How to Participate in Hacker News • Hacker News Board

Re: How to Participate in Hacker News

#111

Post by acharm » Wed, Jan 04, 2012, 12:08 PM UTC

jcr wrote: post #109

acharm wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is my third account here. My last started posting [dead] last week. I'd very much like to know how one goes from positive karma to censored. Was it too many posts on the SOPA thread? That was the last set of posts before I went [dead]. I made like 10 posts, not a single one was downvoted, and a couple were upvoted 10 or more times. This was an issue I felt strongly about. Fair enough: my opinion may not merit su…

Though I have studied HN a lot, I am not a moderator and I do not have access to the actual code running on HN. The "basic" code behind HN (NEWS.YC) is publicly available in the ARC language distribution, but PG is running a modified version here. Without source code or moderator access, along with my well publicized lack of mind reading skills, I simply cannot tell you why your account was "hellbanned" (i.e. all pos…

Thank you very much for such a thorough reply. The latest version I found of ARC is from 2009, but since I didn't know it existed at all, I am quite happy. The posts are still [dead] to me, unfortunately.

Re: How to Participate in Hacker News

#112

Post by EdiX » Wed, Jan 04, 2012, 12:47 PM UTC

acharm wrote: post #102

jcr wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Daniel, I know you mean well, but your suggestion of "flag sparingly" is only useful some of the time, and there is code in place to handle those who flag excessively. As always, there's more to it than meets the eye. There is a great deal of "secret sauce" running on HN, and to prevent adversaries from abusing HN for their own gain, PG deliberately does not publicly divulge how a lot of things work. [1] You would ne…

This is my third account here. My last started posting [dead] last week. I'd very much like to know how one goes from positive karma to censored. Was it too many posts on the SOPA thread? That was the last set of posts before I went [dead]. I made like 10 posts, not a single one was downvoted, and a couple were upvoted 10 or more times. This was an issue I felt strongly about. Fair enough: my opinion may not merit su…

I recently turned showdead on, most hellbanned users I find in the comments I can't understand why they were hellbanned looking at their post history. I can only imagine it was for flagging the wrong thing, or being part of a voting ring but at the moment hn moderation is a mistery to me.

Re: How to Participate in Hacker News

#113

Post by hessenwolf » Wed, Jan 04, 2012, 12:54 PM UTC

angrycoder wrote: post #60

my suggestions: 1) When a major event occurs that isn't directly related to technology, don't post comments to the effect "I thought this was hacker news, not reddit". This will ALWAYS get you downvoted and nothing good will come of the discussion. 2) When someone makes a detailed post that you don't agree with, don't down vote it, respond. 3) This is just me speaking for myself, but the only comments I really find u…

4) HN is a really good place for feedback, which trying to get online is often like drawing blood from a stone. People will say what they think of my site/article, because it is easy - they already have a HN account and are used to commenting.

Without reference, I say I see a lot that the authors respond and update the original article based on HN comments.

Re: How to Participate in Hacker News

#114

Post by hessenwolf » Wed, Jan 04, 2012, 12:58 PM UTC

mduerksen wrote: post #104

Tsagadai wrote: post #34

I've been a long time lurker here. I lurked for several months before creating an account and then I lurked quite a bit longer before participating. Groups of intelligent people are intimidating at first but please don't hold back if you have something to add to a discussion. New voices are incredibly important for preventing groups from merely becoming echochambers for established members. I especially agree with th…

Not a total lurker here, but I have mainly 2 reasons why I don't participate as much as I probably would/could/should... 1. Time. A discussion typically only lasts one day, and after that its mostly silent. Alongside my job, I simply can't find enough spare "thinking-time" to really write a thoughtful comment in that time frame. I feel that my comments would be more of a knee-jerk reaction than a real addition of val…

On 2. Ich wohne in Deutschland seit sechs monaten, und ich macht taglich sehr schlecht dings mit deinen Sprache, so don't worry about it. Just spit it out.

(I notice not wanting to make mistakes is a very apparent German characteristic, also visible in the Italians)

Re: How to Participate in Hacker News

#115

Post by dochtman » Wed, Jan 04, 2012, 1:58 PM UTC

mduerksen wrote: post #104

Tsagadai wrote: post #34

I've been a long time lurker here. I lurked for several months before creating an account and then I lurked quite a bit longer before participating. Groups of intelligent people are intimidating at first but please don't hold back if you have something to add to a discussion. New voices are incredibly important for preventing groups from merely becoming echochambers for established members. I especially agree with th…

Not a total lurker here, but I have mainly 2 reasons why I don't participate as much as I probably would/could/should... 1. Time. A discussion typically only lasts one day, and after that its mostly silent. Alongside my job, I simply can't find enough spare "thinking-time" to really write a thoughtful comment in that time frame. I feel that my comments would be more of a knee-jerk reaction than a real addition of val…

If you have thoughtful comments to write, please start a blog and respond at your own pace!

