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Why I stopped reading HN (2010)

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Re: Why I stopped reading HN (2010)

#21

Post by meerita »

dwrodri wrote: post #3

I uninstalled my 3rd party reddit app the other day for very similar reasons. I love reddit as a way for getting my tech news, but there's just so much about the platform that I don't like which is becoming harder and harder to avoid. The communities I really enjoy (r/cpp, r/MachineLearning, r/DataScience) are still for the most part wonderful communities and they provide killer feeds that let me stay up to date with…

I'm using the web and it's crazy how much memory consumes this website. After a couple of clicks the browser starts to suffer.

Re: Why I stopped reading HN (2010)

#22

Post by 30f0fn »

foldr wrote: post #8

Given the focus on arguments that are alleged to be purely semantic, it would have been helpful to have a good example of such an argument. He describes the debate over abortion as a canonical example. The idea here seems to be that the debate over whether a foetus is 'alive' is a purely semantic dispute over the definition of the word 'life'. This strikes me as simply a mistake. It's certainly very difficult to have…

Indeed. The disagreement over abortion is, roughly, whether killing a human fetus should ever be legal. The disagreement is hard to resolve because it’s not clear which principles to apply, so that arguments pro or con can take on a semantic flavor, but there’s nothing semantic about the underlying issue. (It might be that the author harbors some feeling that all ethical questions are merely semantic; this is putting a lot of weight on a distinction which became discredited in 1951).

Re: Why I stopped reading HN (2010)

#23

Post by watwut »

echelon wrote: post #16
tom_mellior wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could be better. Slashdot has (or maybe had, I haven't checked in a while) a way of associating votes with tags. So upvotes could be tagged "insightful" or "funny" or whatever, and downvotes tagged "flamebait" or "off-topic" or others. Especially for downvotes I would often be interested in this kind of quick feedback.

Slashdot is insufferable trash today. If you read the comments, every article gets sniped by Nazi swastika ASCII art, which they still haven't bothered to ban. (You would have thought the teenagers doing this in the 90's would have grown up by now...) How hard is it to ban the same post being made repeatedly, over and over? Slashdot stopped trying.

> (You would have thought the teenagers doing this in the 90's would have grown up by now...)

They grew up. They kept their opinions and attitudes, as people do. You can grow out of graffiti, but you will still like the style. Getting older does not magically make you stop liking nazi if you liked them as teenager.

Instead, you seek to pass your values to teenagers that follow you.

Re: Why I stopped reading HN (2010)

#24

Post by watwut »

tom_mellior wrote: post #9
httpsterio wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the best thing here is active moderation weeding out the most negative and unhelpful comments, trying to keep the discussions civil. It's hard and requires a lot of effort but HN is a good example of what it can look like at best.

It could be better. Slashdot has (or maybe had, I haven't checked in a while) a way of associating votes with tags. So upvotes could be tagged "insightful" or "funny" or whatever, and downvotes tagged "flamebait" or "off-topic" or others. Especially for downvotes I would often be interested in this kind of quick feedback.

I left slashdot when the openly sexist comments became too frequent (they used to be less frequent). It was years ago, I dont know whether it was temporary or long term trend.

Same with 9gag btw. It was funny, then funny with occasional eye roll and then "I dont have to look at this". I dont know whether it changed back or not.

Re: Why I stopped reading HN (2010)

#25

Post by capableweb »

meerita wrote: post #21
dwrodri wrote: post #3

I uninstalled my 3rd party reddit app the other day for very similar reasons. I love reddit as a way for getting my tech news, but there's just so much about the platform that I don't like which is becoming harder and harder to avoid. The communities I really enjoy (r/cpp, r/MachineLearning, r/DataScience) are still for the most part wonderful communities and they provide killer feeds that let me stay up to date with…

I'm using the web and it's crazy how much memory consumes this website. After a couple of clicks the browser starts to suffer.

You're answering to a comment about a people/platform problem at Reddit with a technical issue at Reddit. While both are maybe true, one is easy to fix (with the right organization) while the other there is no solution in sight, that works at global scale. Most communities keep their feeling by remaining smaller (like HN) and strict moderation, both of which goes against what Reddit is aiming for.

Re: Why I stopped reading HN (2010)

#27

Post by rimliu »

httpsterio wrote: post #6
bot41 wrote: post #4

The post and it's content is exactly what I would expect to find here. From my experience reading HN, I think it is the best community of comments online. I am creating an online Reddit-style web app at the moment and I am going to borrow a lot of things I think HN does right.

the best thing here is active moderation weeding out the most negative and unhelpful comments, trying to keep the discussions civil. It's hard and requires a lot of effort but HN is a good example of what it can look like at best.

It is also the worst. And don't get me started on "you are posting to fast" crap, wheny you cannot comment on something, because you recently commented on totally different post.

Re: Why I stopped reading HN (2010)

#28

Post by cryptica »

I think one of the problems may be that many people on HN have moved from the lower and middle class to the upper class and so their attitude of fighting for innovation has morphed into an attitude of defending the status quo and suppressing innovation while shunning the contrarian 'hacker' ideals which they used to harbor. Unfortunately, for those of us who fell through the cracks of the system and are left behind (and who are still fighting for innovation), we are finding that more and more HN community members who used to fight alongside us are now turning against us.

The next generation of HN readers are being prepped for the role of a corporate servant, not that of a hacker entrepreneur. Those of us who remember how things used to be are having a hard time adjusting to the reality that the opportunities are all gone, we missed the boat and we are told to line up with the juniors and prepare for a life of bureaucratic corporate servitude.

The great tragedy of the situation is that those of us who are left behind and still participate in HN are probably some of the most persistent, hard working, ambitious and most skilled (struggle is the best teacher) entrepreneurs/hackers in existence - We're still waiting for our first opportunity and it's looking like we will never get it.

Re: Why I stopped reading HN (2010)

#29

Post by jacobush »

the-dude wrote: post #11
tom_mellior wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could be better. Slashdot has (or maybe had, I haven't checked in a while) a way of associating votes with tags. So upvotes could be tagged "insightful" or "funny" or whatever, and downvotes tagged "flamebait" or "off-topic" or others. Especially for downvotes I would often be interested in this kind of quick feedback.

But did it actually work better? I am inclined to think not as lots of people moved from ./ to HN.

I think a lot has to do with culture itself and not the moderation system. Slashdot was always a bit unruly.

Re: Why I stopped reading HN (2010)

#30

Post by jonathanlydall »

tom_mellior wrote: post #9
httpsterio wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the best thing here is active moderation weeding out the most negative and unhelpful comments, trying to keep the discussions civil. It's hard and requires a lot of effort but HN is a good example of what it can look like at best.

It could be better. Slashdot has (or maybe had, I haven't checked in a while) a way of associating votes with tags. So upvotes could be tagged "insightful" or "funny" or whatever, and downvotes tagged "flamebait" or "off-topic" or others. Especially for downvotes I would often be interested in this kind of quick feedback.

I still look at the Slashdot front page, but don’t look at the comments anymore.

I think the majority of the enjoyable community moved on a long time ago.

For example, if you just mention you’re a happy Microsoft user, you’re accused (often in a racist way) of being a schill and the cause of everything wrong in the world.

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