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Ask HN: Can we please slow down the stories about Edward Snowden?

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Re: Ask HN: Can we please slow down the stories about Edward Snowden?

#81

Post by lucb1e »

jimhefferon wrote: post #5

> But we all know essentially how this will end The thing I have learned from reading history is that it often does not turn out the way people expected at the time. The details of what happens matter.

At least give us the important details when we have them. Right now it's just cranking out any and all details we can find about his current whereabouts, which are of no value as far as I can see. Do a writeup two days later about where he is, how he went there, and why. That'd be totally fine. All it takes is one story, not a filled homepage like we had for the past few days.

Re: Ask HN: Can we please slow down the stories about Edward Snowden?

#82

Post by platz »

rednukleus wrote: post #4

> But we all know essentially how this will end: Prism isn't going away and Edward Snowden's fate is grim. That's a very defeatist attitude. I'm sure that there are better arguments for upvoting or not upvoting these articles than saying "this story is not worth paying attention to because we are completely helpless, let's go back to talking about app store metrics".

It's also fatalistic, I might add.

Re: Ask HN: Can we please slow down the stories about Edward Snowden?

#83

Post by drawkbox »

It involves all the largest Silicon Valley companies so it will be of interest to everyone running a company or working with technology in the valley and the US.

I'd also argue all the linking from sites like HN and reddit are keeping this in the news since it gets the hits on the mainstream sites. The interest in it on these sites might actually keep the heat on to change this bad situation.

A week or two is too little to give to this immensely impactful story. With that said I am only up-voting stories that I feel are defining of our times and major breaks, trouble is so may of them have been recently.

Yes, we'd all like for it to end and get back to business which we must continue doing but ignoring it isn't going to change the general community interest in it as it is a huge issue.

Re: Ask HN: Can we please slow down the stories about Edward Snowden?

#84

Post by jiggy2011 »

swombat wrote: post #28

Please post more about Snowden, PRISM, NSA, GCHQ, and all the rest. I will upvote every one of them. For those who think that "we all know essentially how this will end", think about what the world would look like if every major change had been met with this kind of pitiful attitude. Every revolution, every change for the better, has come out of people rejecting that sentiment. It's not too late to turn away from the…

You think that upvoting things on HN makes a difference? This story has already dominated the front page for weeks. It has been discussed to death.

If this continues to dominate HN for much longer, there is a risk that people will just stop visiting this site and it just becomes a home for conspiracy cranks.

Re: Ask HN: Can we please slow down the stories about Edward Snowden?

#85

Post by counterpointer »

ebbv wrote: post #41
swombat wrote: post #28

Please post more about Snowden, PRISM, NSA, GCHQ, and all the rest. I will upvote every one of them. For those who think that "we all know essentially how this will end", think about what the world would look like if every major change had been met with this kind of pitiful attitude. Every revolution, every change for the better, has come out of people rejecting that sentiment. It's not too late to turn away from the…

You can disagree with his statement about PRISM, and that doesn't really have much to do with his original point. He wasn't saying don't post thoughtful op-eds about PRISM (and if he was I think he'd get no support here at all), he's saying enough with the tabloid like articles about the people at the center of controversies, which have nothing to do with the larger issue.

One solution might be to link to a live blog or page which has the latest updates on the story, title it "Click here to get the latest on this story' and then make sure it stays in the first 10 or so stories and let people have fun in the comments with updates and what not.

Re: Ask HN: Can we please slow down the stories about Edward Snowden?

#86

Post by hysterix »

What an unbelievably awful defeatist attitude.

If everyone had your terrible attitude, nobody would ever do anything about any issue and just simply bend over, cry, and take it.

I'm glad this joker peterwwillis has absolutely no say on what is and isn't upvoted on this site.

Btw peter, I checked your submissions and I thought the majority were extremely boring, unoriginal and worthless, much like this post.

Re: Ask HN: Can we please slow down the stories about Edward Snowden?

#87

Post by adestefan »

I never thought I'd see the day when /r/programming was better than HN. However, it's happened ever since Bitcoin, Asange, Dotcom, and now Snowden has taken over here.

I've gone from checking HN, including the new section, a couple times a day, to taking a look every 4 or 5 days.

Re: Ask HN: Can we please slow down the stories about Edward Snowden?

#88

Post by bsbechtel »

Considering many of these stories are a pain to find in MSM sources (unless you are continually checking every media source's homepage), I appreciate the fact that HN is aggregating them all to one location. I understand that it can be annoying to see HN full of stories about the next plane that Edward Snowden may hop on. However, I would rather see that crap on here and still be updated on new developments regarding the issue as a whole vs missing out on new information because stories about PRISM, Edward Snowden, and the NSA are no longer being shared on here.

In addition, your defeatist attitude towards the whole PRISM ordeal is ironic, considering your willingness to speak out against Snowden stories being upvoted on here. If you were willing to channel that energy into action or ideas against PRISM, maybe things would change. Oh, and you're comments are in direct conflict with the second rule of HN.

Re: Ask HN: Can we please slow down the stories about Edward Snowden?

#89

Post by pestaa »

gori wrote: post #51
DanBC wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why not let the others here decide what they think is interesting Weird that you cannot spot the contradiction here. Why not let others here decide what they think shouldn't be here instead of upvoting crap posts? Other people are abusing the upvote button by voting for content that should not be here. > This is not Reddit. The quality over the past week has been lousy.

Sorry, English is not my first language. We do not have a downvote button. Major news is allowed here. This is an active story that a lot of people is interested in, and this means that a lot of posts about it is upvoted. Shouldn't the flag button only be about things that are not allowed? Not as a way to remove things you find not interesting? The issue here is that the upvoting is democratic. One person flagging po…

You can only moderate other upvotes by flagging the submissions they upvoted.

Re: Ask HN: Can we please slow down the stories about Edward Snowden?

#90

Post by ronaldx »

swombat wrote: post #28

Please post more about Snowden, PRISM, NSA, GCHQ, and all the rest. I will upvote every one of them. For those who think that "we all know essentially how this will end", think about what the world would look like if every major change had been met with this kind of pitiful attitude. Every revolution, every change for the better, has come out of people rejecting that sentiment. It's not too late to turn away from the…

Are you upvoting because:

- you think people should be more aware of the issue, or

- you think that each of these links individually provide value to the readers here

If the former, then please stop. We are aware: identifying valuable contributions would be a more helpful route towards revolution.

Personally speaking, I am unlikely to click on these articles now because few of them are providing any new value.

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