I thought I'd just say I completely agree with you, though I've only been a member for about 2 years and a reader for about 3, just in that small time I've noticed a change, and I think its sad, it really is a bummer. I've noticed many people posting their start-ups and either 1) not getting any comments (what's with that?) or 2) the things you mention just hate, where's the constructive critisism this site was so great for?
I can only hope my upvoting you that we can make a change here in the opposite direction.
Why I now, unfortunately, hate Hacker News..
301–310 of 465 posts
Re: Why I now, unfortunately, hate Hacker News..
#302Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd like to make a somewhat unrelated observation as a new user and someone who is new to programming. I've noticed a submission might get a huge amount of upvotes yet the highest voted comment goes against the article/post submitted. I understand there are a few things that could be going on: you can learn from bad articles/posts; those who like the article/post submitted find it unfair to downvote just because they…
Two issues here: 1) Stories become popular despite negative sentiment in comments, or stated another way, some of the most popular stories on the front page of HN have little support in the comments. This indicates that the people who up-vote the stories in question are either not actually in support of the story's premise, or choose to remain silent in the discussion. 2) People are using up-votes as a way to bookmar…
> People are using up-votes as a way to bookmark stories
Whoa... mind blown. I never noticed that feature before. Thank you Wise Weasel. (Not that I would up vote a post just to save it. but it is nice to know I have a list of all articles I've up-voted.)
+1 on having a "save" feature. However, I would shy away from using the term "flag" as a way to get something into the saved list. Flagging a post is already available and has a very different meaning.
Re: Why I now, unfortunately, hate Hacker News..
#303Earlier quoted context omitted.
May I please be the first to say "WTF"? I know who you are, I know what you contribute, but... WTF?
It's an old joke. You make a request and somebody acquiesces more easily than you expected, so you follow up with an absurd request like "Also, can I have a million dollars?" And now I went and explained it. Sorry, tptacek.
Ah, got it (humble pie eaten, apologies tptacek).
Re: Why I now, unfortunately, hate Hacker News..
#304It's a genuine problem and has been growing gradually worse for a while. I think the cause is simply growth. When a good community grows, it becomes worse in two ways: (a) more recent arrivals don't have as much of whatever quality distinguished the original members, and (b) the large size of the group makes people behave worse, because there is more anonymity in a larger group. I've spent many hours over the past se…
>identify people who consistently upvote nasty comments What's your definition of a "nasty comment"? How do you distinguish between a "nasty comment" and a comment that voices an unpopular opinion? I understand what you're trying to accomplish, however I worry that a side effect will be the further silencing of opinions that go against the HN popular consensus.
There's also a UX component to this: I have accidentally upvoted nasty comments and downvoted comments I liked because the touch targets for the vote icons are so small on my phone. Even worse, it appears that I can't undo my mistaken votes either.
Re: Why I now, unfortunately, hate Hacker News..
#305Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most companies fail. It's a safe bet to predict failure. It's pretty lame to celebrate that failure from the sidelines. Vision is not "how is this guaranteed to fail?" but how could it possibly succeed despite the odds? Which voice do you want to bring to this community?
Groupon didn't "fail", instead it has been astonishingly successful. However, around the time of it's IPO it was receiving so much undeserved hype that in comparison to THOSE lofty goals it appears to have failed. HN readers at the time were pointing out the hype, and I think that is a GOOD thing. Nevertheless, I agree that the tone of the community could be better and I will strive to adjust my own comments to refle…
Thank you for the correction. My intent was not to speak to the state of Groupon. Groupon has had far more success and impact than anything I have created to date. I felt it best to not argue with the parent and focus on the attitude behind the comment and not an assessment of Groupon.
Re: Why I now, unfortunately, hate Hacker News..
#306HNers are good people - we just need reminders regularly to do our duty to the community. So, it seems that you are the cure to your own ailment: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4396195 I took ten of my valuable minutes to review the next thing on Ask HN - and hopefully constructively. I guess it is just a problem of being reminded regularly that this is a community that needs contributing to as well as reading (…
I think you have a great point. This is a reminder that we do need to be a more proactive community as a whole.
Re: Why I now, unfortunately, hate Hacker News..
#307Wow, 277 comments in here and just 10 in a front page article for a new project: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4398344
This is a good post but it also feels like you're just insulting the whole community rather than giving constructive criticism. Want some constructive criticism? Foster the community you want by being the kind of member you want to see (Gandhi said it better).
Also, your post seems like flame bait but it inspired some really interesting discussion about forum moderation. So maybe the community isn't as bad as you say.
Re: Why I now, unfortunately, hate Hacker News..
#308It's a genuine problem and has been growing gradually worse for a while. I think the cause is simply growth. When a good community grows, it becomes worse in two ways: (a) more recent arrivals don't have as much of whatever quality distinguished the original members, and (b) the large size of the group makes people behave worse, because there is more anonymity in a larger group. I've spent many hours over the past se…
Perhaps you could have a system where users vouch for other users who make good submissions, and then have submissions ranked with something along the lines of PageRank, with "vouching for" taking the place of "linking to".
The advantage of identifying good users over identifying bad ones is that recognition of goodness can propagate: if you believe A to be a good user and A believes B to be a good user, that is some indication to you that B is a good user. Replace "good" with "bad" and this no longer holds.
Re: Why I now, unfortunately, hate Hacker News..
#309Steve,
I'd hate to see you leave the community after such a thoughtful post.
I think some of the best ideas here support your plan and that this is a call to action. We as a community need to support positive comments and refrain from name calling. Acting like an adult isn't about growing a thicker skin, but embracing the lessons we learn as children.
There is a balance between condescension and constructive criticism. Lets strive for the latter.
Re: Why I now, unfortunately, hate Hacker News..
#310I just realized that this is my fault. I'm not new to the internet by any means, but I'm (relatively new) to the geek world. Now that the jokes on xkcd and imgur actually make sense, and I can laugh at n00bs and answer a few questions on Freenode, I feel like I can identify with the hackers. In fact, I just watch the movie Hackers yesterday and it was awesome. I would have had very different sentiments a year ago, or I would have tried to fake what I feel now.
In any case, this sense of elitism I now feel entitled to, has carried over to Hacker News and I feel justified in snarking.
To the OP: Thank you for posting this. In addition to attempting to being a good human being offline, I will double my efforts to being a good human being online so that you may once again love this community.