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

Top Hacker News commenters of 2021

whaly.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 138 posts

Re: Top Hacker News commenters of 2021

#71

Post by caslon »

noduerme wrote: post #59
caslon wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The formula is pretty simple: Write cool comments about things you know about in threads that aren't dead yet. If you're really trying, you can accumulate over a hundred points in a day without posting any articles. The site is basically a game if you're optimizing for points, and it's better designed than reddit because you have to actually know things to get them. Have a niche programming language you like? Talk ab…

You're totally right, we all see that happening as far as it goes. But how far does it go? I've only ever posted on controversial topics. Usually when I post, I'm prepared to be downranked, and I'm mildly surprised when I get upvotes. I try to stay away from the dang-hammer. And on code or business subjects, I only ever go deep into things I have obsessive opinions about, popular or not. And that seems to rank OK. I…

"The point" is because it's fun to farm points. This is the same reason people play in competitive video games, or even why people posted videos of themselves online before there was a financial incentive to. It's fun to do something inherently collaborative, like being viewed by an audience.

Hacker News fills the same niche for me as competitive video game tournaments do (during a certain time of the year, an easy way to predict whether or not my account will post during any given month is to see how tournaments are going in the game I play most). Hacker News is like a video game you can play at work.

That said, you can also pretty easily monetize farming points. It's pretty obvious when people are doing this, but I also don't see it as mattering too much, so I've never minded it, even though I'd never do so.

Re: Top Hacker News commenters of 2021

#72

Post by fragmede »

noduerme wrote: post #54
peoplefromibiza wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Literally the entire functioning of the last somewhat civil, fully moderated, independent, anon-friendly board on the internet in 2021 I recognize an hyperbole when I see one, but this one is kinda of a big one.

Name one that's apolitical, anonymous, and personally moderated post by post? Some reddit subs might fit the bill, or some car enthusiast forums or something where wide-ranging conversations are banned. But this is a hard, hard thing to mod. I don't think we have anything else like it these days. That's why I'm actually here.

off the top of my head: metafilter.com, lobste.rs, something awful,

Re: Top Hacker News commenters of 2021

#73

Post by DenisM »

baxtr wrote: post #55
noduerme wrote: post #34

It would really scare me if dang wasn't the first one. But at the same time, I feel immense pain thinking about what he has to deal with on a daily basis. Literally the entire functioning of the last somewhat civil, fully moderated, independent, anon-friendly board on the internet in 2021 on the shoulders of one admin. I'd like to say how a million flowers should bloom from this shining example, but it seems more lik…

By now, there should be enough data to automate dang? On a more serious note: Is he really doing this all by himself? If so, I am sure he could train some junior people to off-load the work.

Proper moderation requires strength of character to moderate evenly people you do and do not agree with. Not something you can impart on others, even less so on juniors.

Re: Top Hacker News commenters of 2021

#74

Post by birracerveza »

caslon wrote: post #68
birracerveza wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's selective evolution towards comment that appease the majority of the commenters, which is different. It's how you end up with reddit-like echo chambers.

That's not exactly the truth. The majority of Hacker News users can't downvote, and because of that, you're almost certain to get more upvotes than downvotes, unless your comment has few redeeming qualities. The majority of Hacker News also doesn't really upvote much. Your typical front page post has under a thousand votes, and posts are the easiest things to upvote. Comments rarely get over a hundred, and almost nev…

I agree on all points, except the last one.

If you can downvote, your comment WILL be downvoted based on ideology. No exception. HN is much, much less guilty of this compared to other sides (especially Reddit), but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. If it can happen, then it eventually will, and considering a single downvote buries the comment this a big problem. The real issue resides in using upvotes/downvotes to sort content to give "good" answers more visibility, so unless you only have text at your disposal to express your agreement/disagreement you're ALWAYS bound to have a biased echo chamber.

Re: Top Hacker News commenters of 2021

#75

Post by noduerme »

hirundo wrote: post #62
noduerme wrote: post #34

It would really scare me if dang wasn't the first one. But at the same time, I feel immense pain thinking about what he has to deal with on a daily basis. Literally the entire functioning of the last somewhat civil, fully moderated, independent, anon-friendly board on the internet in 2021 on the shoulders of one admin. I'd like to say how a million flowers should bloom from this shining example, but it seems more lik…

"Also, I'm surprised and a bit ashamed to be #415 in this list." "humblebrag, transitive + intransitive: to make a seemingly modest, self-critical, or casual statement or reference that is meant to draw attention to one's admirable or impressive qualities or achievements" -- https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/humblebrag

No, I'm actually both surprised and somewhat ashamed. I wouldn't brag to people here. And I certainly wouldn't mention it to anyone I know in real life. ("What's Hacker News? Oh you're on some internet forum where you have points? Wow.") Is there somewhere deep, deep in my cockles, or sub-cockles, where I'm proud of myself? eh. I don't know. Being ranked definitely rubs me the wrong way. I guess it means some of my late-night missives weren't sent completely into the void.

upvoted, btw. Thanks for making me wonder what kind of asshole I am.

