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Why I’m quitting Hacker News

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Re: Why I’m quitting Hacker News

#21

Post by ChumpGPT »

Engaging in extensive participation beyond the occasional comment or upvote can often be a futile endeavor, consuming precious time without much to show for it.

One aspect that I find particularly appealing about platforms like 4Chan is the sense of detachment from the significance of individual contributions. It creates an environment where the present moment holds more value than long-term consequences, allowing for a certain freedom of expression. Despite the abundance of low-quality content, it's fascinating to discover that genuine brilliance can emerge amidst the seemingly endless stream of random posts.

Re: Why I’m quitting Hacker News

#22

Post by version_five »

minusf wrote: post #15
joecool1029 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> These current-events climate stories are the most important pieces of news on the site. In your opinion. Many other HN users don't feel that way and get tired of seeing the same topic over and over again. If it's not intellectually interesting and seems overly political it's getting that flag button clicked. EDIT: Before downvoting/flagging me consider that maybe I don't hold the views you dislike. I'm making comme…

so why dont i see that with ai related stuff? hn has been basically a gpt news site the last 4 months. quite sick of it actually. i dont remember even 5 climate change big threads recently, it's like the issue doesnt exist here at all. climate change is not only political - there's tons of research and science involved. but it's better to know someone put gpt on self driving cars that can cook asian fusion hallucinat…

I get the sense that a lot of people hate AI stuff, but a lot of people are also interested, so it gets downweighted but a lot of stories still appear. This is based on seeing a few dang comments about it, plus getting lots of upvotes on some anti AI post comments I've made. I agree it's too much. Otoh, it's a new and evolving field (llms et al) that has regular new information, that's relevant to the community. I think there's more new information in the AI posts than in the "here's evidence climate change is bad" posts. Posts about tech that addresses climate change would be interesting and do get discussed periodically.

Re: Why I’m quitting Hacker News

#23

Post by stemlord »

version_five wrote: post #3

You're arguing with and algorithm that says if comments > points then downweight. It's to avoid typical internet flame wars, it's not some rejection by the community or whatever you're inferring. It's just that it rehashes tired and well trodden internet discussions that aren't very interesting. What would you have rather seen happen? It stays at the top so people can pile on about how bad climate change is? Edit: I'…

Algorithms are implemented by people

Re: Why I’m quitting Hacker News

#24

Post by joecool1029 »

version_five wrote: post #22
minusf wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

so why dont i see that with ai related stuff? hn has been basically a gpt news site the last 4 months. quite sick of it actually. i dont remember even 5 climate change big threads recently, it's like the issue doesnt exist here at all. climate change is not only political - there's tons of research and science involved. but it's better to know someone put gpt on self driving cars that can cook asian fusion hallucinat…

I get the sense that a lot of people hate AI stuff, but a lot of people are also interested, so it gets downweighted but a lot of stories still appear. This is based on seeing a few dang comments about it, plus getting lots of upvotes on some anti AI post comments I've made. I agree it's too much. Otoh, it's a new and evolving field (llms et al) that has regular new information, that's relevant to the community. I th…

It's priorities, more users on this site work in software that uses AI and are concerned about their livelihood. How many people come to this site to learn about tooling or new ways they can make money? I would guess it's a pretty large amount.

It's short-sighted but if you have to survive and pay the bills this is what you have to do. Not everyone is a tenured professor with the ability to have this as their primary priority.

Re: Why I’m quitting Hacker News

#25

Post by hdjjhhvvhga »

stemlord wrote: post #23
version_five wrote: post #3

You're arguing with and algorithm that says if comments > points then downweight. It's to avoid typical internet flame wars, it's not some rejection by the community or whatever you're inferring. It's just that it rehashes tired and well trodden internet discussions that aren't very interesting. What would you have rather seen happen? It stays at the top so people can pile on about how bad climate change is? Edit: I'…

Algorithms are implemented by people

That's the very point. What we are discussing is not why a particular post was down but whether the policy of completely shutting the discussion makes any sense.

You could argue that if a discussion is heated, at some points both sides run out of arguments and things like Godwin's law kicks in, so letting it continue is counterproductive. On the other hand, I saw interesting and highly upvoted posts disappear after just a couple of comments (because they were politically incorrect, criticized someone, or were in favor of someone currently out of fashion).

This "I dislike so I flag" abuse (by a minority) is my single gripe with HN. Otherwise, it's by far the best community on the web and I'm happy to be a part of it.

