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What is HN if not a stream of "retweeted" links. The author of the article seems to think the act of Retweeting is bad, yet xir touches on the real problem -

What is HN if not a stream of "retweeted" links. The author of the article seems to think the act of Retweeting is bad, yet xir touches on the real problem - the one of amplifying simple emotions rather than promoting thoughtful content. On HN, most links, like the one in this post, are intended to amplify our thinking . However on Twitter, Instagram and many other social media, almost every post is intended to evoke an emotional response.

Bahamut 9y ago
Not all emotional responses are necessarily bad. The problem I have with most forms of social media is most encourage short posts, which almost always is devoid of thoughtfulness, which then begets responses of similar kind. This is why I personally think Twitter is such a terrible platform.
na85 9y ago
What is the intent of using "xir" against the author's wishes if not to provoke an emotional response, then? The author is very clearly identified as "he". I can only conclude that you are trying to start a flame war. I'd report your comment to the moderators but I don't know how.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- dang 9y ago
  Read the guidelines! they explain how: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Let's not have a pronoun flamewar please. Everyone just resist. The guidelines that say "Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says" and "Don't feed egregious comments by replying" combine to give good guidance here.
- pjc50 9y ago
  If you find "xir" upsetting enough to be worthy of moderator reporting you might want to examine your prejudices. Just use the downvote button like everyone else.
  - na85 9y ago
    I don't find the word itself particularly upsetting. I think the user is troll baiting because the author is explicitly identified as "he", not "xir".
    - coldtea 9y ago
      As I already wrote: few care how the "author is explicitly identified", and many don't even read the original post (much less check out the author). This has been established in meta-HN discussions, with many people saying they come straight to the comments. Even more so, "Alexis" the author's name, even if one bothered to check it, can be both male and female, depending on the country.
      - oneeyedpigeon 9y ago
        I like how this thread started as a 'HN is no better than twitter' opinion which very quickly descended into an emotional argument about something utterly unrelated, somewhat proving the point. I happen to agree with one of you, and I would've taken up the argument in the past, but I'm starting to come around to the idea that it's so pointless trying to discuss these kinds of political/social topics online that we should just avoid them altogether.
- coldtea 9y ago
  >What is the intent of using "xir" against the author's wishes if not to provoke an emotional response, then? The author is very clearly identified as "he". While it could be that (I give it a chance of 10%), there's a more likely explanation: the parent just didn't read the post or skimmed through it, so they don't know whether the author "clearly identifies as "he". They just respond to the headline "retweets are trash" with their opinions on retweets, and used "xir" to play it safe regarding whoever the author might be. Many people (many have said so in HN discussions) don't read TFA, or don't read the whole FA, and hardly care enough to read bylines and who the author is, etc. They just come straight to the comments, and discuss the topic as a subject they have an opinion about, not based on what TFA says.
- acheron 9y ago
  To answer your question about reporting, click on the time stamp of the post and then there should be a “flag” link. There might be a small karma threshold for it to be available.
  - grzm 9y ago
    There’s also the Contact link in the footer which has no karma requirement.
zaarn 9y ago
There is nothing wrong with emotional response targeting. Rather, as the author pointed out, targeting anger or outrage. He might have missed that other platforms, even Instagram, have outrage responses (atleast this is what the text seems to imply) but as he rightfully points out, they are significantly muted compared to Twitter. Hackernews too has a culture of outrage, at times. Some articles stay on the frontpage for an entire day with very active comment sections. Most of the time outrage (though sometime the joy of a productive discussion). Mastodon also seems to have less of a problem with retweeting (called boosting in masto), users seem to prefer their own content and boost only a few toots (though also from experience, less active users tend to boost more, me included a few times a week).
coldtea 9y ago
>What is HN if not a stream of "retweeted" links A stream of links upvoted by many people. No retweeting happens, which is why you don't see the same link every time someone votes it, only when someone resubmits it (after months or years usually).
elgenie 9y ago
1/ Author's a dude. 2/ The singular (gender-neutral) they has existed since the 13th century in informal contexts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they). Just use that.
EggsOnToast 9y ago
Thoughtful content is good when I want something to mull over in a car ride or when I'm actually feeling curious. When I'm worn out and just want brain candy thoughtful content is effectively trash. It's not as simple as thoughtful content good and emotional content bad. Feel good memes are a perfect example of this.

