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Hacker News
by imjk 9y ago
Hacker News
- celticninja 9y agoI think it is starting to happen already. A few too many jokey comments appearing, puns and the like.
- giarc 9y agoI agree but I find that they are pretty quickly downvoted and therefore greyed out, or sit as a parent only comment without any discussion.
- Semaphor 9y agoHN is protected a bit better with its karma requirements. But I feel like recently I've been getting way more upvotes than I feel I "deserve" for some comments, which scares me a bit.
- kevin_thibedeau 9y agoIt's easy to get massive upvotes on anything that jibes with the HN groupthink. It can also be instructive to "troll" with anything that the groupthink will be appalled by no matter how true or rational it may be. That's the surest way to compensate for undeserved karma.
- sidlls 9y agoHN takes itself too seriously. This site isn't brimming with intellectuals having significant, deep discussions. It's a bunch of hackers, nerds, and interested people who aren't either of those things kibbitzing about things (sometimes only marginally) related to technology. I find the resistance to even a little humor to be hilarious (and embarrassing, for them).
- autokad 9y agowhat bothers me the most is: people downvoting an opinion that differs from their own. In a contrived example, if someone says jobs was nothing without wozniak, I dont think a person should be downvoted for voicing their opinion.
- sireat 9y agoHN in general will tolerate dissent, if you can provide good argumentation. Sure there's groupthink in HN as in any other forum, but HN is more open to different ideas than any other forum that I have known since the days of Usenet in late 1980s.
- wott 9y agoYes, I came to realise that when it comes (among other subjects) to 'tech' criticism, it easier to have an open discussion with various points of view on HN than on my generic national subreddit. That takes the biscuit! I just wish someone could come up with a new Usenet (<rant>instead of a dozen of open-source copies of damn Twitter</rant>). Something that doesn't depend on a company or a couple of individuals. In similar vein to what happens for the Twitter copies I ranted about, but for long, threaded discussions in Reddit/HN/Usenet style. Oh, and Reddit lacks proper hierarchies, so the discovery of subreddits is pretty bad. So, yes, more like Usenet.
- am1988 9y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171
- pm90 9y agoI don't particularly think of HN as lacking humor. There is an extreme attitude against puns, jokes and such which I think is well deserved, since the conversation devolves into who can be most creative with them. And I kinda disagree with your assertion that this site lacks intellectuals. There seem to be intellectuals from very diverse backgrounds (doctors, lawyers, even farmers). Sure, the discussion may not be as intellectual as, say, r/AskHistorians, but its still more intellectual than most other forums.
- sidlls 9y agoI don't think the site lacks intellectuals. I think it isn't brimming with them. And I also disagree that it's more intellectual than most other forums. Some, perhaps. Generally though HN tends to think too highly of its own intelligence and the intellectual qualities of the conversations.
- pryelluw 9y agoThe fact that you are being downvoted for sharing your opinion is quite funny.
- vacri 9y agoThere's tons of humourous comments these days. When I first started here (well after the name change), if there was even a hint of comic intent in your comment, it'd be pounded deep into the gray, never mind anything like the comments you see now that are terminated with /s. I even used to have a screed against the extreme humourlessness of the site in my profile. In those days, the only way you could get away with making a lighthearted comment was to be a 'name' (like pg or other prominent users).
- am1988 9y ago> This site isn't brimming with intellectuals having significant, deep discussions If you stomp out humour you can pretend it's exactly that.
- DanBC 9y ago> I find the resistance to even a little humor to be hilarious There is no resistance to humour. Funny comments get upvotes. There is a resistance to unfunny comments, and most attempts at humour are just bad.
- dang 9y agoPeople have been saying this for almost as long as Hacker News has existed.
- CM30 9y agoSo it's like Mad Magazine and was 'at its best' when you first started reading/using it?
- vacri 9y agoI started reading it in the 80s, and think that the best content was from the 60s and 70s, and took an objective drop when they started to include advertising (as does anything when you start slapping advertising on it).
- dang 9y agoGood analogy! And like Saturday Night Live as well, I've heard.
- optimuspaul 9y agoI love the joke comments and puns. It makes me sad when they are down voted.
- roselan 9y agoMe too, but there is a place and time for everything. I believe allowing them would open a floodgate and start a race for reputation.
- optimuspaul 9y agoThere is already a race for reputation, it's just for who is the smartest know it all nerd.
- tanuki 9y agoHacker News has its niche that's only interesting to so many people. Which is good, I hope it would never be inundated too much by people making lower-effort posts or just looking to be entertained.