5 ms·

As a newcomer to HN, I can see that there is a strong, fairly homogeneous culture here. For the most part, we are all in favor of increasing technology and auto

As a newcomer to HN, I can see that there is a strong, fairly homogeneous culture here. For the most part, we are all in favor of increasing technology and automation, reducing reliance on non-renewables, but we don't want educated, hard working people to get shafted. Support for foreign wars is thin. We consistently don't respect Trump supporters, and it seems to go without saying around here that racism is bad. If you think that this is just how all people are naturally, that these opinions and preferences are too obvious to even discuss, then you need to travel. Also, I don't really do reddit myself, but I hear it is heavily moderated, to the point of removing posts that are politically incorrect, from a liberal American point of view. I'm not sure to what degree that varies by subreddit.

reitanqild 10y ago
We disagree on a number of topics: SJW/feminism, middle East politics, abortion, 2. amendment etc comes to mind. We respect dang to close those discussions though and we try to be civil even before he closes them ;-) That said I'd ask you to reconsider the part about "We consistently don't respect Trump supporters..." I for one at least manage to dislike Trump while still understanding those who support him. Oh: and reddit: yes, some subreddits are quite different from others. I have been surprised to see the difference between what people say about certain subreddits and what it actually looks like.
irishcoffee 10y ago
Ah, and now we confront the elephant in the room.
maze-le 10y ago
> "If you think that this is just how all people are naturally" Gee, I don't think that. Why do you think I have such an opinion? I am from Germany (the eastern part), and have family members who are AFD-supporters and worse. So I do realize that most people (esp. here where I live) don't share my liberal world views. But in contrast to them I don't just get my news / filterbubble-content from facebook. I read conservative Newspapers that disagree with my opinions, because it is important to look beyond your own Horizon (even though I constantly get mad when I read the likes of Jasper von Altenbockum). > I'm not sure to what degree that varies by subreddit A lot, I am mostly on smallish/specialized subreddits: erlang, haskell, spaceengine, gis. There not much conflict potential fairly few trolls. Oh and by the way: the best dialogues I had on Hacker news were technical, not political. Also I don't think that the HN-crowd is that homogeneous.
- happyslobro 10y ago
  Sorry, I didn't mean you specifically. You're right, we don't know each other at all. I was trying to make a general observation about the community. One thing that I didn't remember earlier, is that there is an exceptionally high percentage of deep, introspective people here. That's pretty cool.
soundwave106 10y ago
Honestly, that's how humans work. There does seem to be a tendency for people to "cluster" into various tribes, and form various information and cultural "bubbles". One of the ways to mitigate this to a degree (everyone is biased in one way or another even with the best of efforts, I think) is to engage yourself in multiple "bubble zones". The old social media experience (forums etc.), which was very de-centralized, could provide this experience. Even if you just went to specialized forums of, say, your hobbies and interests, there is a decent chance that each forum will have a different cultural viewpoint compared to the other one. Forum culture also allow you to peak into other cultures you aren't even into at all, just for some perspective. From my viewpoint, one possible problematic trend I see with the Internet (at least from a social media perspective) is centralization of the experience, and the implications of algorithmic filtering (as implied by fears over a "filter bubble" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filter_bubble) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filter_bubble)). I am not sure if the "filter bubble" concern is 100% warrented now (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/08/technology/facebook-study-disputes-theory-of-political-polarization-among-users.html http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/08/technology/facebook-study-...)... but for subjects which provoke strong feelings, there seems to be a tendency for those with the loudest, strongest opinions to actually strongly want a filtered comfort zone, one free of any conflicting opinion, or even people with that opinion. My hope is that the Facebooks of the world note that not everyone desires epistemic closure. I'm not terribly optimistic about this though.
type0 10y ago
> We consistently don't respect Trump supporters I respect Trump supporters, I just don't respect Trump.

reitanqild 10y ago

We disagree on a number of topics: SJW/feminism, middle East politics, abortion, 2. amendment etc comes to mind. We respect dang to close those discussions though and we try to be civil even before he closes them ;-) That said I'd ask you to reconsider the part about "We consistently don't respect Trump supporters..." I for one at least manage to dislike Trump while still understanding those who support him. Oh: and reddit: yes, some subreddits are quite different from others. I have been surprised to see the difference between what people say about certain subreddits and what it actually looks like.

irishcoffee 10y ago

Ah, and now we confront the elephant in the room.

maze-le 10y ago

> "If you think that this is just how all people are naturally" Gee, I don't think that. Why do you think I have such an opinion? I am from Germany (the eastern part), and have family members who are AFD-supporters and worse. So I do realize that most people (esp. here where I live) don't share my liberal world views. But in contrast to them I don't just get my news / filterbubble-content from facebook. I read conservative Newspapers that disagree with my opinions, because it is important to look beyond your own Horizon (even though I constantly get mad when I read the likes of Jasper von Altenbockum). > I'm not sure to what degree that varies by subreddit A lot, I am mostly on smallish/specialized subreddits: erlang, haskell, spaceengine, gis. There not much conflict potential fairly few trolls. Oh and by the way: the best dialogues I had on Hacker news were technical, not political. Also I don't think that the HN-crowd is that homogeneous.

happyslobro 10y ago
Sorry, I didn't mean you specifically. You're right, we don't know each other at all. I was trying to make a general observation about the community. One thing that I didn't remember earlier, is that there is an exceptionally high percentage of deep, introspective people here. That's pretty cool.

soundwave106 10y ago

Honestly, that's how humans work. There does seem to be a tendency for people to "cluster" into various tribes, and form various information and cultural "bubbles". One of the ways to mitigate this to a degree (everyone is biased in one way or another even with the best of efforts, I think) is to engage yourself in multiple "bubble zones". The old social media experience (forums etc.), which was very de-centralized, could provide this experience. Even if you just went to specialized forums of, say, your hobbies and interests, there is a decent chance that each forum will have a different cultural viewpoint compared to the other one. Forum culture also allow you to peak into other cultures you aren't even into at all, just for some perspective. From my viewpoint, one possible problematic trend I see with the Internet (at least from a social media perspective) is centralization of the experience, and the implications of algorithmic filtering (as implied by fears over a "filter bubble" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filter_bubble) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filter_bubble)). I am not sure if the "filter bubble" concern is 100% warrented now (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/08/technology/facebook-study-disputes-theory-of-political-polarization-among-users.html http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/08/technology/facebook-study-...)... but for subjects which provoke strong feelings, there seems to be a tendency for those with the loudest, strongest opinions to actually strongly want a filtered comfort zone, one free of any conflicting opinion, or even people with that opinion. My hope is that the Facebooks of the world note that not everyone desires epistemic closure. I'm not terribly optimistic about this though.

type0 10y ago

> We consistently don't respect Trump supporters I respect Trump supporters, I just don't respect Trump.