Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is a tangible reward for people who have the most karma though.
No there isn't.
[deleted]
What I've Learned from Hacker News
31–40 of 126 posts
Re: What I've Learned from Hacker News
#32Glad to hear that the orange names won't be back. I think people do more than enough judging based on the poster name as it stands without any highlighting.
Me too, but I'm glad it happened. It was a neat experiment.
Indeed - the true test is not whether you try something new, but whether you have the balls to admit it was a mistake and pull it back.
Re: What I've Learned from Hacker News
#33Hear, hear: if you have a solution for detecting stupid comments, let Paul know. I liked the two ideas Paul mentioned: length of comment is related to stupidity, and not using the same words again. Just make those fall toward the bottom of the page and we'll all be happy. While any algorithm can be gamed, length is still pretty good. If I have to go through the extra effort of adding two paragraphs each time I write…
I have no problem with comments as short as just one word, for instance: sometimes just the mention of a counter-example is far more effective than a longwinded riposte.
What I do have a serious problem with on HN is 1000+ word diatribes. They just don't fit the weighted threaded format, and tend to be rants anyway. If you can't fit it into a few normal paragraphs, it should really be broken up into several comments. If it can't be broken up, it's not suitable for HN.
Re: What I've Learned from Hacker News
#34How about requiring submitters to tag stories that are submitted? If you have a set of blessed tags, then the submitter must carefully think which tags apply to their submission. This also forces the submitter to consider if the story fits with the content guidelines of the site.
Tags would also be great if you want to find information on a particular subject later.
Maybe that would be a job for the guys that run searchyc (www.searchyc.com)
Re: What I've Learned from Hacker News
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
Years ago, I figured that I could get lots of karma by creating an auto-submit script to submit stories from techcrunch and paulgraham.com. Best of all, if another auto-submit script submitted the same story a bit later, they would actually be voting up your story, so the more auto-submitters existed, the better. Sure, more competition from other scripts and users sounds like it's bad. However, I calculated that the…
I guess my point is that Hacker News is being gamed the way reddit and digg are. What a sad thought. "Gaming" hacker news to get invited to Startup School. Here's an idea: Why not just be yourself. Contribute what you can. Take what you need. Make a few friends along the way. And learn a thing or two that may change your life. I can't think of a better place to do it. Karma is a very minor byproduct. What you and thi…
I think I read that sentence as being the opposite as you did, i.e. He didn't game HN because he wanted to get invited again, even though he almost did.
Re: What I've Learned from Hacker News
#36"HN users can do this by flipping a switch called showdead in their profile"
I wish you could still see the URL though. If an article has been deaded, there may be some comments about it, but you can't see the url, or click on it...
Re: What I've Learned from Hacker News
#37I would be interested to know how much time PG and others spend moderating the site -- not improving the code but killing stories and comments, banning users, etc. HN always feels to me like a self-policing community, but this and other remarks from PG point to non-trivial amounts of intervention by higher authorities, which makes me wonder how much work it takes to keep things on track.
Re: What I've Learned from Hacker News
#38I've enjoyed HN as an anonymous reader and learned a variety of lessons too.
This essay finally compelled me to register an acount, upvote some links and to make my first comment.
Purpose defeated? May be I'm starting to ruin the news site I like more.
Re: What I've Learned from Hacker News
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Years ago, I figured that I could get lots of karma by creating an auto-submit script to submit stories from techcrunch and paulgraham.com. Best of all, if another auto-submit script submitted the same story a bit later, they would actually be voting up your story, so the more auto-submitters existed, the better. Sure, more competition from other scripts and users sounds like it's bad. However, I calculated that the…
I guess my point is that Hacker News is being gamed the way reddit and digg are. What a sad thought. "Gaming" hacker news to get invited to Startup School. Here's an idea: Why not just be yourself. Contribute what you can. Take what you need. Make a few friends along the way. And learn a thing or two that may change your life. I can't think of a better place to do it. Karma is a very minor byproduct. What you and thi…
Isn't it pretty neat, though, that Paul Graham doesn't have to write an rss scraper to get content, he can just incentivize users with karma and the crowd will do it for him?
Re: What I've Learned from Hacker News
#40Glad to hear that the orange names won't be back. I think people do more than enough judging based on the poster name as it stands without any highlighting.
I wouldn't bet on that, since the usernames are gray you never really recognize them. i.e. based on your username, I never heard of you...but looking at your profile, I remember reading that before.
Don't worry vaksel, I recognize your username.