Tell HN: Uptick in mean-spirited comments

#1

Post by mjfern » Sun, Oct 31, 2010, 5:34 AM UTC

I've been visiting Hacker News for just under two years, and recently I've noticed a significant uptick in mean-spirited comments. This echos a recent comment by PG, "There are more dumb and/or mean comments than there used to be..."

As you are commenting, or up-voting and down-voting comments, please be conscious of how comments might affect others. This is a fantastic community of incredibly bright people. We should be able to engage in thoughtful debate and discussion, while remaining friendly and polite.

Thank you everyone!

Re: Tell HN: Uptick in mean-spirited comments

#2

Post by daeken » Sun, Oct 31, 2010, 6:07 AM UTC

I upvoted this because I agree with the concept, but I don't believe such things are necessary. General rule of life: assholes will be assholes. This isn't going to make anyone more polite. Most of us are already polite, and quite content to simply downvote people who aren't.

Re: Tell HN: Uptick in mean-spirited comments

#3

Post by mjfern » Sun, Oct 31, 2010, 6:09 AM UTC

daeken wrote: post #2

I upvoted this because I agree with the concept, but I don't believe such things are necessary. General rule of life: assholes will be assholes. This isn't going to make anyone more polite. Most of us are already polite, and quite content to simply downvote people who aren't.

If mean-spirited comments are down-voted, then it's not much of an issue. The problem is that I've started seeing mean-spirited comments receiving up-votes, and rising to the top of discussions. How do we solve this as a community?

Re: Tell HN: Uptick in mean-spirited comments

#4

Post by ihodes » Sun, Oct 31, 2010, 6:23 AM UTC

Not trying to be passive aggressive here, at all; I agree with you here. The reason I didn't post anything was that HN has gotten pretty damn meta recently too. I'm not sure posts like this will help anything, much; probably something needs to come from the top, or the community needs to focus on enforcing the behavioral norm by down-voting (even if they normally wouldn't put in the effort) comments that are of an assholish nature.

As an aside: http://twitter.com/#!/ihodes/status/29059931658

Re: Tell HN: Uptick in mean-spirited comments

#5

Post by boundlessdreamz » Sun, Oct 31, 2010, 6:23 AM UTC

mjfern wrote: post #3

daeken wrote: post #2

I upvoted this because I agree with the concept, but I don't believe such things are necessary. General rule of life: assholes will be assholes. This isn't going to make anyone more polite. Most of us are already polite, and quite content to simply downvote people who aren't.

If mean-spirited comments are down-voted, then it's not much of an issue. The problem is that I've started seeing mean-spirited comments receiving up-votes, and rising to the top of discussions. How do we solve this as a community?

Where have you seen that? I have seen most of them getting downvoted and some getting 1 or 2 upvotes

Re: Tell HN: Uptick in mean-spirited comments

#6

Post by gsivil » Sun, Oct 31, 2010, 6:27 AM UTC

I have noticed that a negative comment(against the main point of the post) tends to be sometime initially down-voted by some superficial prejudice that it should be also mean-spirited.

It seems that the community naturally upvotes that comment to support diversity of opinions.

Of course such support tends to bring some of the provocative comments up in the list- in my view.

Re: Tell HN: Uptick in mean-spirited comments

#7

Post by jrockway » Sun, Oct 31, 2010, 6:29 AM UTC

No social news site is going to be perfect. If it's people that are writing comments, some comments will be good and some will be bad. Read them and decide for yourself. If a comment hurts your feelings, get over it. If you like a comment, upvote it, and help other people find the best comments.

Really, I kind of get tired of reading stuff like this because there is always some subtext to it. "mean-spirited" usually means, "someone disagreed with me". If people disagree with you, you can either get over it or learn to argue better. Passive aggressive, "oh noes everyone is so mean" is not going to change what people think. Good writing will.

Re: Tell HN: Uptick in mean-spirited comments

#8

Post by mjfern » Sun, Oct 31, 2010, 6:30 AM UTC

boundlessdreamz wrote: post #5

mjfern wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If mean-spirited comments are down-voted, then it's not much of an issue. The problem is that I've started seeing mean-spirited comments receiving up-votes, and rising to the top of discussions. How do we solve this as a community?

Where have you seen that? I have seen most of them getting downvoted and some getting 1 or 2 upvotes

I would rather not single out any individuals/comments. In any event, it appears like a growing issue across the community, and is not isolated to just one or two people.

Re: Tell HN: Uptick in mean-spirited comments

#9

Post by mjfern » Sun, Oct 31, 2010, 6:32 AM UTC

gsivil wrote: post #6

I have noticed that a negative comment(against the main point of the post) tends to be sometime initially down-voted by some superficial prejudice that it should be also mean-spirited. It seems that the community naturally upvotes that comment to support diversity of opinions. Of course such support tends to bring some of the provocative comments up in the list- in my view.

I'm highly supportive of thoughtful debate, but my impression is that some of the up-voted comments lately have crossed the line from debate to ridicule.

Re: Tell HN: Uptick in mean-spirited comments

#10

Post by codexon » Sun, Oct 31, 2010, 6:33 AM UTC

jrockway wrote: post #7

No social news site is going to be perfect. If it's people that are writing comments, some comments will be good and some will be bad. Read them and decide for yourself. If a comment hurts your feelings, get over it. If you like a comment, upvote it, and help other people find the best comments. Really, I kind of get tired of reading stuff like this because there is always some subtext to it. "mean-spirited" usually…

When it comes to things like politics/religion/etc no amount of good writing can convince the other person.