The Website Hacker News Is Afraid to Discuss

#290

Post by fuzzy76 »

llm_nerd wrote: post #102

I visit daringfireball relatively regularly, and enjoy many of Gruber's takes. I know he's an Apple shill -- let's be honest and get that out of the way -- and his occasional softball criticizing some product or other doesn't change that, so I visit with a "let's see what the Apple guy thinks" angle. But let's be real - it's a hot takes/opinions site. It's basically the junk food of content. The world is absolutely a…

He was still right on the screensize, though. I'm furious that they abandoned the mini iPhones :-/
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