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Kind reminder: please (re)read the HN guidelines

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Re: Kind reminder: please (re)read the HN guidelines

#11

Post by boredguy8 »

swombat wrote: post #7

Yes, yes, HN is going to the dogs, it's not as good as it used to be, it's all because of the new users, and so on and so on. It's been like that since I joined two and a half years ago.

I agree, it's a fairly constant theme. But...

1) It's been a while, so worth the reminder; and 2) It's actually a submission from someone whose been here a while. The last several were from people with So: worth a little bit of +1 action, but I certainly hope it doesn't 'stay at the top for a while' as someone else said. Hoarding one of the 'above the fold' slots would be a bummer.

Re: Kind reminder: please (re)read the HN guidelines

#12

Post by DavidSJ »

swombat wrote: post #7

Yes, yes, HN is going to the dogs, it's not as good as it used to be, it's all because of the new users, and so on and so on. It's been like that since I joined two and a half years ago.

I think the reality is more that it goes in cycles, and it does seem to be at one of its low points currently. A reminder of the guidelines seems in order.

Re: Kind reminder: please (re)read the HN guidelines

#13

Post by InclinedPlane »

Vivtek wrote: post #10

I'm pleased to see that I am officially allowed to complain that HNN is getting to be just like Reddit.

I still have about 3 weeks left before I can make that complaint.

Luckily though, HN seems to be holding steady, and it has a long way to go before it becomes Reddit. HN is like having a conversation in your living room at a cocktail party with a lot of smart people in attendance. Reddit is like having a conversation at a sports bar with a bunch of random drunk assholes.

Re: Kind reminder: please (re)read the HN guidelines

#16

Post by pg »

DavidSJ wrote: post #12
swombat wrote: post #7

Yes, yes, HN is going to the dogs, it's not as good as it used to be, it's all because of the new users, and so on and so on. It's been like that since I joined two and a half years ago.

I think the reality is more that it goes in cycles, and it does seem to be at one of its low points currently. A reminder of the guidelines seems in order.

What I find is that randomness produces the appearance of cycles:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clustering_illusion

The last couple days were particularly bad, with lots of articles about controversial but fundamentally boring topics. But I think it was a coincidence, as usual.

Re: Kind reminder: please (re)read the HN guidelines

#19

Post by grandalf »

My take is that hackers are sometimes gasp interested in discussing political issues. Thus, the best approach is not to have people constantly chastising topics/comments as off topic, but to keep the quality of each comment high enough that an intellectually curious person would enjoy reading it, even if it's about something not typically associated with hacking.

Re: Kind reminder: please (re)read the HN guidelines

#20

Post by sabat »

I don't see HN going downhill in terms of submissions or in discourse. Things are mostly the same as they were 2-3 years ago.

I do worry -- perhaps unnecessarily -- about the killing of submissions for no obvious reason. Apparently using a URL shortener is verboten, although the HN guidelines don't mention this. But using one will get your story autokilled.

Yesterday, I tried to submit what I thought was an interesting story about Scoble's Building43 and older founders, but the submission page kept calling me a spammer. I am by no means a spammer.

I really want to understand what causes stories to be killed, mainly so that I can participate in good faith. But even asking about this seems to make one persona non grata. I sense a chilling effect here. I hope I'm mis-reading all this, and that I'll be proven absolutely wrong. :-)

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