Re: How to Participate in Hacker News

#116

Post by dasil003 » Wed, Jan 04, 2012, 2:07 PM UTC

vacri wrote: post #95

m_myers wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that downvotes necessarily mean that people didn't get the joke. If I see a witty one-liner comment to a serious story, my normal reaction is "Ha ha ha! Downvote." Or else I ignore it entirely. (And sometimes it simply _isn't_ very funny.) I just don't think we need to encourage content-free comments here; there are plenty of places to go if you want to make fun of the news. Then again, I moderate a sit…

The problem I have is the inconsistency. I remember posting a sarcastic comment in a sea of sarcasting comments, then saying 'seriously though' and adding genuine content. Mine was the only comment that went gray. I've seen this stuff time and time again with other users - several comments of fluff, but only one gets pounded. What gets pounded in one thread gets rewarded in others - sometimes I'll post a snarky, devo…

Well all comment voting systems are inconsistent just because it's tough to get a uniform number of views on comments over time. And now that vote counts are hidden, things are even more wonky in terms of what sees vote volumes.

But in terms of humor I think it's fairly straightforward: don't do it unless you think of something that's really fucking funny (and hopefully a little insightful). If it's funny enough you will get upvoted just by sheer force of charisma. If it's just marginally funny you will likely get buried, and I think that's a good thing, because a lot of people aren't as funny as they think they are, and you don't need to look beyond Reddit to see what a culture of one-liners does to a discussion forum. If it's just some simple pun then likely many of the readers already thought of it and don't particularly want to read it over and over again.

Re: How to Participate in Hacker News

#117

Post by ap22213 » Wed, Jan 04, 2012, 2:20 PM UTC

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #35

Here's another suggestion: flag sparingly. A lot of long-time HN'ers are frustrated at the "flag patrols" -- people of one group who don't like such-and-such author and flag them and their submissions. I've heard several people complain to me about having normal articles flagged and I've done my share of complaining. Don't be the guy who takes out your personal grudges in the form of flagging. Let the votes work. The…

One thing I never understood was whether a flag was the same as a downvote.

In my interface, I don't have a down arrow next to the article or comment. But, there is a flag option. When people talk about downvoting, are they referring to flag? Or, something else that I don't have in my interface?

Re: How to Participate in Hacker News

#118

Post by JacobAldridge » Wed, Jan 04, 2012, 2:46 PM UTC

ap22213 wrote: post #117

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #35

Here's another suggestion: flag sparingly. A lot of long-time HN'ers are frustrated at the "flag patrols" -- people of one group who don't like such-and-such author and flag them and their submissions. I've heard several people complain to me about having normal articles flagged and I've done my share of complaining. Don't be the guy who takes out your personal grudges in the form of flagging. Let the votes work. The…

One thing I never understood was whether a flag was the same as a downvote. In my interface, I don't have a down arrow next to the article or comment. But, there is a flag option. When people talk about downvoting, are they referring to flag? Or, something else that I don't have in my interface?

As your karma score builds, you will gain access to some other features (the exact number has changed a few times, so I'm not sure what it is these days - I think 200 was a level for a while, and I note you're just below that).

You won't ever get a downvote option for the article. You will eventually be able to downvote other people's comments - unless they are replying directly to you like I am now (this stops pointless bickering via votes).

Flags are designed to note off-topic / incindiery submissions - saying 'this shouldn't be here' rather than 'I don't like this', and should be used sparingly given the extra power they represent.

Re: How to Participate in Hacker News

#119

Post by jvc26 » Wed, Jan 04, 2012, 3:10 PM UTC

shasta wrote: post #37

Am I the only one who gets tired of the first sentence of so many replies being along the lines of "I understand where you're coming from and I respect you as a person, but..."? Be respectful, but if you disagree, just disagree. Don't patronize.

I agree - I'd rather people wrote their opinion, in a respectful manner of the counterpoint view, but without a need to apologise first for disagreeing! Discussions always demand alternative views, and apologising for entering the discussion seems pointless!

Re: How to Participate in Hacker News

#120

Post by mhartl » Wed, Jan 04, 2012, 3:47 PM UTC

zem wrote: post #108

mhartl wrote: post #68

2. Participate! I often participate, but when I don't it's usually for a simple reason: downvotes sting. This is so important that I would add it as a corollary to "9. Be nice": 9a. Use downvotes sparingly. I and my poor primate brain will thank you.

the lack of a "red envelope" is offputting too - i very definitely find myself participating more in fora with comment reply notifications. unless i've just missed it altogether, all hn has is the rather clunky process of scanning your comment page to see if anything has garnered a new reply.

That's probably by design; it helps keep old conversations from going on forever.