4 ms·

Of course, we all know what they would have used if they were real pros: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factorial_number_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fa

Of course, we all know what they would have used if they were real pros: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factorial_number_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factorial_number_system

corysama 9y ago
Hi, Peter. Welcome to Hacker News! If you get downvoted, it's because HN community takes a somewhat strict approach when moderating comments that contribute noise to the conversation. "Nice article!" comments are routinely downvoted. As is sarcasm, witticisms, memes, references and other styles of comments that occur frequently but do not contribute to the discussion. It's a knowingly doomed attempt to hold back the flood of noise that covers Reddit.
- Others 9y ago
  That last part feels a little aggressive in this case... The Wikipedia article he linked to is actually pretty interesting, relevant, and appropriate. Sure the presentation is tongue and cheek, but so are half of the comments on this site...
  - corysama 9y ago
    > but so are half of the comments on this site... Yeah... There are a lot more jokes and sarcasm being voted up on HN these days. It's always been around, but it used to be voted down a lot more. Can't say I'm happy about that change. It seems the fate of all vote-based communities to eventually devolve into Digg 3.0...
    - tray5 9y ago
      I agree that his comment didn't add all that much, but I think the snark on your end was a bit more distracting and irrelevant than his comment, and honestly his comment was kind of on topic. This site is thankfully strictly moderated and usually the discussion in the comments is very on topic, jumping at the chance to be smug like that degrades the quality of conversation much farther then being semi-relevant with a bit of a joke. Downvote and move on
      - corysama 9y ago
        I started making comments like this after the tenth time seeing a green account make a joke, get downvoted to hell and reply "WTF! Why is Hacker News so mean to noobs!" (Peter was green an hour ago)
        taneq 9y ago
        Wait, green means new?
        tomsmeding 9y ago
        I believe it means "throwaway"
        arethuza 9y ago
        Pretty sure it just identifies to logged in users that a particular account is relatively new. After all, who is to know that a "throwaway" account actually gets thrown away?
        deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
        petersjt014 9y ago
        I certainly understand where you're coming from and what you're probably thinking of (Eternal September is the name I know it by)--but I did try to make my comment both relevant and funny. I personally think I did okay there, but I'm fine with disagreement on that part.
        corysama 9y ago
        I don't disagree. I shoulda waited to see if you were downvoted first before commenting. Meanwhile, I thought my comment was nice. I used to get a lot of support for a slightly less polite version of the same message. But, apparently today a lot of people read it as aggressive, snarky and smug :P That's the problem when forums have a lot of sarcasm. It becomes even more difficult for anyone to judge your intentions. When people in "witty" forums say mean/dumb things they get surprised by how many readers think they are serious. And, some of them respond with mean/dumb things in seriousness. And, in not-seriousness... Usually there's an indistinguishable mix. And, even when you say something constructive, a lot of people will assume a negative intention and get upset that you are so disparaging. So, yeah. Every few months I get in the mood to welcome a witty noob. Doesn't always go well :P
    - honestoHeminway 9y ago
      Proposed solution - a colour picker of Information quality as vote tool? Factual disputed - Factual accurat? (Red - Black) Information Rich - Information Poor? (Black - Faded Text)
      - coldtea 9y ago
        That's what Slashdot did. Didn't help very much in the general case.
        honestoHeminway 9y ago
        Maybee analyse the discussion following with a NN for quality indicators? Long statements, comenting part of the original post and a absence of sarcasm/name calling should allow for a good evaluation of productive posts. Maybee the bot could even Merge uniform opionion posts into a stack, so that ideology biased posts shrink from view and the interesting nuggets show up earlier.
        coldtea 9y ago
        I'm more for KISS and YAGNI. This sounds too convoluted a process. We have vote up and vote down buttons. If the people like and upvote a funny (but trivial) comment, in the end it's their prerogative.
        pbhjpbhj 9y ago
        I think the Slashdot voting system was excellent and loved the multi-dimension approach. In what way did/do you feel it didn't work. FWIW Steam has a second voting dimension for humour in users game reviews.
        walterstucco 9y ago
        Slashdot is still a better community than HN
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
molticrystal 9y ago
How about going in the opposite direction and using https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-adic_number https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-adic_number Or could combine the two for even more joy.

