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Why I now, unfortunately, hate Hacker News..

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Re: Why I now, unfortunately, hate Hacker News..

#71

Post by jack-r-abbit »

mindcrime wrote: post #57
jack-r-abbit wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And maybe it is a bad idea. ^This. Sometimes people feel very passionate about something and they get tunnel vision. They invest hours, weeks, years on something and to them it is going to be the next big thing that will get the girl, kill the baddies... and save the entire planet[1]. But guess what? Sometimes... sometimes ... it really is just shit. Sorry to tell you this but your idea sucks... or the execution su…

If all you want to hear is how awesome it is, then go show it to your mum. I'm sure she'll tell you how special you are and that you can do no wrong. Sounds like a strawman to me. Who here has said anything about wanting nothing but positivity, or to be told how awesome they are? Even negativity can be combined with encouragement and support. And it doesn't really cost anymore to do that. A. "Your idea is pretty bad.…

> Sounds like a strawman to me.

ya... probably is. Thanks for the feedback. ;) Although, the OP pretty much says "I hate you all because all you ever say is mean things" so there is that.

Re: Why I now, unfortunately, hate Hacker News..

#72

Post by no_more_death »

untog wrote: post #4

Sigh. Personally, I don't have a problem with people being negative. 99% of startups fail, and I think it's worthwhile reminding people of that every now and then. Hacker News shouldn't live in some magical land where everyone is going to make the next billion dollar company. If you truly, genuinely, believe in your idea then you can take the negativity in your stride. There will be plenty of constructive feedback bu…

Right, a community of "haters" may be better than a community of "lovers." That goes against every fiber of my being, but the fact is, life's tough, and you're more likely to be right if you're negative.

However, it does shock me how Hacker News just hates absolutely everything. I was so shocked when Nexus 7 first came out and the thread piled up with hundreds of negative comments just blasting Google for it. It was a break-through to have such a tablet at $200, and there should have been at least equal levels of hate and love.

Re: Why I now, unfortunately, hate Hacker News..

#74

Post by rdtsc »

mindcrime wrote: post #52
victork2 wrote: post #41

Hi Steve, I don't know if you are going to read this, but I'm going to write it for the rest of the audience too. I think the trend of dismissing critics and commenting along the lines of "sour grapes" or "haters" very disturbing. Yes I go against your commentary. The great thing about internet and communities based on pseudonyms is that you get the first reaction that people have. Very few will take a few minutes to…

Fads/ Jealousy: A lot of people here want to be rich and famous thus it creates tension. It allows me to come back to your point: these people are likely going to dismiss your ideas based on jealousy Maybe I've just missed it, but I haven't seen a lot of responses here that seem to be obviously motivated by jealousy. I get the feeling that, despite how many of us there are, most of us are working on different things.…

> Maybe I've just missed it, but I haven't seen a lot of responses here that seem to be obviously motivated by jealousy.

Those are never obvious. Jealousy, unless in a romantic personal context, is never displayed directly. It is hidden behind multiple layers of rationalizations or a barrage of negative comments (jab at small detail, over emphasis of small mistakes for ex.: "Oh you just worked 5 months on this website, well it sucks because you use the wrong serif font").

Re: Why I now, unfortunately, hate Hacker News..

#75

Post by stripe »

tomku wrote: post #38

I can't speak for other users, but I'd rather see more project launches than any of the following types of submissions: - Rumors about what Apple will do next week, and the ensuing flamewars between Apple fans and Android fans - TorrentFreak articles of any kind - Overbearing hype about the latest fad (App.net at the moment) - Mindless hatred towards the latest villain (Twitter at the moment) - Anything political tha…

As someone who just recently found HN, all I can say is that the percentage of constructive feedback VS such 'stories' as described above is still great in comparison to the rest of the net. It may have been better in the past but shallowness is what you get when you get more exposure I guess. I do not know if the score system adds to that but up voting great articles or comments is a must. Wish I could down vote to uninteresting stories. But on that matter, what is uninteresting? Surely, nobody needs duplicated stories where each adds only a minor thought. Even spam like stories that float around currently about app.net are pretty 'uninteresting' because the value they add to HN is just non existent. Looks like the typical HN visitor changed, too? Like from founders & entrepreneurs in the past to todays everyday-websters, developers, snarky people and founders?

Re: Why I now, unfortunately, hate Hacker News..

#76

Post by ChuckMcM »

victork2 wrote: post #41

Hi Steve, I don't know if you are going to read this, but I'm going to write it for the rest of the audience too. I think the trend of dismissing critics and commenting along the lines of "sour grapes" or "haters" very disturbing. Yes I go against your commentary. The great thing about internet and communities based on pseudonyms is that you get the first reaction that people have. Very few will take a few minutes to…

Point by point:

Well thought comments are often ignored and not read ( not up/downvoted, just ignored )

You cannot tell if they were read or not. Exhorting users to use their 'mod points' is a challenge (yes its a slashdot reference). The community is larger and only the opinionated seem to vote.

