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It's one thing to have rules, but don't confuse rule following with culture. Culture is emergent, and not something that is policed into place.
by mangeletti 10y ago
It's one thing to have rules, but don't confuse rule following with culture. Culture is emergent, and not something that is policed into place.
- oldmanjay 10y agoHN has a culture of pointing out that obvious, boring jokes have no place here. There's a constant struggle by people to introduce them, but (amongst others) those of us who watched Slashdot flush itself down the toilet of shitty humor are going to police the site because it's what we want.
- davesque 10y agoIsn't it fair to say that the field of computer science has (up until recently, apparently) distinguished itself with its corny humor, dorkiness, and resulting sense of humility? I feel like puns and bad jokes had generally been a special part of the culture of early technologists. It's a little sad to see that give way to a kind of self-important seriousness.
- snowwrestler 10y agoBut this isn't the field of computer science, it's HN. HN has developed its own distinct culture, as any long-running online forum does.
- dang 10y agoDon't be sad. The one context doesn't really apply to the other because these communities are so different in size and cohesion. It isn't a question of humor, but of stock humor, which grows like crabgrass on the internet and quickly takes over. I think scott_s got it right years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7609289 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7609289. Humor that clears the signal/noise threshold does fine here.
- davesque 10y agoFair enough. Thanks for the input, dang.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]