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When you get sick of searching through the endless memes, pun threads, predictable jokes, and poorly worded yet highly upvoted emotional appeals to find the few

When you get sick of searching through the endless memes, pun threads, predictable jokes, and poorly worded yet highly upvoted emotional appeals to find the few good posts among a sea of mediocrity, Hacker News is wonderful. There's just a lot better concentration of quality, interesting posts here. I really think the lack of humor here helps keep the discussions on topic and interesting.

RyanMcGreal 16y ago
I agree with you in general, but I still feel that HN has gone overboard in its hostility to humour. Notwithstanding that a witty, timely, humorous, in-context comment stands a good chance of being upvoted here, a little more levity would help HN not to take itself quite so seriously all the time.
- patrickk 16y ago
  "...little more levity would help HN not to take itself quite so seriously all the time." I agree completely. It makes me a little sad to see a witty (usually brief) remark at -4. Everything doesn't have to be so serious all the time.
- simonsarris 16y ago
  I didn't even know that HN was hostile to humor. One of my most up-voted comments was an attempt at being humorous while correcting someone's grammar: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=743473 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=743473
- nkurz 16y ago
  I strongly disagree. Not because humor is inherently bad, but because it's too dangerous, too likely to overwhelm the parts of HN that I appreciate. It's like suggesting that a little heroin on the weekend would really brighten up the week. Maybe true, but unlikely remain 'just a little'. Let's concentrate on content and insight here, and let the other sites be the catch-all communities for those who want more 'balance'. If you enjoy Reddit or Digg as they currently are, or prefer other sites that balance humor and content, please use them rather than trying to remake HN in their image.
  - RyanMcGreal 16y ago
    >It's like suggesting that a little heroin on the weekend would really brighten up the week. I hope you won't need me to point out the various ways in which your analogy between humour and, er, heroin breaks down.
    - nkurz 16y ago
      Please do. I briefly debated choosing 'meth' or 'coke' in my analogy, and went with heroin because the it's one of the few drugs that is frequently fully demonized, and because I worried the others were American slang. I think heroin better creates the impression I want, although meth might be more technically accurate. Note that the analogy is not that each individual user will suffer as due to drug addiction, but that the community as a whole will be ravaged by the cumulative effects of the drug. Compare the comment quality on Digg, Reddit, and HN as viewed through the light of http://www.montanameth.org/View_Ads/index.php http://www.montanameth.org/View_Ads/index.php.

RyanMcGreal 16y ago

I agree with you in general, but I still feel that HN has gone overboard in its hostility to humour. Notwithstanding that a witty, timely, humorous, in-context comment stands a good chance of being upvoted here, a little more levity would help HN not to take itself quite so seriously all the time.

patrickk 16y ago
"...little more levity would help HN not to take itself quite so seriously all the time." I agree completely. It makes me a little sad to see a witty (usually brief) remark at -4. Everything doesn't have to be so serious all the time.
simonsarris 16y ago
I didn't even know that HN was hostile to humor. One of my most up-voted comments was an attempt at being humorous while correcting someone's grammar: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=743473 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=743473
nkurz 16y ago
I strongly disagree. Not because humor is inherently bad, but because it's too dangerous, too likely to overwhelm the parts of HN that I appreciate. It's like suggesting that a little heroin on the weekend would really brighten up the week. Maybe true, but unlikely remain 'just a little'. Let's concentrate on content and insight here, and let the other sites be the catch-all communities for those who want more 'balance'. If you enjoy Reddit or Digg as they currently are, or prefer other sites that balance humor and content, please use them rather than trying to remake HN in their image.
- RyanMcGreal 16y ago
  >It's like suggesting that a little heroin on the weekend would really brighten up the week. I hope you won't need me to point out the various ways in which your analogy between humour and, er, heroin breaks down.
  - nkurz 16y ago
    Please do. I briefly debated choosing 'meth' or 'coke' in my analogy, and went with heroin because the it's one of the few drugs that is frequently fully demonized, and because I worried the others were American slang. I think heroin better creates the impression I want, although meth might be more technically accurate. Note that the analogy is not that each individual user will suffer as due to drug addiction, but that the community as a whole will be ravaged by the cumulative effects of the drug. Compare the comment quality on Digg, Reddit, and HN as viewed through the light of http://www.montanameth.org/View_Ads/index.php http://www.montanameth.org/View_Ads/index.php.