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I was getting the feeling that Slashdot had finally given up the ghost, or some subreddit that mainly attracts teenagers had posted an HN link for some reason.

I was getting the feeling that Slashdot had finally given up the ghost, or some subreddit that mainly attracts teenagers had posted an HN link for some reason. I mean there have been pun threads on HN posted recently, and reference "humor", and meme chains. It was enough to make me not even look at this site for a week. I really hope it turns around. I can't take another site I love turning into a cultural "me too" wasteland.

fao_ 11y ago
In my honest opinion, I think that it is worse knowing that the guidelines were created specifically to stop HN from degenerating into Reddit and Slashdot.
- Mandatum 11y ago
  Doesn't every community need guidelines/rules on the internet? Without them you get wild-west-style communities. I think HN works BECAUSE it's heavily moderated. In the beginning we could rely on a small user-base to self-sustain discussions, but we've reached such a wide audience now I don't think that's possible without mod assistance. Would be interesting to implement a veteran-only view to only show user's posts and comments that reach a certain karma or age threshold. Neither of which would correlate with conversation quality, however you'd likely see on-the-whole more 'classic HN'-style discussion as you've filtered out the vast majority of new/'casual' users.
  - fao_ 11y ago
    I think you misunderstood my comment, I did not mean to state that I thought the guidelines are bad -- I think that they are very good for the community (In fact, imo it's what makes this place better and more informative than Slashdot). What I meant to state was that the increase of the signal-to-noise ratio is a bad thing, that is happening despite the extrememly well written guidelines. Anecdotally, I would say that this could indicate that either the guidelines are not being enforced (However, from what I can tell they are being enforced), or that the guidelines have a black spot that could be filled (Whether this would cause more harm than good is debatable).
    - Mandatum 11y ago
      An increase in shadow-banning would be very effective, but there's a lot of push-back against that form of penalty.

fao_ 11y ago

In my honest opinion, I think that it is worse knowing that the guidelines were created specifically to stop HN from degenerating into Reddit and Slashdot.

Mandatum 11y ago
Doesn't every community need guidelines/rules on the internet? Without them you get wild-west-style communities. I think HN works BECAUSE it's heavily moderated. In the beginning we could rely on a small user-base to self-sustain discussions, but we've reached such a wide audience now I don't think that's possible without mod assistance. Would be interesting to implement a veteran-only view to only show user's posts and comments that reach a certain karma or age threshold. Neither of which would correlate with conversation quality, however you'd likely see on-the-whole more 'classic HN'-style discussion as you've filtered out the vast majority of new/'casual' users.
- fao_ 11y ago
  I think you misunderstood my comment, I did not mean to state that I thought the guidelines are bad -- I think that they are very good for the community (In fact, imo it's what makes this place better and more informative than Slashdot). What I meant to state was that the increase of the signal-to-noise ratio is a bad thing, that is happening despite the extrememly well written guidelines. Anecdotally, I would say that this could indicate that either the guidelines are not being enforced (However, from what I can tell they are being enforced), or that the guidelines have a black spot that could be filled (Whether this would cause more harm than good is debatable).
  - Mandatum 11y ago
    An increase in shadow-banning would be very effective, but there's a lot of push-back against that form of penalty.