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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

#201

Post by sanderjd »

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.

I honestly think (1) is the real key. I constantly decide not to submit comments when it turns out I've used a bunch of words to just say "I agree", and hit the upvote button instead.

Also, to another of your parent's gripes - if someone only responds to a narrow point, it should be safe to assume they agree with the other, or broader, points, and that's why they didn't respond to those.

But silent agreement and loud disagreement does make it seem like everyone is mad at each other all the time.

Re: Hacker News comments I'm tired of seeing

#202

Post by ballard »

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.

Yeap, it's a jungle out there. I try not to play games of anyone appearing to cobble a name for themselves by inventing drama. Brinksmanship is most often a lose-lose gambit. Let the argumentative types reveal themselves, for the best course is to laugh at wasted energy and move on to the next task.

Also, anyone that bothers to publicly point out to you a misspelling is someone with too much idle time and not enough decency. One must hope for more cunning and aggressive frenemies so you may be judged accordingly.

Re: Hacker News comments I'm tired of seeing

#203

Post by mikeash »

kybernetyk wrote: post #45
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.

a) the internet (and HN) can't get full b) there are downvote arrows To me it's OK if people just leave anything as a comment here because it will be modded down if it's irrelevant to the discussion.

The problem comes when there's enough people leaving dumb comments who start upvoting each other and overcome the people saying interesting stuff.

Re: Hacker News comments I'm tired of seeing

#204

Post by philangist »

jonahx wrote: post #176
rdtsc wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

I have to disagree. I think it's 80% 1) and 20% 2)

Re: Hacker News comments I'm tired of seeing

#208

Post by GrinningFool »

regularfry wrote: post #48

The HN comment that really bores me is the one that totally denigrates the project described in the link because it's "been done before", "won't work because X" where X is a woolly hypothetical, "doesn't solve Y" where it's blindingly obvious that Y is either incredibly hard or tangential to the point, or "could simply be done with just A, B and C" where A, B and C are some permutation of a raspberry pi, arduino, a k…

This isn't specific to HN though. You can see it on slashdot, reddit, and elsewhere -- basically anywhere people are free to post ideas or accomplishments.

Those kinds of replies always read to me in one of three ways:

1. "I wish I'd thought of this obvious application of X, and because I didn't I will denigrate it." Typical responses are as you described.

2. "I am special. I am more special than the person who posted this thing or had this idea, so I will discuss how neither the person who had this idea nor the idea itself aren't that special in a passive-aggressive way" These are especially common when the person originating the idea is exceptionally young or otherwise noteworthy.

3. "This person is not as smart as I am. I will prove it by attacking his or her idea." These replies are typified by off-the-cuff responses that outline one or more extremely obvious weaknesses in the idea/approach being discussed. Such responses ignore the likelihood that the person or people who have spent weeks/months/years formulating the idea could have possibly considered such a basic flaw that the respondent spotted immediately.

There is also a fourth reply: genuine criticism of the idea, including suggestions on how to improve it. In fairness to HN, I see that type of reply more often here than anywhere else.

It would be cool if more people realized that someone else's intelligence and/or good ideas don't reduce the intelligence of other people, nor take away from the ideas of other people.

Re: Hacker News comments I'm tired of seeing

#209

Post by tokenadult »

Paul Graham (the site founder) has commented on a type of comment that he thinks is very harmful to the community, but hard to identify by a key phrase: the "middlebrow dismissal." He wrote,

"The problem with the middlebrow dismissal is that it's a magnet for upvotes. The 'U R a fag's get downvoted and end up at the bottom of the page where they cause little trouble. But this sort of comment rises to the top. Things have now gotten to the stage where I flinch slightly as I click on the 'comments' link, bracing myself for the dismissive comment I know will be waiting for me at the top of the page."

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4693920

As other readers have noticed, my idea of an interesting water cooler conversation with colleagues is referring to verifiable facts about the external world while checking the reasoning of a submitted article. The Internet is, indeed, mostly about sharing unsupported opinions, as the article kindly submitted here suggests, but I enjoy having my opinions examined by comparing them to facts in the real world, and I try to extend the same favor to the friends I meet here.

Re: Hacker News comments I'm tired of seeing

#210

Post by GrinningFool »

sker wrote: post #27

I used to dislike the "this is why I love Hacker News" comment. It's not so prevalent anymore, but it was very common 3 or 4 years ago. And while we're on the subject, I dislike the use of the word sure on nerd sites. I say nerd sites because I haven't seen it (ab)used so much on other sites or movies. Basically, people say "I'm sure" to mean "I think" and "I'm pretty sure" to mean "I kind of think." I just went to r…

I tend to use such phrases as a shorthand for "I can say that X is true based on my own experience, but have not explicitly researched this topic and so am open to disagreement from someone more knowledgeable".

On the other hand, expecting such nuance to come through in the phrase "I'm almost positive" or "nearly certain" (my preferred variants) is likely a bit unreasonable.

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