4 ms·

I used to have a dozen or so sites that I visited on a regular basis, but I really grew tired of comment sections devolving into "who can post a meme the fastes

I used to have a dozen or so sites that I visited on a regular basis, but I really grew tired of comment sections devolving into "who can post a meme the fastest" competitions. One reason why I keep coming to HN is because of the targeted discussion, and the lack of these types of cheap humor comments or karma grabs. I find myself looking for more "adult" communities nowadays, and it has been a struggle to find them. EDIT: Typo

theandrewbailey 9y ago
It's amazing that HN (as a system) and its community actively discourage those kinds of comments. The ratio of thoughtful, insightful, and useful articles and comments (signal) to junk, spam, and trolling (noise) is outstanding. I keep coming back because of it.
- ams6110 9y ago
  It's amazing to me not that it started that way, but has mostly remained that way. You do see some political agendas revealed here from time to time, and there are certainly a few celebrity posters who get upvoted just based on who they are not always what they are saying. But by and large it's a very flame/troll-free experience. Kudos to dang and other mods who step in when the usual downvote/flag mechanisms aren't working.
- barfbuttface 9y ago
  I think there's quite a lot of paid promoters/promotional comments on this website, to be honest. I'd be interested in seeing a stylometric analysis of the comments. I bet we'd see quite a lot of crossover with political, and corporate PR.
- aesthetics1 9y ago
  Same here. I feel like in the early days of the web, I was able to find this kind of content on forums specific to a particular topic. Now it seems like forums are on the way out in favor of social media or social sharing sites like Reddit where as you mentioned the SNR is out of whack. I miss the smaller more intimate communities.
ivm 9y ago
For some topics it feels that HN just replaces it with a "who can post a popular rant the fastest" competition.

theandrewbailey 9y ago

It's amazing that HN (as a system) and its community actively discourage those kinds of comments. The ratio of thoughtful, insightful, and useful articles and comments (signal) to junk, spam, and trolling (noise) is outstanding. I keep coming back because of it.

ams6110 9y ago
It's amazing to me not that it started that way, but has mostly remained that way. You do see some political agendas revealed here from time to time, and there are certainly a few celebrity posters who get upvoted just based on who they are not always what they are saying. But by and large it's a very flame/troll-free experience. Kudos to dang and other mods who step in when the usual downvote/flag mechanisms aren't working.
barfbuttface 9y ago
I think there's quite a lot of paid promoters/promotional comments on this website, to be honest. I'd be interested in seeing a stylometric analysis of the comments. I bet we'd see quite a lot of crossover with political, and corporate PR.
aesthetics1 9y ago
Same here. I feel like in the early days of the web, I was able to find this kind of content on forums specific to a particular topic. Now it seems like forums are on the way out in favor of social media or social sharing sites like Reddit where as you mentioned the SNR is out of whack. I miss the smaller more intimate communities.

ivm 9y ago

For some topics it feels that HN just replaces it with a "who can post a popular rant the fastest" competition.