Bahamut 9y ago

Not all emotional responses are necessarily bad. The problem I have with most forms of social media is most encourage short posts, which almost always is devoid of thoughtfulness, which then begets responses of similar kind. This is why I personally think Twitter is such a terrible platform.

na85 9y ago

What is the intent of using "xir" against the author's wishes if not to provoke an emotional response, then? The author is very clearly identified as "he". I can only conclude that you are trying to start a flame war. I'd report your comment to the moderators but I don't know how.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
dang 9y ago
Read the guidelines! they explain how: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Let's not have a pronoun flamewar please. Everyone just resist. The guidelines that say "Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says" and "Don't feed egregious comments by replying" combine to give good guidance here.
pjc50 9y ago
If you find "xir" upsetting enough to be worthy of moderator reporting you might want to examine your prejudices. Just use the downvote button like everyone else.
- na85 9y ago
  I don't find the word itself particularly upsetting. I think the user is troll baiting because the author is explicitly identified as "he", not "xir".
  - coldtea 9y ago
    As I already wrote: few care how the "author is explicitly identified", and many don't even read the original post (much less check out the author). This has been established in meta-HN discussions, with many people saying they come straight to the comments. Even more so, "Alexis" the author's name, even if one bothered to check it, can be both male and female, depending on the country.
    - oneeyedpigeon 9y ago
      I like how this thread started as a 'HN is no better than twitter' opinion which very quickly descended into an emotional argument about something utterly unrelated, somewhat proving the point. I happen to agree with one of you, and I would've taken up the argument in the past, but I'm starting to come around to the idea that it's so pointless trying to discuss these kinds of political/social topics online that we should just avoid them altogether.
coldtea 9y ago
>What is the intent of using "xir" against the author's wishes if not to provoke an emotional response, then? The author is very clearly identified as "he". While it could be that (I give it a chance of 10%), there's a more likely explanation: the parent just didn't read the post or skimmed through it, so they don't know whether the author "clearly identifies as "he". They just respond to the headline "retweets are trash" with their opinions on retweets, and used "xir" to play it safe regarding whoever the author might be. Many people (many have said so in HN discussions) don't read TFA, or don't read the whole FA, and hardly care enough to read bylines and who the author is, etc. They just come straight to the comments, and discuss the topic as a subject they have an opinion about, not based on what TFA says.
acheron 9y ago
To answer your question about reporting, click on the time stamp of the post and then there should be a “flag” link. There might be a small karma threshold for it to be available.
- grzm 9y ago
  There’s also the Contact link in the footer which has no karma requirement.

zaarn 9y ago

There is nothing wrong with emotional response targeting. Rather, as the author pointed out, targeting anger or outrage. He might have missed that other platforms, even Instagram, have outrage responses (atleast this is what the text seems to imply) but as he rightfully points out, they are significantly muted compared to Twitter. Hackernews too has a culture of outrage, at times. Some articles stay on the frontpage for an entire day with very active comment sections. Most of the time outrage (though sometime the joy of a productive discussion). Mastodon also seems to have less of a problem with retweeting (called boosting in masto), users seem to prefer their own content and boost only a few toots (though also from experience, less active users tend to boost more, me included a few times a week).

coldtea 9y ago

>What is HN if not a stream of "retweeted" links A stream of links upvoted by many people. No retweeting happens, which is why you don't see the same link every time someone votes it, only when someone resubmits it (after months or years usually).

elgenie 9y ago

1/ Author's a dude. 2/ The singular (gender-neutral) they has existed since the 13th century in informal contexts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they). Just use that.

EggsOnToast 9y ago

Thoughtful content is good when I want something to mull over in a car ride or when I'm actually feeling curious. When I'm worn out and just want brain candy thoughtful content is effectively trash. It's not as simple as thoughtful content good and emotional content bad. Feel good memes are a perfect example of this.