FWIW, I often look for political stories here just to see this crowd's comments on the subject. It would be nice if there was some sort of filter system or a few very broad categories.
HN is Becoming 2005 Slashdot
71–80 of 264 posts
Re: HN is Becoming 2005 Slashdot
#72Am I the only one who finds this thread to be hypocritical. Instead of posting this diatribe, as have others, lead by example and post content you'd like to see here.
One person can only post so much content. Appealing to others to change how they post content is much more effective over the long run. So no, not hypocritical... or at the very least, a necessary evil.
Re: HN is Becoming 2005 Slashdot
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
It would be interesting to know who remembers the days when Slashdot was good
I have a 5-digit uid there and remember when it really was a great site. But the comments started to become pretty terrible almost immediately. I still visit it every day just to skim the articles, but only about 20% of them are interesting/something I didn't see posted somewhere else.
Slashdot always had a large number of terrible comments (four digit UID here - right from the start the site had a huge troll contingent), however the moderation really did yield a better S/N ratio if you browsed the higher rated comments: On Slashdot you earned the occasional ability to moderate, with a limited ability to do so once you did. That resulted in more careful and considered moderation and I still believe it is an unmatched model.
Re: HN is Becoming 2005 Slashdot
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was a) too young and b) too sheltered from it we were only just getting consumer dial up in homes about that time in our country. But as i understand it yes although that was more like a gold rush in peoples living rooms. Unlike what we have today, a multibillion dollar industry walking around in peoples pockets every minute of the day. Dont gete wrong the desktop isnt going anywhere soon we just have a new poster…
>a multibillion dollar industry walking around in peoples pockets every minute of the day. - you are speaking of popularizing and monetizing the internet on mobile devices. In the last dot-com, we were popularizing and monetizing the internet on desktops. To someone that has lived through both? it looks pretty similar. Lots of dumb ideas that will crater, and a few good ones that will endure. (Of course, it's difficu…
The most obvious sign that the money sloshing around in the Valley is bubble froth is the number of people saying "this time it's different."
It's never different.
Re: HN is Becoming 2005 Slashdot
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hacker news has never been 100% technical; part of why I'm here (and involved in the Hacker Dojo) is to hang out with those skinny-jean wearing hipsters who have, you know, social and business skills, as well as some technical skill. Broadens my mind, you know? but the thing is, there is something of a filter there; you need to be 'this technical' to enter, as it were. How do you enforce this? I don't know. It seems…
First time I've heard of hipsters "broadening" someone's mind.
Eh, I mean hanging out with business people who seem like they are at least partly human (and some of them technically admirable) is a good experience for me. It helps remove some of my more self-destructive prejudices.
Re: HN is Becoming 2005 Slashdot
#76I can think of 3 possibilities: 1. HN has an influx of new users who are somewhat interested in technology and technology businesses, but do not have enough domain expertise to engage on discussion of technical subjects, or subjects related to startups, such as design, customer support, finance, laws (as in interpretation of legal code, not politics), etc. For them, it's easier to engage in political debate. [EDIT] A…
"because more pondered or technical articles take more time to get popular, they never reach the front page."
That's a really interesting point. As much as I've generally enjoyed the quality of front-pagers on HN over the years, I am now wondering about all the really good stuff that never made it there -- whether because the posters didn't optimize the timing properly, didn't game the headlines, or simply posted material that took awhile to digest and sink in.
Overall, there's probably a strong correlation between material that makes the front page and material that this community considers upworthy. But timing plays a huge role. I wish there was some way to counterbalance the effect a tiny bit. I can think of a few -- most of which would, unfortunately, be just as likely to harm as to help the reading experience.
Re: HN is Becoming 2005 Slashdot
#77Also easier to be an activist and aficionado then to be a contributor.
Re: HN is Becoming 2005 Slashdot
#78i started coming here after reddit changed years ago. I dont know of any other websites similar to HN... very sad if it changes too.
Re: HN is Becoming 2005 Slashdot
#79Oddly enough the folks complaining here sound like old people remembering the good old days. Any site which allows people of varying interests to contribute will eventually outgrow whoever was there before. It's inevitable, the alternative is stagnation where people talk about the same crap as their forefathers. You can't keep the little kid little forever unless they are dead. You could start a new site and try again and yet eventually success will breed change and you starting sounding old again. I'm old enough to have seen this a lot of times and it gets old too, which is kind a meta-old.
Re: HN is Becoming 2005 Slashdot
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
HN needs tagging or even general categories, so we can filter topics out.
Almost like... subreddits!
almost like every publishing media ever. the general design of HN is to be simplistic, but with the current popularity it doesn't scale.
IMO even [strictly tech] [everything else] would work, although I'd prefer a more advanced option to filter out stuff.