Stardom: No matter what they post some ""famous"" people around here get their post on the front page. By courtesy I won't list who they are but everybody can spot it pretty easily. I'm very disappointed by this attitude personally, and it doesn't speak highly of a place that is supposed to be almost a pure meritocracy.

Except it isn't a meritocracy is it. Its a place for Y-combinator folks to share links they are interested in. Both current and past members of YC have a few more options than available than folks who just happened by here. One of those is that YC launches always make the front page.

Fads/ Jealousy: A lot of people here want to be rich and famous thus it creates tension. It allows me to come back to your point: these people are likely going to dismiss your ideas based on jealousy.

I've heard this a number of times but I'm not sure I buy it. Some people are angry at themselves because they haven't launched and they lash out at those who have in attempt to position their own failure better. Constructive criticism takes time, a jab takes only a few seconds. So you're looking also at a time penalty.

Over-repetition of some stories ad nauseum: dumb benchmarks to see the number of req/s, analysis App.net, Education sucks...

Well given the way the karma system works this would seem to be a reflection of what is important to the community at large vs perhaps some individuals. There are a couple of great add-ons that knock out stories about things you don't care about (I believe Bitcoin was the motivation but could easily be wrong about that).

Re: Why I now, unfortunately, hate Hacker News..

#77

Post by eavc »

victork2 wrote: post #41

Hi Steve, I don't know if you are going to read this, but I'm going to write it for the rest of the audience too. I think the trend of dismissing critics and commenting along the lines of "sour grapes" or "haters" very disturbing. Yes I go against your commentary. The great thing about internet and communities based on pseudonyms is that you get the first reaction that people have. Very few will take a few minutes to…

>The great thing about internet and communities based on pseudonyms is that you get the first reaction that people have. Very few will take a few minutes to give their opinion, weight the different possibilities etc... It's brutal, it's direct. If you have run a service online you certainly know that you receive very angry/ threatening emails from people that use your services and are displeased. If it disturbs you it means that you are not ready for having a personal project on display, it's as simple as that.

Well that's all available on the internet at large. You don't need any kind of catered community to have that experience. What he's bemoaning is the loss of the intermediate, the more thoughtful and useful type of honesty.

Re: Why I now, unfortunately, hate Hacker News..

#78

Post by _delirium »

brandon272 wrote: post #21

In my view, the main thing to change about this community over the last 5 years is that it's simply gotten bigger. As a result, the range of individuals you see is more diverse and the more there are a greater range of interests represented. There is a nostalgia associated with when the community was smaller and more intimate and I think that's what drives people to make claims about how things are declining. And I c…

An interesting aspect of HN, I think slightly different from some other communities I've been in, is how this sense of decline has been there pretty much since the beginning. Here's a discussion thread from HN's first year worrying about the decline: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=60767

I suspect part of it is that it's been a very meta/self-aware experiment from the start, whereas many communities sprout up accidentally for various reasons, and only later get more self-conscious about it.

Re: Why I now, unfortunately, hate Hacker News..

#79

Post by wickedchicken »

victork2 wrote: post #41

Hi Steve, I don't know if you are going to read this, but I'm going to write it for the rest of the audience too. I think the trend of dismissing critics and commenting along the lines of "sour grapes" or "haters" very disturbing. Yes I go against your commentary. The great thing about internet and communities based on pseudonyms is that you get the first reaction that people have. Very few will take a few minutes to…

> Education sucks...

This is my main gripe with HN right now -- the anti-intellectualism of the community. I recall an article submitted where the author claimed "Academic papers are shitloads of crap. Want to read something? Read some beautiful source code instead."

Nearly all breakthroughs in computing sprung up from an academic context; why would you be so cavalier in dismissing it? You might actually find out what a Y Combinator is!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixed-point_combinator#Y_combin...

Re: Why I now, unfortunately, hate Hacker News..

#80

Post by mrkeyboard »

Additionally, the kind of people you describe, which is probably a majority by now because they just are, are rendering this site more and more useless by voting up on pure crap.

The system behind Hacker News did not prepare to have itself flooded with a larger audience, which frankly belongs to Mashable, ruining the only thing it was doing so well when it was a small community of creative people.

Either accept Hacker News becoming more popular, essentially aggregating "How I survived a genocide on mars, cured cancer and wrote html6 standards in the process - with only 3 fingers" or re-think the upvote system.

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