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Where do you discuss computer related stuff now?

lobste.rs

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Re: Where do you discuss computer related stuff now?

#121

Post by OldGuyInTheClub »

Youden wrote: post #106
OldGuyInTheClub wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think of HN as a place to initiate a discussion or ask a question. I've contributed two items which never got any visibility or responses. But, I'm fine with contributing to a thread that makes it to the first few pages if I think I have something to say.

HN isn't a good place for discussion in my opinion due to the (explicitly allowed) practice of downvoting comments you don't agree with. If you'll be penalized for saying something people disagree with, you won't say it, or you'll say it and I'll be downvoted until it's hidden. This leads to HN threads usually being dominated with a few majority opinions and any real discussion being killed-off or buried. This is bas…

I'm still coming up to speed on downvoting. The down arrows appeared for me suddenly a couple of weeks ago but not for every post.

At least for now I find them useful. I have read a lot of grayed posts to get a feeling for what's going on and usually see why. I've upvoted a few where I thought the author was on point.

Re: Where do you discuss computer related stuff now?

#122

Post by anonzzzies »

hhjinks wrote: post #88
lmm wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Too many HN comments nowadays are a) dumb jokes b) disinformation that it would take too much effort to correct kindly. In the old days those comments were corrected harshly and that kept the community quality high (both because it kept the discussion more accurate at first order, and because it drove away users who couldn't take their lumps). Nowadays they are not corrected at all.

This is the problem with voting based social media. A demographic can be entirely supplanted by another really quickly. All you need is for the new demographic to upvote themselves, and the pre-existing demographic to not downvote the other demographic. Pre-existing users will start leaving when they see the content they originally came there for being outcompeted by the content the new demographic has introduced, ca…

I would start by not allowing voting on main topics; only allow on comments. And rank topics based on comment votes. Bad comments are going to be downvotes or, if bad quality, will just be removed.

Re: Where do you discuss computer related stuff now?

#123

Post by pwpw »

anonzzzies wrote: post #14
elliotec wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What part of this is different from HN as it is?

HN is good, but a little too much politics topics for my taste, but yes, not for nothing I am here. I was talking about my ideal (utopia) forum which will never happen. Now I am still on reddit for 3 subs and HN and lobsters.

The issue with lobsters is the difficulty of joining it, which I suppose is a feature.

Re: Where do you discuss computer related stuff now?

#124

Post by Redoubts »

OldGuyInTheClub wrote: post #121
Youden wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN isn't a good place for discussion in my opinion due to the (explicitly allowed) practice of downvoting comments you don't agree with. If you'll be penalized for saying something people disagree with, you won't say it, or you'll say it and I'll be downvoted until it's hidden. This leads to HN threads usually being dominated with a few majority opinions and any real discussion being killed-off or buried. This is bas…

I'm still coming up to speed on downvoting. The down arrows appeared for me suddenly a couple of weeks ago but not for every post. At least for now I find them useful. I have read a lot of grayed posts to get a feeling for what's going on and usually see why. I've upvoted a few where I thought the author was on point.

> The down arrows appeared for me suddenly a couple of weeks ago but not for every post.

I believe you get access to downvotes after 500 karma, and only for up to a day after the comment was made

Re: Where do you discuss computer related stuff now?

#125

Post by lost_tourist »

elliotec wrote: post #10
anonzzzies wrote: post #7

It needs a relatively small community with a strong moderator who will warn people once. Not much of they around as it’s a painful job. I would like just an old fashioned, strict (no endless bickering over politics and wars, just hard tech and show offs what you have been hacking this weekend) forum with most people from r/programminglanguages and some of Hn. That’s enough to keep me entertained anyway. I very much d…

What part of this is different from HN as it is?

HN isn't pretty much guaranteed to be dead in a year or two and it can also be archived easily.

Re: Where do you discuss computer related stuff now?

#126

Post by Balgair »

OldGuyInTheClub wrote: post #121
Youden wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN isn't a good place for discussion in my opinion due to the (explicitly allowed) practice of downvoting comments you don't agree with. If you'll be penalized for saying something people disagree with, you won't say it, or you'll say it and I'll be downvoted until it's hidden. This leads to HN threads usually being dominated with a few majority opinions and any real discussion being killed-off or buried. This is bas…

I'm still coming up to speed on downvoting. The down arrows appeared for me suddenly a couple of weeks ago but not for every post. At least for now I find them useful. I have read a lot of grayed posts to get a feeling for what's going on and usually see why. I've upvoted a few where I thought the author was on point.

One quirk about HN is that if you complain about the downvotes, you'll get even more. The community does seem to treat karma as the truly imaginary internet points they are.

Re: Where do you discuss computer related stuff now?

#127

Post by jasonjmcghee »

runjake wrote: post #70
jasonjmcghee wrote: post #53

I'd be interested to join Lobste.rs- those of you on the platform, how did you go about joining?

What’s your email? I’ll send you an invite. Edit: sent to hi@

Hey, I really appreciate that. Feel free to email me directly if you'd like to chat, otherwise, I'll see you around the community.

Re: Where do you discuss computer related stuff now?

#128

Post by Karrot_Kream »

renewiltord wrote: post #68
Karrot_Kream wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lobsters is too focused around PLs, systems coding, and FOSS politics for my tastes. The content in other computing niches is just too cursory to be interesting.

That is true. I think it's because of the small community. I am working on something with a friend so I can apply similar filtering to HN. HN has a good mass of people and some smart people but it's got a lot of repetitive LLM-style content. Once it is done, I think I shall be happy.

Let me know when you have something going. I'd be interested.

Re: Where do you discuss computer related stuff now?

#129

Post by Karrot_Kream »

kaba0 wrote: post #105
hhjinks wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the problem with voting based social media. A demographic can be entirely supplanted by another really quickly. All you need is for the new demographic to upvote themselves, and the pre-existing demographic to not downvote the other demographic. Pre-existing users will start leaving when they see the content they originally came there for being outcompeted by the content the new demographic has introduced, ca…

Tildes may be an interesting testing ground as a forum without downvote. It has Labels instead for marking less constructive comments, like Joke, Noise, Malice, etc.

Tildes does not rank based on voting, and instead displays votes as a separate signal. IMO it's a great piece of UX. It gives the author the pleasure of imaginary internet points but doesn't allow highly online mobs to sway the ordering of discussion.

Re: Where do you discuss computer related stuff now?

#130

Post by lmm »

smokel wrote: post #54
lmm wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's an activity level issue. When dang took over he made an explicit shift to prioritizing kindness, with predictable results.

I don't think one can easily compare HN to other forums, so saying the results are predictable is a bit harsh. I have been in many irc channels that were extremely harsh on cluebies, but all the flaming turned into a sport by itself, and drove away from the content. The same goes for usenet, many subreddits, and Twitter. I think HN is doing amazingly well after such a long time. It would be guesswork to say how it wo…

> I don't think one can easily compare HN to other forums, so saying the results are predictable is a bit harsh.

Well, I predicted them at the time (and IIRC commented as much), and that's been borne out.

> I have been in many irc channels that were extremely harsh on cluebies, but all the flaming turned into a sport by itself, and drove away from the content. The same goes for usenet, many subreddits, and Twitter.

You can definitely go too far. Kind is better than harsh all else being equal, and you should never reward cruelty for its own sake.

> I think HN is doing amazingly well after such a long time. It would be guesswork to say how it would end up with a less kind moderator. I for one would have left, but perhaps I'm too kind.

For me HN inherited an amazing community that has since gradually declined, and almost all visible moderator interventions have had a negative impact. I certainly think e.g. nudging out Chris Stucchio did more harm than good.

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