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Goodbye, Hacker News. I'm going back to Reddit.

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Goodbye, Hacker News. I'm going back to Reddit.

#41

Post by staunch »

trekker7 wrote: post #36
pg wrote: post #34

It's the final straw that we fix typos and abusive punctuation in submission titles? That seems a bit melodramatic. I'm surprised to think anyone didn't already realize we did this. Did you really think people on news.yc had that much better spelling than reddit users?

As opposed to caring about the specifics like fixing punctuation, I think that critics don't like the authority (and potential for abuse) implied by administrators messing with user submitted text, no matter in how trivial a way. At some point users have to decide if they're willing to sacrifice a purely democratic community if it means an increase in quality. Is the point of a social news site to make a political st…

When it comes to online forums I have no hesitation in giving up "full democracy". A benevolent dictator and his helpers is a great solution to maintaining a quality community. The way they go about doing it will simply filter out those who don't like their style. Nothing wrong with that. Not everyone is willing to deal with Linus Torvalds and his helpers either. Transparency here is optional but preferred.

Re: Goodbye, Hacker News. I'm going back to Reddit.

#44

Post by jmzachary »

trekker7 wrote: post #36
pg wrote: post #34

It's the final straw that we fix typos and abusive punctuation in submission titles? That seems a bit melodramatic. I'm surprised to think anyone didn't already realize we did this. Did you really think people on news.yc had that much better spelling than reddit users?

As opposed to caring about the specifics like fixing punctuation, I think that critics don't like the authority (and potential for abuse) implied by administrators messing with user submitted text, no matter in how trivial a way. At some point users have to decide if they're willing to sacrifice a purely democratic community if it means an increase in quality. Is the point of a social news site to make a political st…

"Authority (and potential for abuse) implied"? Well, I guess different things upset different types of people. Why does this have to be "democratic community"? Is the "democratic community" paying the bills for the site? I'm not a PG sycophant, but I come to the defense of the site maintainers. I would rather read a sanitized and on-target news.ycombinator site than a mob-rulz reddit site. But ultimately, they serve two different purposes.

Re: Goodbye, Hacker News. I'm going back to Reddit.

#45

Post by jmzachary »

nostrademons wrote: post #5

Thing is, Reddit really sucks now. I was just visiting it today and was amazed by the number of ignoranuses (ignoranus = someone who is both stupid and an asshole) on it. I wonder if this is the eventual fate of all online communities. I've been through at least half a dozen now, and I've yet to see one survive as something other than trite, meaningless bullshit. The curious thing is - in at least one case (HP fandom…

"I wonder if this is the eventual fate of all online communities. I've been through at least half a dozen now, and I've yet to see one survive as something other than trite, meaningless bullshit."

This is best described as "reversion to the mean". A democratic, non-moderated site like Reddit and News.YC will start off attracting folks on the right end of the bell curve, and over time, gain traction to attract the unwashed masses. Then, someone will get fed up and go start another site, and the cycle begins anew. I'm not being elitist or snobbish; this is what I have observed since the USENET of the 1990s. It always happens.

Re: Goodbye, Hacker News. I'm going back to Reddit.

#46

Post by vlad »

To be fair to Paul and the moderators, the title of this submission used to be:

Goodbye, HACKER NEWS!!!! I'm going back to Reddit.

I don't think this site was meant for everybody to post whatever they want. There should be respect for other people's resources; while Reddit and Digg want as many users as possible, there is no such leverage here.

I think the mistake is that users start thinking they can do whatever they want just because a social site is free.

Re: Goodbye, Hacker News. I'm going back to Reddit.

#49

Post by pg »

rms wrote: post #40
trekker7 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As opposed to caring about the specifics like fixing punctuation, I think that critics don't like the authority (and potential for abuse) implied by administrators messing with user submitted text, no matter in how trivial a way. At some point users have to decide if they're willing to sacrifice a purely democratic community if it means an increase in quality. Is the point of a social news site to make a political st…

Transparency makes this a non-issue. Admin actions like editing titles should automatically show up on a log page.

You're probably right. No one complains when whole submissions are deleted as spams, presumably because you can see them if you want by turning on showdead in your profile. So maybe I'll add something to preserve original submission titles.

Re: Goodbye, Hacker News. I'm going back to Reddit.

#50

Post by jsg »

axod wrote: post #39

I know this isn't the right place to ask this, but why is there no down arrow for submissions/comments? And why when you upmod something does the arrow disappear! Where's the undo?

undo: none available--this is a design choice

downmod: a user must develop a certain amount of karma before the down arrows appear. additionally, you may not downmod direct replies to your own comments or stories.

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