5 ms·
The karma inflation says a lot I think. There seems to be a rash of new users posting less relevant 'link-bait' stories that get voted up for being edgy/funny,
by tialys 17y ago
The karma inflation says a lot I think. There seems to be a rash of new users posting less relevant 'link-bait' stories that get voted up for being edgy/funny, but have little interest to hackers. I've noticed that i've been far less interested in the front page of HN lately due to most of the links on the front page being non hacker news or links I already saw on Reddit(!). This is purely anecdotal however.
- btipling 17y agoThe community will do as it will. If you want to keep something on topic you need moderators, like subreddit.
- seldo 17y agoI for one have got a lot more strict about flagging things that are interesting but off-topic.
- iamelgringo 17y agoI've tried to do that quite a bit, but since PG changed the rules for flagging last year, it hasn't been nearly as effective.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- ubernostrum 17y agoThere seems to be a rash of new users posting less relevant 'link-bait' stories that get voted up When I first encountered HN, not long after its launch, it appeared to function largely as a syndicator of TechCrunch articles. So I find your characterization of a "rash" of new "link-bait" rather amusing...
- jaf656s 17y agoDid you wait a while before creating an account? If you did, then you can ignore the rest of my comment. If not, you could have joined during one of HN's "popularity peaks" when it was mentioned on another popular website, creating a wave of new users. Those peaks always seem to correspond with a rush of Techcrunch (and similar) articles.
- ubernostrum 17y agoHN was about a year and four months old when I created an account (finally figured it was worth posting a comment), but I'd been skimming headlines occasionally almost since it launched.
- grandalf 17y agoI think the problem is that most HN readers don't bother flagging the link bait stories... many even vote them up. I would be OK with a "no linkbait headlines" policy where any article that had a sensational headline such as "Why I will never use another Apple product again" or "Shocking lessons from my Google interview" should just be considered inappropriate for HN.
- electromagnetic 17y agoI'd second this, I personally don't hesitate flagging something I think is inappropriate. I've been around HN for a fair while, and lurked a lot in the beginning too, so I will often flag an article that may have been appropriate sans sensationalism.