5 ms·

Question: why is this on Hacker News? Seriously. Allah, Viking textiles... Hacker News? When does Hacker News get subreddits....err subhackers....

slim 9y ago
It's a rebuttal of a claim made by an historian from another historian. Science that is. That's why
- Xylakant 9y ago
  Or, shorter: sufficient people found it interesting.
- criley2 9y ago
  First off, history isn't really science, it's history. It's a liberal art, most people get a B.A. in history not a B.S. Historians may use science, but a geologist dates rocks, not a historian. Historians don't learn or practice the scientific method, nor do they report their results in scientific journal format. Second off, viking history is Hacker News? Because reddit.com/r/history is a very appropriate place for this, and reddit.com/r/askhistorians would be a great place to talk to experts about this. But Hackers News? 0 historians, 0 experts, wrong subject matter. It's just weird. It devalues this place greatly when it imitates reddit because it cannot out-reddit reddit.
  - notatoad 9y ago
    It's a correction to a story that was popular on HN last week. If we're going to upvote fake news, the least we can do is upvote the corrections or rebuttals to it.
  - bobwaycott 9y ago
    There most certainly are B.S. degrees in history. There are also > 0 historians here, > 0 experts here, be they degree- or tenure-holding. Some of us don’t practice because we turned our history degrees into tech careers. Some of us have other interests outside history. Some of us think history includes tech. Some of us have interests outside tech, and that includes history.
    - criley2 9y ago
      And some of us use multi-purpose websites like reddit to talk about our wide interests, while keeping Hacker News, started by the Silicon Valley tech-company incubator YCombinator intentionally for SV tech news and discussion, more in-line with the entire point. Again, the reddification of hacker news is its demise. You will always get better history discussion on reddit.com/r/askhistorians, a community full of verified historians, than Hacker News, a community of mainly programmers and those involved with modern tech industry. Specialization works. Diluting this website will destroy it, just as it destroyed reddit prior to subreddits.
    - Chris2048 9y ago
      That's a lot of unquantified weasels.
  - megaman22 9y ago
    There are people that have history degrees here, and historical and archaeological stuff hits the front page all the time. Along with economics, biology, astronomy, and all manner of other potpourri. Once in a while there's even a story about software and technology that makes it through...
  - gpvos 9y ago
    I follow an ancient history blog (in Dutch)[0] that has regular "Method on Monday" posts devoted to explaining that history is science. It has specific circumstances such as a dire lack of data, but there are methods to work with that. [0] https://mainzerbeobachter.com/ https://mainzerbeobachter.com/
projectramo 9y ago
I wish there was an alternative to reading stories we are not interested in.
- criley2 9y ago
  I wish there was a website that was nearly identical to Hacker News, created by a company incubated by YCombinator, which had a nearly identical layout and vote style, but which had "sub"communities for topics, allowing the SV-tech focused YCombinator news site to stay on topic... Oh wait :X
  - projectramo 9y ago
    They should introduce a voting mechanism so the people on the site can decide what is on topic... oh wait!
    - criley2 9y ago
      This is how Hacker News died. Lowest-common-denominator democracy driving content into the gutter of popularity. Oh well, I complain because I've been here for nearly a decade across accounts. This... isn't what it used to be like. I complain because I remember a better time. Oh well, really, oh well.
    - Chris2048 9y ago
      maybe a better one?
- Chris2048 9y ago
  signal/noise. needle/haystack.
Spooky23 9y ago
I think that it's relevant because it's a great example of scientific inquiry running amok once the PR machine gets traction. The NY Times and a few other press pieces really ran with this story and took some pretty out there liberties.

slim 9y ago

It's a rebuttal of a claim made by an historian from another historian. Science that is. That's why

Xylakant 9y ago
Or, shorter: sufficient people found it interesting.
criley2 9y ago
First off, history isn't really science, it's history. It's a liberal art, most people get a B.A. in history not a B.S. Historians may use science, but a geologist dates rocks, not a historian. Historians don't learn or practice the scientific method, nor do they report their results in scientific journal format. Second off, viking history is Hacker News? Because reddit.com/r/history is a very appropriate place for this, and reddit.com/r/askhistorians would be a great place to talk to experts about this. But Hackers News? 0 historians, 0 experts, wrong subject matter. It's just weird. It devalues this place greatly when it imitates reddit because it cannot out-reddit reddit.
- notatoad 9y ago
  It's a correction to a story that was popular on HN last week. If we're going to upvote fake news, the least we can do is upvote the corrections or rebuttals to it.
- bobwaycott 9y ago
  There most certainly are B.S. degrees in history. There are also > 0 historians here, > 0 experts here, be they degree- or tenure-holding. Some of us don’t practice because we turned our history degrees into tech careers. Some of us have other interests outside history. Some of us think history includes tech. Some of us have interests outside tech, and that includes history.
  - criley2 9y ago
    And some of us use multi-purpose websites like reddit to talk about our wide interests, while keeping Hacker News, started by the Silicon Valley tech-company incubator YCombinator intentionally for SV tech news and discussion, more in-line with the entire point. Again, the reddification of hacker news is its demise. You will always get better history discussion on reddit.com/r/askhistorians, a community full of verified historians, than Hacker News, a community of mainly programmers and those involved with modern tech industry. Specialization works. Diluting this website will destroy it, just as it destroyed reddit prior to subreddits.
  - Chris2048 9y ago
    That's a lot of unquantified weasels.
- megaman22 9y ago
  There are people that have history degrees here, and historical and archaeological stuff hits the front page all the time. Along with economics, biology, astronomy, and all manner of other potpourri. Once in a while there's even a story about software and technology that makes it through...
- gpvos 9y ago
  I follow an ancient history blog (in Dutch)[0] that has regular "Method on Monday" posts devoted to explaining that history is science. It has specific circumstances such as a dire lack of data, but there are methods to work with that. [0] https://mainzerbeobachter.com/ https://mainzerbeobachter.com/

projectramo 9y ago

I wish there was an alternative to reading stories we are not interested in.

criley2 9y ago
I wish there was a website that was nearly identical to Hacker News, created by a company incubated by YCombinator, which had a nearly identical layout and vote style, but which had "sub"communities for topics, allowing the SV-tech focused YCombinator news site to stay on topic... Oh wait :X
- projectramo 9y ago
  They should introduce a voting mechanism so the people on the site can decide what is on topic... oh wait!
  - criley2 9y ago
    This is how Hacker News died. Lowest-common-denominator democracy driving content into the gutter of popularity. Oh well, I complain because I've been here for nearly a decade across accounts. This... isn't what it used to be like. I complain because I remember a better time. Oh well, really, oh well.
  - Chris2048 9y ago
    maybe a better one?
Chris2048 9y ago
signal/noise. needle/haystack.

Spooky23 9y ago

I think that it's relevant because it's a great example of scientific inquiry running amok once the PR machine gets traction. The NY Times and a few other press pieces really ran with this story and took some pretty out there liberties.