Re: Why I’m quitting Hacker News

#26

Post by pieter_mj »

minusf wrote: post #15
joecool1029 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> These current-events climate stories are the most important pieces of news on the site. In your opinion. Many other HN users don't feel that way and get tired of seeing the same topic over and over again. If it's not intellectually interesting and seems overly political it's getting that flag button clicked. EDIT: Before downvoting/flagging me consider that maybe I don't hold the views you dislike. I'm making comme…

so why dont i see that with ai related stuff? hn has been basically a gpt news site the last 4 months. quite sick of it actually. i dont remember even 5 climate change big threads recently, it's like the issue doesnt exist here at all. climate change is not only political - there's tons of research and science involved. but it's better to know someone put gpt on self driving cars that can cook asian fusion hallucinat…

Browser side solutions have been provided by other users (not by hn) to hide certain coversations. I think it's an excellent solution to hide climate change stuff if you so wish, unless you're using an app all the time.

More than plenty of other stories going around to drown climate change conversations in, so to speak. No need to delete them imo. Besides, we're smart enough to ignore the in our opinion boring and political stuff.

Re: Why I’m quitting Hacker News

#27

Post by ttctciyf »

version_five wrote: post #3

You're arguing with and algorithm that says if comments > points then downweight. It's to avoid typical internet flame wars, it's not some rejection by the community or whatever you're inferring. It's just that it rehashes tired and well trodden internet discussions that aren't very interesting. What would you have rather seen happen? It stays at the top so people can pile on about how bad climate change is? Edit: I'…

Wait, so the nearest thing to downvoting a story on HN is to comment on it but not vote it up?

Re: Why I’m quitting Hacker News

#29

Post by matthewdgreen »

joecool1029 wrote: post #24
version_five wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get the sense that a lot of people hate AI stuff, but a lot of people are also interested, so it gets downweighted but a lot of stories still appear. This is based on seeing a few dang comments about it, plus getting lots of upvotes on some anti AI post comments I've made. I agree it's too much. Otoh, it's a new and evolving field (llms et al) that has regular new information, that's relevant to the community. I th…

It's priorities, more users on this site work in software that uses AI and are concerned about their livelihood. How many people come to this site to learn about tooling or new ways they can make money? I would guess it's a pretty large amount. It's short-sighted but if you have to survive and pay the bills this is what you have to do. Not everyone is a tenured professor with the ability to have this as their primary…

I’m not a tenured professor with the ability to have this as my primary priority. I’m a person who has kids and wants to know if they’re going to have a world to live in. Even a world with AI and no jobs is a hell of a lot better than a world where we can’t grow crops because the climate hit a tipping point and we all shut our eyes.

Re: Why I’m quitting Hacker News

#30

Post by joecool1029 »

matthewdgreen wrote: post #29
joecool1029 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's priorities, more users on this site work in software that uses AI and are concerned about their livelihood. How many people come to this site to learn about tooling or new ways they can make money? I would guess it's a pretty large amount. It's short-sighted but if you have to survive and pay the bills this is what you have to do. Not everyone is a tenured professor with the ability to have this as their primary…

I’m not a tenured professor with the ability to have this as my primary priority. I’m a person who has kids and wants to know if they’re going to have a world to live in. Even a world with AI and no jobs is a hell of a lot better than a world where we can’t grow crops because the climate hit a tipping point and we all shut our eyes.

>I’m not a tenured professor with the ability to have this as my primary priority.

Can you see now why it's bad to assume things and engage in bad faith ad hominem?

>I’m a person who has kids and wants to know if they’re going to have a world to live in

They will. It will be different and might be worse. They won't have the same food, weather might harm them.

If you haven't written me off for my last comment, I rent a cottage on a small farm. On the land stands a sole american chestnut in a region where there was once billions. We have planted seedlings started from this tree. For what? The world didn't go away for this survivor, but the stress of the blight afflicts it and it will almost certainly take its young when they mature. Science has made it possible to bring the closest version of this tree back through genetic modification, but should it be done? I am of the mindset that yes, we should do that. Many will disagree. Should we keep trying to hybridize it with foreign species, or should we let it fade into the fossil record? There's no consensus so national policy hasn't changed.

I bring this up because I do notice, I see the changes in the world around me but I as an individual only have the power to struggle on my own to adapt to them. Do you understand that it's not a lack of my caring, but a fatigue of hearing the same 'worse this year' reporting that there's not much point in discussing?

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