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This could be simply answered with a single answer that applies to any community - just post whatever panders to the average community member if you care about

This could be simply answered with a single answer that applies to any community - just post whatever panders to the average community member if you care about irrelevant counter in your profile.

arethuza 11y ago
One of the things I like about HN is that there really doesn't appear to be an "average community member" - a lot of opinionated knowledgeable people who have differing views. [It would be fun to try and come of a set of user stereotypes for HN - but there would be quite a few...]
- personjerry 11y ago
  One could argue that "opinionated knowledgeable people" is already a pretty specific demographic
- ebbv 11y ago
  That may be true but there are definitely common threads of things that always do well on HN (some of which I agree with so this is not necessarily a critique). Submission Topics: * Pro-privacy * Pro-big tech corporations (Apple, Google, even Microsoft) * Optimism about technology in general * Press releases about big funding rounds * Literally any blog post from Sam or pg. * Most blog posts from some other pillar of the tech world. Comments on Popular Submissions: * Agree with the original submission's premise and back it up with an anecdote or citations nobody will ever click on. * Ask a question that is really gentle and allows people to respond agreeing with the original article. * Defend against anyone who actually criticizes a submission that is doing well. If you've been here long enough you will be easily able to identify the patterns of things that will always do well, and the things that will always do poorly.
  - TeMPOraL 11y ago
    Some other patterns I've identified: Submission Topics: * Any news related to Tesla, SpaceX and Elon Musk. * Space. * Rocket launch events with live streaming. * Anti-big tech corporations, in context of privacy. * Dietetics. Will always bring a lot of flamewar. * Show HNs. * Completely random Wikipedia article that describes something interesting. Comments on Popular Submissions: * One to five words of disagreement (usually flagkilled). * Comments debunking lies, mistakes and omissions in mainstream news coverage, often by someone directly or indirectly involved in the article's subject matter. * 'tokenadult posting a wall of text from whatever personal wiki he's maintaining, usually full of interesting facts and citations; almost always a top comment, deservingly so. And I must say, I love all of them. For those of us who hang out a lot here, HN is a community.
TeMPOraL 11y ago
I love that irrelevant counter in my profile. Especially when it goes down. It's a signal that I should stop and rethink what I wrote - is it getting downvoted because of tone? Because I'm stupid? Or because I'm right but present an unpopular opinion? Usually it's the second.
- marklgr 11y ago
  > Or because I'm right but present an unpopular opinion? Some opinions are neither right nor wrong, they are just point of views, and the unpopular ones tend to get downvoted--admittedly, to a lesser extent on HN than other communities, but still happens. This has the unfortunate effect that, as you point out, the downvoted author doesn't know if there was something wrong with the tone or content, or if it just happened that his/her views are unpopular. Maybe asking for a few words (presumably in a small, unintrusive ajax form, and not visible in the main thread) as reason for downvoting could be useful, and somewhat deter "not-my-opinion-at-all" downvotes.
  - pjc50 11y ago
    Like the old slashdot "+1 interesting"? There are nonconfrontational ways of presenting views you know are going to encounter flak. One is to do so as a question.
    - dragonwriter 11y ago
      > There are nonconfrontational ways of presenting views you know are going to encounter flak. True, but... > One is to do so as a question. ...this can often come off as passive-aggressive when it is used to present a view; that's not really an improvement. If you are stating a view, just state it: to make it nonconfrontational, don't be condescending to people who disagree, don't predict that you will be downvoted into oblivion or otherwise persecuted for posting it, and generally extend the same charity to the community that you would like them to extend to your viewpoint.
      - cpncrunch 11y ago

This could be simply answered with a single answer that applies to any community - just post whatever panders to the average community member if you care about irrelevant counter in your profile.

arethuza 11y ago

One of the things I like about HN is that there really doesn't appear to be an "average community member" - a lot of opinionated knowledgeable people who have differing views. [It would be fun to try and come of a set of user stereotypes for HN - but there would be quite a few...]

personjerry 11y ago
One could argue that "opinionated knowledgeable people" is already a pretty specific demographic
ebbv 11y ago
That may be true but there are definitely common threads of things that always do well on HN (some of which I agree with so this is not necessarily a critique). Submission Topics: * Pro-privacy * Pro-big tech corporations (Apple, Google, even Microsoft) * Optimism about technology in general * Press releases about big funding rounds * Literally any blog post from Sam or pg. * Most blog posts from some other pillar of the tech world. Comments on Popular Submissions: * Agree with the original submission's premise and back it up with an anecdote or citations nobody will ever click on. * Ask a question that is really gentle and allows people to respond agreeing with the original article. * Defend against anyone who actually criticizes a submission that is doing well. If you've been here long enough you will be easily able to identify the patterns of things that will always do well, and the things that will always do poorly.
- TeMPOraL 11y ago
  Some other patterns I've identified: Submission Topics: * Any news related to Tesla, SpaceX and Elon Musk. * Space. * Rocket launch events with live streaming. * Anti-big tech corporations, in context of privacy. * Dietetics. Will always bring a lot of flamewar. * Show HNs. * Completely random Wikipedia article that describes something interesting. Comments on Popular Submissions: * One to five words of disagreement (usually flagkilled). * Comments debunking lies, mistakes and omissions in mainstream news coverage, often by someone directly or indirectly involved in the article's subject matter. * 'tokenadult posting a wall of text from whatever personal wiki he's maintaining, usually full of interesting facts and citations; almost always a top comment, deservingly so. And I must say, I love all of them. For those of us who hang out a lot here, HN is a community.

TeMPOraL 11y ago

I love that irrelevant counter in my profile. Especially when it goes down. It's a signal that I should stop and rethink what I wrote - is it getting downvoted because of tone? Because I'm stupid? Or because I'm right but present an unpopular opinion? Usually it's the second.

marklgr 11y ago
> Or because I'm right but present an unpopular opinion? Some opinions are neither right nor wrong, they are just point of views, and the unpopular ones tend to get downvoted--admittedly, to a lesser extent on HN than other communities, but still happens. This has the unfortunate effect that, as you point out, the downvoted author doesn't know if there was something wrong with the tone or content, or if it just happened that his/her views are unpopular. Maybe asking for a few words (presumably in a small, unintrusive ajax form, and not visible in the main thread) as reason for downvoting could be useful, and somewhat deter "not-my-opinion-at-all" downvotes.
- pjc50 11y ago
  Like the old slashdot "+1 interesting"? There are nonconfrontational ways of presenting views you know are going to encounter flak. One is to do so as a question.
  - dragonwriter 11y ago
    > There are nonconfrontational ways of presenting views you know are going to encounter flak. True, but... > One is to do so as a question. ...this can often come off as passive-aggressive when it is used to present a view; that's not really an improvement. If you are stating a view, just state it: to make it nonconfrontational, don't be condescending to people who disagree, don't predict that you will be downvoted into oblivion or otherwise persecuted for posting it, and generally extend the same charity to the community that you would like them to extend to your viewpoint.
    - cpncrunch 11y ago