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Hacker News comments I'm tired of seeing

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Re: Hacker News comments I'm tired of seeing

#171

Post by polymatter »

jacques_chester wrote: post #163
hollerith wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>A better algotithm calculating the karma as an average over all your comments maybe could help The metric I would most like to know is how many votes my comments got divided by the total number of words in my comments.

Wouldn't this favour the short smartarsery that's one of the not-done things hereabouts?

It would also favour the short and succinct over the long and rambling. Which sounds like a good thing, if you believe that useful information can be distilled losslessly.

Re: Hacker News comments I'm tired of seeing

#172

Post by rdtsc »

zainny wrote: post #100

One thing that really annoys me about HN is how damn contrarian everyone always tries to be. Responses typically take the most absolute narrow and unforgiving interpretation of any point you are trying to make and subsequently use that to spin a counterpoint. Drives me batty.

I see two reasons:

1) If people agree with the idea they'll probably just nod their head, or upvote. If they disagree it is more likely they'll post something rather than just downvote (people feel the need to explain perhaps why they downvoted)

2) Geeks feel the need to say something contrarian to show how smart they are. It is a way to tell everyone they have a bigger intellectual penis than everyone else.

Re: Hacker News comments I'm tired of seeing

#173

Post by akjj »

dredmorbius wrote: post #129

On balance I disagree with most of Ken's observations, though not always or in all cases. A useful comment is one which moves the conversation forward. A non-useful comment is one which serves NO useful purpose. Correlation is not causation. This is useful where a naive correlation is shown without causal mechanism. It's not useful when a correlation is shown and there's a strong causal link known. http://www.explain…

> "the legal duty to maximize shareholder value" Agree. Companies have numerous stakeholders.

As is implicit in the link you give, there is no legal obligation for executives or other employees to maximize shareholder value (for the directors, there is a fiduciary responsibility). Milton Friedman asserted that there was a _moral_ duty to maximize shareholder value, which is quite different, but this also has become quite controversial recently.

Re: Hacker News comments I'm tired of seeing

#174

Post by jacques_chester »

polymatter wrote: post #171
jacques_chester wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't this favour the short smartarsery that's one of the not-done things hereabouts?

It would also favour the short and succinct over the long and rambling. Which sounds like a good thing, if you believe that useful information can be distilled losslessly.

Pithy wisdom only really works when it lands in a mind on the edge of understanding it.

Re: Hacker News comments I'm tired of seeing

#175

Post by sergiosgc »

csmatt wrote: post #168
mmcnickle wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's flattering to oneself to be contrarian; Not only have you already considered what has been presented, you've also thought about it and have a counter-argument. You're cleverer than the author of the article; she still entertains that idea while you have long ago dismissed it. Thought that's rarely the case. What usually happens is someone will read a clever article, get upset that they didn't come up with it and…

This is very well articulated and at least partly rings true for me. However, after typing out a response of the nature you described, I hit the back button rather than submit.

Funny. I thought that was my thing. Typing out a disagreement comment, then read it and think: "How will this discussion end? Will any good conclusion come out of it, or will it be mere sword flailing?".

More often than not, I hit back instead of submit.

Re: Hacker News comments I'm tired of seeing

#176

Post by jonahx »

rdtsc wrote: post #172
zainny wrote: post #100

One thing that really annoys me about HN is how damn contrarian everyone always tries to be. Responses typically take the most absolute narrow and unforgiving interpretation of any point you are trying to make and subsequently use that to spin a counterpoint. Drives me batty.

I see two reasons: 1) If people agree with the idea they'll probably just nod their head, or upvote. If they disagree it is more likely they'll post something rather than just downvote (people feel the need to explain perhaps why they downvoted) 2) Geeks feel the need to say something contrarian to show how smart they are. It is a way to tell everyone they have a bigger intellectual penis than everyone else.

This seems about right, but I'd venture it's 80% 2) and 20% 1).

Re: Hacker News comments I'm tired of seeing

#177

Post by caw »

RivieraKid wrote: post #49

100% agree and I'd add other things I hate about HN: * First comment debunks the article. * Comments that start with "No." It's worse if the "No." is in its own paragraph. * Mentioning Maslow's hierarchy of needs. * General passive-agressivness. * Lack of humour and light-heartedness. * People upvote some really shitty stuff. The newest submissions page is sometimes more interesting than the homepage. * People love t…

The humor is why I also browse Slashdot, even though they're generally late (like by days) with the submissions. There's a little bit of serious discussion, a lot of memes, but then some generally humorous discussions based off misinterpretations of comments, articles, and titles.

Re: Hacker News comments I'm tired of seeing

#178

Post by bcj »

Too wrote: post #89
citricsquid wrote: post #13

The biggest problem with Hacker News comments -- actually, make that all comments -- is fundamental: the sort of people that leave comments are (more often than not) people that want something, ANYTHING, to say, not people that have something to say.

I think the karma system can also be a contributor to this. Any comment you make has the chance to get a few upvotes, regardless of how little it contributes to the conversation. So people just spam comments to get a few points here and there. This phenomena can be seen in forums without karma also but i think in places with karma it is usually worse, worst offenders being digg and reddit where everybody tries to mak…

I have mixed feelings about karma. It's nice to have filters that bring (mostly) better comments to the top, but I think it results in more silenced voices than it does posts-for-karma's-sake.

It's validating to get a few upvotes, but more than that it's disheartening to spend time on a comment and recieve no feedback whatsoever.

I'm an outgoing person, but I find myself shying away from commenting on HN for that reason. Admittedly, I don't usually have some brilliant insight, but it does make it harder to feel like part of the community.

Re: Hacker News comments I'm tired of seeing

#179

Post by vxNsr »

sergiosgc wrote: post #175
csmatt wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is very well articulated and at least partly rings true for me. However, after typing out a response of the nature you described, I hit the back button rather than submit.

Funny. I thought that was my thing. Typing out a disagreement comment, then read it and think: "How will this discussion end? Will any good conclusion come out of it, or will it be mere sword flailing?". More often than not, I hit back instead of submit.

I have avoided many a flamewar in this manner
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