Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Solving The Hacker News Problem

al3x.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 284 posts

Re: Solving The Hacker News Problem

#191

Post by mattjaynes »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #53
tptacek wrote: post #8

For what it's worth: I feel safe saying that most high-karma users of HN have a variety of severe concerns with it. My experience asking this question over email has generally been one of getting gigantic essay-length responses. In my official capacity as "representative of people dorky enough to have karma this high", we do officially declare: stuff's broken. Needs unbreaking.

In my official capacity as commenting wind-bag, I'll second that. HN started as a way for YC guys to communicate. It was about startups , the tips and techniques to make one, to grow one. Once PG opened it up, it became "stuff hackers like", which meant cool deep tech stuff. But the tech stuff was there because after a while, all the startup stuff just ran together. Then "stuff hackers like" kept drifting wider and w…

Excellent point and thanks for all your thoughtful comments.

I use to comment regularly on HN (member since Apr 2007 and former #1 on leaderboard in the ancient days, haha), but have found that I very rarely do any more.

When I look at my thought process now when thinking about posting something that may be of value, I find myself very reluctant. This is due to the snarkiness and hot-headed emotion that often disregards logical arguments as worthless and instead values breathy spittled anger.

Cowards become brave behind anonymity.

Who enjoys "lawyering" their comments? Basically trying to anticipate and address all the possible concerns hot-head users will bring up. Yet, I feel like I've had to do that more and more. In the end it seems an exercise in futility - particularly when I can just move on to interacting directly with the thoughtful hackers I care about and avoid those that spit when they talk.

I can understand the lament of the OP since I've really enjoyed the community and associating with the gentleman-hackers I've met here.

Thanks especially to those who have added true value here - I've learned a lot from the thoughtful ones who share and help.

Re: Solving The Hacker News Problem

#192

Post by shii »

jsrfded wrote: post #185
pg wrote: post #24

I think if we could see random frontpages from days a few years ago, we'd find that the top stories weren't that different, and that there was the same "jack of all trades, master of none" aspect to the site that Alex complains about. It may be that a site whose design spec is to satisfy hackers' intellectual curiosity would necessarily feel that way. Maybe I'll write something to regenerate past front pages, so we c…

Random highly-ranked hacker news threads: http://www.skrenta.com/hn/

Yup, this is the one I mentioned in this tree a little earlier.

Re: Solving The Hacker News Problem

#194

Post by oconnor0 »

edw519 wrote: post #182

Quality of HN Comments Over Time | . . | . . q| . . . . u| . . . . . . a| . . . . . l| . . . . . i| . . . . . t| . . . you are here -->. . y| (that's all) |________________________________________________________ N D J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D J F '09 '10 '11 (It must be that time of year again...) http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=926604 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1646871

The question is, of course, are we entering the Eternal February?

Re: Solving The Hacker News Problem

#195

Post by moultano »

sophacles wrote: post #180
pg wrote: post #24

I think if we could see random frontpages from days a few years ago, we'd find that the top stories weren't that different, and that there was the same "jack of all trades, master of none" aspect to the site that Alex complains about. It may be that a site whose design spec is to satisfy hackers' intellectual curiosity would necessarily feel that way. Maybe I'll write something to regenerate past front pages, so we c…

I have recently begun to realize that there are 2 aspects to "website degeneration". One is the obvious new people showing up because they heard it's cool psuedo python paradox situation. The other comes from the old-timers themselves. I'm not particularly that old-timer, but in the 3something years I've been here, I can say I have experienced this: I've grown. The "5 awesome vim tips" or "super deep closure stuff" a…

A similar effect: The average age on the internet is younger than you, and will be for the rest of your life. Think about what effect that has on the density of quality user generated content.

Re: Solving The Hacker News Problem

#196

Post by Alex3917 »

edw519 wrote: post #182

Quality of HN Comments Over Time | . . | . . q| . . . . u| . . . . . . a| . . . . . l| . . . . . i| . . . . . t| . . . you are here -->. . y| (that's all) |________________________________________________________ N D J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J J A S O N D J F '09 '10 '11 (It must be that time of year again...) http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=926604 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1646871

When HN first started it was kind of like r/truereddit but with an emphasis on startups. HN today has almost nothing in common with this. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I don't think it's correct to say that the quality level is just an oscillation.

Re: Solving The Hacker News Problem

#197

Post by eps »

groby_b wrote: post #83
jacques_chester wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good point. On reflection it resembles flocking behaviour. I imagine that website members can be modelled as simple agents with two rules: 1. A cool site has few, impressive members. 2. Move towards the cool sites. Given an arbitrary distribution of "impressive" members, this should cause a constantly moving flock of members to move from site to site regardless of its purpose .

It strikes me that a logical step to prevent #2 is "allow only new contributing members that have been vouched for by n old members". Yes, I'm that elitist. And yes, I'm well aware I probably wouldn't get voted in :) But here's the other part - keep the site open for reading . That means it (hopefully) self-selects for quality, and other people can observe a high-quality discussion.

There is a story making rounds about hiring policies of Saint-Petersburg Mint (back in Royal Russia times). Every new hire not only needed three recommendations from current employees, but that should the new person ever get fired, those who recommended him would be let go as well.

Brutal, but brilliant... even if it is not necessary true :)

Re: Solving The Hacker News Problem

#198

Post by tastybites »

natrius wrote: post #139
tastybites wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience (SF, LA) the rent control is there to prevent the gouging of yuppies, not to keep the poor people in. The idea is the city wants to keep rent just high enough to retain the rich people for the tax and spending base but low enough that the landlords to squeeze them out, which they most likely would do if given the chance. It might be different in places other than California though, like New York.

You can't squeeze out rich people by raising prices without ending up with empty units, which landlords don't want.

Lots of landlords are stupid and will raise rent beyond the market clearing rate just to make a quick buck, resulting in empty units and shitty communities.

Re: Solving The Hacker News Problem

#199

Post by spicyj »

mkramlich wrote: post #176

My suggestions for tweaks to improve the site: 1. hard ban on purely political news ("Egyptian leader stepped down! OMG!") 2. hard ban on gender-specific things ("i'm female, went to bar during hacker conference, got groped, OMG!" -- yes it was hacker conference, but gosh subtract the 'during hacker conference' and you have real life, it's independent of tech, not specific to it or due to it, just a life thing with g…

(In response to 7,) you already need 500 karma to downvote anything.
Post reply on HN