5 ms·

At least when you come to the comment sections, you get a whole load of competing individual perspectives, rather than the single one the original article purve

At least when you come to the comment sections, you get a whole load of competing individual perspectives, rather than the single one the original article purveys.

zghst 10y ago
Most popular, pervading opinions are continually challenged, re-examined, and refined. Debates wholly grapple through the complete meaning of the issue from a wide range of perspectives without resulting to name calling, ad hominem attacks, tone policing, etc.
- slededit 10y ago
  Within a narrow sphere, but the Hacker news audience is limited in diversity - and because of this so are the range of debates that go on here. Generally speaking Hacker News focuses on upper middle class American issues. When we talk about the less well off its generally from the top looking down. Watch next time for the comments of the form "I'd gladly pay more taxes so XYZ wouldn't have to go through this". Few commenters ever truly see themselves personally getting into one of these situations. In terms of politics this site is heavily westernized. Communism and the Chinese system does have some nice features (along with the bad), but its rare to see threads here explore the benefits. None of this is necessarily bad, and I'd argue this site gives you a broader view of the world than reading traditional news. However its far from a zeitgeist of what's "really happening" in the world.
  - zghst 10y ago
    My comment was a heavy does of <sarcasm />. I wholeheartedly agree with your viewpoints though.
dreamfactory2 10y ago
which is why comments in any major media are now completely polluted by professional influencers.
jackcosgrove 10y ago
The ability to downvote doesn't help this.
- WalterSear 10y ago
  I don't see why: if anything, I'd argue that it's just a layer of metacommentary. Just as not all articles are equally informative, not all opinions are equally informative. The quality of the downvotes depends on the quality of the community.
  - jackcosgrove 10y ago
    Downvoting leads to groupthink in ways that upvoting does not.
    - WalterSear 10y ago
      It is true that upvoting leads to different kinds of groupthink.

At least when you come to the comment sections, you get a whole load of competing individual perspectives, rather than the single one the original article purveys.

zghst 10y ago

Most popular, pervading opinions are continually challenged, re-examined, and refined. Debates wholly grapple through the complete meaning of the issue from a wide range of perspectives without resulting to name calling, ad hominem attacks, tone policing, etc.

slededit 10y ago
Within a narrow sphere, but the Hacker news audience is limited in diversity - and because of this so are the range of debates that go on here. Generally speaking Hacker News focuses on upper middle class American issues. When we talk about the less well off its generally from the top looking down. Watch next time for the comments of the form "I'd gladly pay more taxes so XYZ wouldn't have to go through this". Few commenters ever truly see themselves personally getting into one of these situations. In terms of politics this site is heavily westernized. Communism and the Chinese system does have some nice features (along with the bad), but its rare to see threads here explore the benefits. None of this is necessarily bad, and I'd argue this site gives you a broader view of the world than reading traditional news. However its far from a zeitgeist of what's "really happening" in the world.
- zghst 10y ago
  My comment was a heavy does of <sarcasm />. I wholeheartedly agree with your viewpoints though.

dreamfactory2 10y ago

which is why comments in any major media are now completely polluted by professional influencers.

jackcosgrove 10y ago

The ability to downvote doesn't help this.

WalterSear 10y ago
I don't see why: if anything, I'd argue that it's just a layer of metacommentary. Just as not all articles are equally informative, not all opinions are equally informative. The quality of the downvotes depends on the quality of the community.
- jackcosgrove 10y ago
  Downvoting leads to groupthink in ways that upvoting does not.
  - WalterSear 10y ago
    It is true that upvoting leads to different kinds of groupthink.