Re: Top Hacker News commenters of 2021

#76

Post by falseanon3000 »

noduerme wrote: post #54
peoplefromibiza wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Literally the entire functioning of the last somewhat civil, fully moderated, independent, anon-friendly board on the internet in 2021 I recognize an hyperbole when I see one, but this one is kinda of a big one.

Name one that's apolitical, anonymous, and personally moderated post by post? Some reddit subs might fit the bill, or some car enthusiast forums or something where wide-ranging conversations are banned. But this is a hard, hard thing to mod. I don't think we have anything else like it these days. That's why I'm actually here.

That's rich, HN blocks all posts from VPN and flags all new account posts which are hidden until approved. Like this one.

Re: Top Hacker News commenters of 2021

#77

Post by tester34 »

caslon wrote: post #49
itsbits wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very difficult in HN to put comment and gain points. Atleast for me. Tried couple of times. Downvoted most of times. So I just visit and read comments. Have been doing same for more than 7 years now. I am sure there are lots of readers like me.

The formula is pretty simple: Write cool comments about things you know about in threads that aren't dead yet. If you're really trying, you can accumulate over a hundred points in a day without posting any articles. The site is basically a game if you're optimizing for points, and it's better designed than reddit because you have to actually know things to get them. Have a niche programming language you like? Talk ab…

>The site is basically a game if you're optimizing for points, and it's better designed than reddit because you have to actually know things to get them.

Haha.

Actually HN seems to be least technical community (when it comes to arguing) out of all those I know (reddit, forums)

Discussions raaarelly *try* to go into the technical details, let alone deeply. I don't think I've seen more than 5 code snippets over year on HN

Not only HN's format doesn't favor this kind of discussions, but also it seems that people prefer more "abstract" more "fancy" topics

Re: Top Hacker News commenters of 2021

#78

Post by caslon »

birracerveza wrote: post #74
caslon wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not exactly the truth. The majority of Hacker News users can't downvote, and because of that, you're almost certain to get more upvotes than downvotes, unless your comment has few redeeming qualities. The majority of Hacker News also doesn't really upvote much. Your typical front page post has under a thousand votes, and posts are the easiest things to upvote. Comments rarely get over a hundred, and almost nev…

I agree on all points, except the last one. If you can downvote, your comment WILL be downvoted based on ideology. No exception. HN is much, much less guilty of this compared to other sides (especially Reddit), but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. If it can happen, then it eventually will, and considering a single downvote buries the comment this a big problem. The real issue resides in using upvotes/downvotes to…

A single downvote doesn't bury the comment. Multiple downvotes, however, do. A single downvote isn't even guaranteed to change a comment's placement.

Re: Top Hacker News commenters of 2021

#79

Post by fragmede »

caslon wrote: post #68
birracerveza wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it's selective evolution towards comment that appease the majority of the commenters, which is different. It's how you end up with reddit-like echo chambers.

That's not exactly the truth. The majority of Hacker News users can't downvote, and because of that, you're almost certain to get more upvotes than downvotes, unless your comment has few redeeming qualities. The majority of Hacker News also doesn't really upvote much. Your typical front page post has under a thousand votes, and posts are the easiest things to upvote. Comments rarely get over a hundred, and almost nev…

> it's not an echo chamber

It very much is, to the point that this place is derisively called "the orange website" by those who can see it for that. You might agree with the precepts so it doesn't seem that way to you, but the sooner you can recognize them, the better off you'll be.

Re: Top Hacker News commenters of 2021

#80

Post by fragmede »

tester34 wrote: post #77
caslon wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The formula is pretty simple: Write cool comments about things you know about in threads that aren't dead yet. If you're really trying, you can accumulate over a hundred points in a day without posting any articles. The site is basically a game if you're optimizing for points, and it's better designed than reddit because you have to actually know things to get them. Have a niche programming language you like? Talk ab…

>The site is basically a game if you're optimizing for points, and it's better designed than reddit because you have to actually know things to get them. Haha. Actually HN seems to be least technical community (when it comes to arguing) out of all those I know (reddit, forums) Discussions raaarelly *try* to go into the technical details, let alone deeply. I don't think I've seen more than 5 code snippets over year on…

Even if they do, the number of people on HN that are able to give well-versed, in-depth comments, that are also accessible to a broader audience on a technical subject (eg BPF and eBPF) is vanishingly small, but also the number of readers for deep topics (deep, not technical vs non-technical eg wittgensteinproject.org) is also small, and are thus not worth farming for karma. For better or worse.
Post reply on HN