Poll: Ban Codinghorror? • Hacker News Board

Re: Poll: Ban Codinghorror?

#31

Post by rewind » Tue, Mar 10, 2009, 7:49 PM UTC

Maybe somebody could put up a poll about whether or not to ban polls about banning sites.

If you don't like Jeff's blog, don't click the link. If the community likes the blog, it will get voted up. I don't get what the point of banning it is in the first place if the community in general is voting it up. Controversial or not, it's way more relevant than a lot of the other crap that gets voted up.

I listen to Jeff and Joel's Stack Overflow podcast. Jeff seems like a totally reasonable guy whose ego is in check and who is not looking to piss anybody off. He's just out there writing down his thoughts, just like everybody else. You're allowed to disagree with him. Feel free to do so. I don't see the need to ban his blog.

Re: Poll: Ban Codinghorror?

#32

Post by whughes » Tue, Mar 10, 2009, 7:50 PM UTC

peterhi wrote: post #26

You are not suggesting consorship. This a clearly well beyond suggestion. You want Codinghorror banned but you do not have the spine to say this outright, so you propose a poll to make yourself appear reasonable. Even your second point is baseless, "potentially bringing a new mass of users that will contribute very little to the website". Note the use of the word 'potentially', you know you have no evidence of this b…

Censorship is quite a reasonable suggestion for HN. We aren't here to express our political views, we're here to read good content. If a site gets in the way of that, then by all means it should be banned.

Re: Poll: Ban Codinghorror?

#33

Post by Anthony » Tue, Mar 10, 2009, 7:50 PM UTC

It's funny because I came here because of his blog entry this morning. I have to say, I've never seen anyone on the web willingly say they do not want traffic... guess we're all a little strange in our own way.

Re: Poll: Ban Codinghorror?

#34

Post by vorador » Tue, Mar 10, 2009, 7:51 PM UTC

mistermann wrote: post #10

Could we have a 3rd option: "Quit whining" I mean, really. Although, you make a good point that it will drive unwanted people here...but there's nothing we can do about that unfortunately.

It may also bring interesting people too.

Re: Poll: Ban Codinghorror?

#35

Post by midnightmonster » Tue, Mar 10, 2009, 7:56 PM UTC

peterhi wrote: post #26

You are not suggesting consorship. This a clearly well beyond suggestion. You want Codinghorror banned but you do not have the spine to say this outright, so you propose a poll to make yourself appear reasonable. Even your second point is baseless, "potentially bringing a new mass of users that will contribute very little to the website". Note the use of the word 'potentially', you know you have no evidence of this b…

Parent upvoted (from -1 to 0) b/c unsupported warnings of possible future harm really is a lousy way to carry out debate.

OTOH, peterhi, I just skimmed your past comments: the negative karma isn't just b/c you say unpopular or off-topic things--it's also because you're mostly a jerk about it.

Re: Poll: Ban Codinghorror?

#36

Post by clintjhill » Tue, Mar 10, 2009, 7:58 PM UTC

peterhi wrote: post #26

You are not suggesting consorship. This a clearly well beyond suggestion. You want Codinghorror banned but you do not have the spine to say this outright, so you propose a poll to make yourself appear reasonable. Even your second point is baseless, "potentially bringing a new mass of users that will contribute very little to the website". Note the use of the word 'potentially', you know you have no evidence of this b…

Well said. That's what I meant to say when I said "this is how communities disintegrate".

Yours is much better.

Re: Poll: Ban Codinghorror?

#37

Post by abyssknight » Tue, Mar 10, 2009, 8:01 PM UTC

I'm getting more than a little tired of the star programmer rivalry. To see a great site like HN join in would seriously crush me. I come here to read news, regardless of where it comes from and regardless of whether I agree with it or not.

Isn't that the point? If everything were censored and all we ever heard about was TDD and how great and spiffy it is how would we ever know why? Why is Jeff Atwood to be despised? Why is "An open letter to Steve Jobs about approving the amber alert application" more appropriate than "Sharpening the Saw"?

I want the good, the bad and the ugly. I agree with censoring spam, sites that are gaming the system, and the like but this is just silly. It all seems very ad hominem to me. Get off your soap box and write something worth while.

Criticism is how start-ups thrive. Learn it, live it.

Re: Poll: Ban Codinghorror?

#38

Post by peterhi » Tue, Mar 10, 2009, 8:04 PM UTC

pg wrote: post #23

mtomczak wrote: post #22

Greetings! I'm one of the regular readers of codinghorror who had never seen news.ycombinator.com until just today. With respect, the original poster (pollster?) is painting with a rather large brush. Could we please at least be allowed to get in here and see what's going on before the assertion that we will "contribute very little to the website" is leveled? On the other hand, it's refreshing to see the comments of…

Could we please at least be allowed to get in here and see what's going on before the assertion that we will "contribute very little to the website" is leveled? Don't worry, all they're talking about is banning links to Codinghorror, not banning people coming from it. We would never do that. Not that we would ban CH itself either.

But what sort of greeting has rglullis sent out to all those potential readers coming from CH "that will contribute very little to the website"?

I can think of a few :(

Re: Poll: Ban Codinghorror?

#39

Post by tremendo » Tue, Mar 10, 2009, 8:07 PM UTC

No. If some HN users post codinghorror links, clearly those users find them of interest, and however well or badly informed they may be, they are still on-topic. What anyone can do is vote them up or not.

Re: Poll: Ban Codinghorror?

#40

Post by axod » Tue, Mar 10, 2009, 8:07 PM UTC

noodle wrote: post #2

poll flawed. i need a "no don't ban it, but i'm tired of seeing codinghorror stories on news.yc" perhaps a better solution overall would be to implement some sort of restriction on submissions. if you submit from a single domain more than X number of times in the last Y submissions, you're disallowed from submitting from that domain for another Z submissions.

There were 4 'articles' from 37signals earlier on the front page. 1 is more than enough.