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Thanks for the info. To me, just about any HN post about XYZcoin is a minefield these days. The sentiments seem to all be unrealistically positive and the deris

Thanks for the info. To me, just about any HN post about XYZcoin is a minefield these days. The sentiments seem to all be unrealistically positive and the derision of the glaringly insane XYZcoins are just swamped in whataboutism and thread-derailing. I know it's a hot market and there is a lot of stuff going on, so these threads themselves are warranted, yet the comments in them are just clownshoes.

mike10010100 9y ago
Reminds me a bit of how the Russian bots operate. Any indication whether or not this is in any way related? The more I think about it, the more it seems like the entire proliferation of cryptocurrency is an attempt to sponge money out of the hyper-capitalistic West. Too many bots/fraudulent trades, and too much hyper-positivity online. It feels incredibly skeezy, even coming from the usual online trader bros.
- astund 9y ago
  Dont think too much about it. Some of us linked in the parent comment dont post here a lot...and my comment wasnt pro-cryptocurrency.
dang 9y ago
There have been a lot of low-quality comments posted on both sides of this hot topic. That's because hot topics attract low-quality comments. It's certainly not true that "the sentiments" are all positive, and I guarantee you that people who hold the opposite views to yours see "the sentiments" here as all the other way. We really need a name for this cognitive bias. Also, "whataboutism" has become the worst internet cliché in recent memory and I'm starting to feel like we should add software to just autokill comments that use this word, since it's such a strong signal of unsubstantive bickering.
- Balgair 9y ago
  Thanks for the reply dang. Upon further reflection, maybe it is just the 'top' comments in a thread that have the unrealistically positive sentiment. Yes, down-threads do tend to be more nuanced, but those also tend to have less comments and sub comments. I don't have the data, and I do have my own biases of course, but I feel that I see large comment blocks of thread derailing and bickering at the top. The more 'reasonable' comments then get shoved to the bottom (in XYZcoin threads). The bias is the Semmelweis reflex (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semmelweis_reflex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semmelweis_reflex)

mike10010100 9y ago

Reminds me a bit of how the Russian bots operate. Any indication whether or not this is in any way related? The more I think about it, the more it seems like the entire proliferation of cryptocurrency is an attempt to sponge money out of the hyper-capitalistic West. Too many bots/fraudulent trades, and too much hyper-positivity online. It feels incredibly skeezy, even coming from the usual online trader bros.

astund 9y ago
Dont think too much about it. Some of us linked in the parent comment dont post here a lot...and my comment wasnt pro-cryptocurrency.

dang 9y ago

There have been a lot of low-quality comments posted on both sides of this hot topic. That's because hot topics attract low-quality comments. It's certainly not true that "the sentiments" are all positive, and I guarantee you that people who hold the opposite views to yours see "the sentiments" here as all the other way. We really need a name for this cognitive bias. Also, "whataboutism" has become the worst internet cliché in recent memory and I'm starting to feel like we should add software to just autokill comments that use this word, since it's such a strong signal of unsubstantive bickering.

Balgair 9y ago
Thanks for the reply dang. Upon further reflection, maybe it is just the 'top' comments in a thread that have the unrealistically positive sentiment. Yes, down-threads do tend to be more nuanced, but those also tend to have less comments and sub comments. I don't have the data, and I do have my own biases of course, but I feel that I see large comment blocks of thread derailing and bickering at the top. The more 'reasonable' comments then get shoved to the bottom (in XYZcoin threads). The bias is the Semmelweis reflex (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semmelweis_reflex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semmelweis_reflex)