Of course, we all know what they would have used if they were real pros: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factorial_number_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factorial_number_system

corysama 9y ago

Hi, Peter. Welcome to Hacker News! If you get downvoted, it's because HN community takes a somewhat strict approach when moderating comments that contribute noise to the conversation. "Nice article!" comments are routinely downvoted. As is sarcasm, witticisms, memes, references and other styles of comments that occur frequently but do not contribute to the discussion. It's a knowingly doomed attempt to hold back the flood of noise that covers Reddit.

Others 9y ago
That last part feels a little aggressive in this case... The Wikipedia article he linked to is actually pretty interesting, relevant, and appropriate. Sure the presentation is tongue and cheek, but so are half of the comments on this site...
- corysama 9y ago
  > but so are half of the comments on this site... Yeah... There are a lot more jokes and sarcasm being voted up on HN these days. It's always been around, but it used to be voted down a lot more. Can't say I'm happy about that change. It seems the fate of all vote-based communities to eventually devolve into Digg 3.0...
  - tray5 9y ago
    I agree that his comment didn't add all that much, but I think the snark on your end was a bit more distracting and irrelevant than his comment, and honestly his comment was kind of on topic. This site is thankfully strictly moderated and usually the discussion in the comments is very on topic, jumping at the chance to be smug like that degrades the quality of conversation much farther then being semi-relevant with a bit of a joke. Downvote and move on
    - corysama 9y ago
      I started making comments like this after the tenth time seeing a green account make a joke, get downvoted to hell and reply "WTF! Why is Hacker News so mean to noobs!" (Peter was green an hour ago)
      - taneq 9y ago
        Wait, green means new?
        tomsmeding 9y ago
        I believe it means "throwaway"
        arethuza 9y ago
        Pretty sure it just identifies to logged in users that a particular account is relatively new. After all, who is to know that a "throwaway" account actually gets thrown away?
        deleted 9y ago
        [deleted]
      - petersjt014 9y ago
        I certainly understand where you're coming from and what you're probably thinking of (Eternal September is the name I know it by)--but I did try to make my comment both relevant and funny. I personally think I did okay there, but I'm fine with disagreement on that part.
        corysama 9y ago
        I don't disagree. I shoulda waited to see if you were downvoted first before commenting. Meanwhile, I thought my comment was nice. I used to get a lot of support for a slightly less polite version of the same message. But, apparently today a lot of people read it as aggressive, snarky and smug :P That's the problem when forums have a lot of sarcasm. It becomes even more difficult for anyone to judge your intentions. When people in "witty" forums say mean/dumb things they get surprised by how many readers think they are serious. And, some of them respond with mean/dumb things in seriousness. And, in not-seriousness... Usually there's an indistinguishable mix. And, even when you say something constructive, a lot of people will assume a negative intention and get upset that you are so disparaging. So, yeah. Every few months I get in the mood to welcome a witty noob. Doesn't always go well :P
  - honestoHeminway 9y ago
    Proposed solution - a colour picker of Information quality as vote tool? Factual disputed - Factual accurat? (Red - Black) Information Rich - Information Poor? (Black - Faded Text)
    - coldtea 9y ago
      That's what Slashdot did. Didn't help very much in the general case.
      - honestoHeminway 9y ago
        Maybee analyse the discussion following with a NN for quality indicators? Long statements, comenting part of the original post and a absence of sarcasm/name calling should allow for a good evaluation of productive posts. Maybee the bot could even Merge uniform opionion posts into a stack, so that ideology biased posts shrink from view and the interesting nuggets show up earlier.
        coldtea 9y ago
        I'm more for KISS and YAGNI. This sounds too convoluted a process. We have vote up and vote down buttons. If the people like and upvote a funny (but trivial) comment, in the end it's their prerogative.
      - pbhjpbhj 9y ago
        I think the Slashdot voting system was excellent and loved the multi-dimension approach. In what way did/do you feel it didn't work. FWIW Steam has a second voting dimension for humour in users game reviews.
      - walterstucco 9y ago
        Slashdot is still a better community than HN
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

molticrystal 9y ago

How about going in the opposite direction and using https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-adic_number https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-adic_number Or could combine the two for even more joy.