4 ms·

K5 was already toast by the time that came in.

lsc 17y ago
You have a point. But the $5 for new accounts only helps if moderators ban undesirable accounts. The $5 is a way to give the banhammer a bit more meaning. are you prepared to ban people for commenting like the above? Personally, I don't think that harsh criticism is necessarily a bad thing. (I mean, the aforementioned comment was perhaps written without reading the article, I mean it doesn't make much sense in the context of the author actually doing those things... but I personally don't think that negative comments are always bad things.) One thing I hate about the real world is that nobody ever calls me on my bullshit. I'm not saying I think K5 is the optimal form, but in many ways it's better than a place where everyone is always encouraging me and telling me what a great guy I am.
- mquander 17y ago
  I think it's a bad thing given two things: - You're really trying to inspire some kind of substantiative, rational discussion and not just verbal sparring. K5 sort of was and sort of wasn't. It was both a discussion-place and a playground. HN is supposed to be much more a discussion-place. - The harsh criticism doesn't give the poster any means to fight back. "Motivational drivel" isn't a criticism that someone can argue against, nor is "This kind of comment makes me wish we had a moratorium on signups or a $5 fee." So that criticism is useless for promoting discussion, or even for promoting any kind of further on-topic thought at all. It routes the conversation toward more flames. I strongly prefer total Mad Max flamewar arguments, but it tends to drive away a lot of people who have a (well-meaning) tendency to try to take any criticism, and deal with any critics. I mean, you see threads on here complaining that people downvote things without explanation! Obviously the posters of those threads would be gone in an instant if trolls started outright insulting them all over the place.

lsc 17y ago

You have a point. But the $5 for new accounts only helps if moderators ban undesirable accounts. The $5 is a way to give the banhammer a bit more meaning. are you prepared to ban people for commenting like the above? Personally, I don't think that harsh criticism is necessarily a bad thing. (I mean, the aforementioned comment was perhaps written without reading the article, I mean it doesn't make much sense in the context of the author actually doing those things... but I personally don't think that negative comments are always bad things.) One thing I hate about the real world is that nobody ever calls me on my bullshit. I'm not saying I think K5 is the optimal form, but in many ways it's better than a place where everyone is always encouraging me and telling me what a great guy I am.

mquander 17y ago
I think it's a bad thing given two things: - You're really trying to inspire some kind of substantiative, rational discussion and not just verbal sparring. K5 sort of was and sort of wasn't. It was both a discussion-place and a playground. HN is supposed to be much more a discussion-place. - The harsh criticism doesn't give the poster any means to fight back. "Motivational drivel" isn't a criticism that someone can argue against, nor is "This kind of comment makes me wish we had a moratorium on signups or a $5 fee." So that criticism is useless for promoting discussion, or even for promoting any kind of further on-topic thought at all. It routes the conversation toward more flames. I strongly prefer total Mad Max flamewar arguments, but it tends to drive away a lot of people who have a (well-meaning) tendency to try to take any criticism, and deal with any critics. I mean, you see threads on here complaining that people downvote things without explanation! Obviously the posters of those threads would be gone in an instant if trolls started outright insulting them all over the place.