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Why does these posts about China with so few upvotes and no comment keep popping up in the front page of hacker news?!

by tonyduncan 8y ago

seanmcdirmid 8y ago
Slow news day, so weak competition.
- wizardforhire 8y ago
  This is pure speculation but given such a “large” news week that falls outside of hn guidelines I’m guessing that perhaps attentions have been diverted. Cue study.
musage 8y ago
> does these posts Why are you calling yourself "Tony Duncan"? Why not "Ford Prefect"?
adventured 8y ago
There are currently nine stories on the front page with less than 31 points (the count on this story currently) and few comments. There's absolutely nothing unusual about it in fact. China is the world's second largest economy by a large margin, and it's the #2 tech nation also by a large margin, there are naturally going to be increasing numbers of stories about China in general. Please read the guidelines regarding your comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- notveryrational 8y ago
  From the guidelines: "Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic." I would echo the OP's concern that most foreign coverage of China and Russia on hacker news seems to be: 1. Entirely off-topic. 2. Negatively biased in some way. This tends to be true of more internet forums than hackernews. Having been "around for a while", my experience is that the wave of negatively flavored articles about US competitors follows the tide of geopolitical competition. I believe these general trends are a result of our nation's propaganda program, where internet discussions and homeland conversations are considered legal operating ground. I believe much of the source material is posted by ordinary people, who have had their perceptions managed and influenced by these propaganda programs. Regarding your point about China being the second largest economy and also a leader in technology - I would expect a significantly different mix of positively biased stories focused on China's leading edge, new innovations, top scientists and mathematicians, etc.

Why does these posts about China with so few upvotes and no comment keep popping up in the front page of hacker news?!

seanmcdirmid 8y ago

Slow news day, so weak competition.

wizardforhire 8y ago
This is pure speculation but given such a “large” news week that falls outside of hn guidelines I’m guessing that perhaps attentions have been diverted. Cue study.

musage 8y ago

> does these posts Why are you calling yourself "Tony Duncan"? Why not "Ford Prefect"?

adventured 8y ago

There are currently nine stories on the front page with less than 31 points (the count on this story currently) and few comments. There's absolutely nothing unusual about it in fact. China is the world's second largest economy by a large margin, and it's the #2 tech nation also by a large margin, there are naturally going to be increasing numbers of stories about China in general. Please read the guidelines regarding your comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

notveryrational 8y ago
From the guidelines: "Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic." I would echo the OP's concern that most foreign coverage of China and Russia on hacker news seems to be: 1. Entirely off-topic. 2. Negatively biased in some way. This tends to be true of more internet forums than hackernews. Having been "around for a while", my experience is that the wave of negatively flavored articles about US competitors follows the tide of geopolitical competition. I believe these general trends are a result of our nation's propaganda program, where internet discussions and homeland conversations are considered legal operating ground. I believe much of the source material is posted by ordinary people, who have had their perceptions managed and influenced by these propaganda programs. Regarding your point about China being the second largest economy and also a leader in technology - I would expect a significantly different mix of positively biased stories focused on China's leading edge, new innovations, top scientists and mathematicians, etc.