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The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News (2019)

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Re: The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News (2019)

#51

Post by sillysaurusx »

tptacek wrote: post #40
sillysaurusx wrote: post #37

It always bugged me that Scott never got a proper send-off. He’s been gone for a year now. He did so much work, but didn’t even get a thank-you-goodbye. But it’s not my place to make a fuss about it. I just wish I knew what ended up happening to him. (If you’re reading this, Scott, I hope you’ve been well!) We spent a few years doing some enjoyable work together on Lumen, a Lisp for JS and Lua. I’m not sure we were f…

It's really none of our business.

I spent years of my life working with him, directly and indirectly. I got to know him on a personal level. None of your business, perhaps, but notice not one thank-you in this entire thread has been directed at sctb, and most readers probably have no clue who I’m talking about. That’s how little recognition he got.

Scott Bell was instrumental to the business of Hacker News. He contributed in a thousand ways, both small and large.

Re: The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News (2019)

#52

Post by doc_gunthrop »

Hnrobert42 wrote: post #38

When I first came to HN from reddit, I posted some jokey nonsense comment. A moderator gently scolded me. I really disliked it. Now, I see the wisdom of keeping the jokes to a minimum and focusing in thoughtful discussion. So thank you, mods.

That's what impressed me when I first came across HN - the signal-to-noise ratio. The comments sections were always filled with thoughtfully written comments that provided useful insights into interesting topics.

Thank you @dang for your diligence and commitment to the task.

Re: The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News (2019)

#53

Post by vagrantJin »

inopinatus wrote: post #42
bryanlarsen wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO, the most important work that upvotes and downvotes do is to move comments up and down the page. In that context, HN consensus on downvoting jokes makes more sense. I like a good joke, but they belong on the bottom of the page after the "serious" conversation. It's unfortunate that it's overloaded with karma, but complicating the upvote/downvote system has other drawbacks.

Counterpoint: half my upvotes are from humour, and some topics cry out for a lightening of tone. Unsurprisingly, I’ve found levity is best received when incorporating a kernel of fact or observation. Also, timezone matters. Jokes are easy. Comedy is hard.

Agreed. Humour is a good part of good conversation and an excellent way to provide insight without seeming to be condescending and/or obnoxious.

That being said,it does take skill to squeeze in a dad joke in a discussion of abstract computing problems related to 8081s and I'll go on a limb that HN not lenient on badly executed D-jokes as say reddit would for the attempt.

Re: The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News (2019)

#55

Post by esoterica »

> The site’s now characteristic tone of performative erudition—hyperrational, dispassionate, contrarian, authoritative—often masks a deeper recklessness.

Not that I disagree with the characterization, but the New Yorker criticizing other people for performative erudition is the funniest thing ever.

Re: The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News (2019)

#57

Post by abfan1127 »

fsflover wrote: post #16
Jaruzel wrote: post #3

Did dang promote this to the front page? :) Seriously tho... shout out to dang for all the hard work he does. (Please don't vote me up if you agree - I don't want the karma - just comment instead...)

Upvotes are not just for karma, they also show that you say relevant/important things and that people agree with you.

what about relevant/important things that many people don't agree with? Preventing any community from becoming 1-sided seems like a hard problem to solve, but no less important.

Re: The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News (2019)

#59

Post by dang »

iratewizard wrote: post #48
chrisweekly wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Risking violation of "don't feed the trolls" here to reply: that seems unnecessarily harsh. FTR I'm not downvoting you any further, but responding in case you have more specific and articulate criticism to level.

I've seen several instances over the years. The one that stands out for me is a post about ICC suing a YC company. It was an astroturf-fest.

If you're going to make this sort of accusation, you should link to the thread so people can make up their own minds. With linkless insinuations, the actual story is usually significantly different from what is being insinuated.
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