6 ms·

Flagged, as URL is now unavailable when linked with the message: This page is unavailable when linked to from news.ycombinator.com. Please find a less t

by rmccue 8y ago

Flagged, as URL is now unavailable when linked with the message: This page is unavailable when linked to from news.ycombinator.com. Please find a less toxic place to spend your time. Per https://github.com/jamiebuilds/jamie.build/commit/b66f185df4c2fb25d7da08ba2529eaff5ec16603 https://github.com/jamiebuilds/jamie.build/commit/b66f185df4...

andrewstuart2 8y ago
Making a Referrer handler like that is a great way to let me know that you're probably not worth the read anyway, because you're not likely one to listen to anybody else. I've never once found HN a toxic place in the last 4 years. A place to meet people with different opinions and have discussions about those opinions, yeah, but that's beneficial -- literally the opposite of toxic.
- rusbus 8y ago
  Having had a few posts show up on HN from my site usually because I posted them (although not always), I can say that the comments are frequently nitpicky, unrelated to what you're talking about, and frequently unnecessarily critical. They rarely engage in the substance, and instead engage aggressively in minutiae. Not wanting to have to deal with the HN comments on your work is something I completely understand.
  - andrewstuart2 8y ago
    I'm not saying I don't understand, but I am saying that I've found it more valuable to engage with nitpickers (and learn their perspective while sharing mine) than to continue to do my work in a vacuum free of nitpickers. I've got plenty of nits worth picking. I think most people do.
- lifthrasiir 8y ago
  My personal opinions: - HN is generally favorable than many other websites, but only because those websites are hopelessly toxic. - Voting system works well for filtering non-informative contents out, but it does prefer some kinds of informative contents than others. - Conflicts in HN are not common, but once started they are hard to control. HN is not a good place for managing conflicts; it's only good for mild discussions and it has no effective measure to stop discussions from becoming conflicts. - Of course there are many different opinions less represented in HN. Some of them can be considered as to an inherent bias of HN.
- andersonmvd 8y ago
  You just rationalized being rejected from a website because you came from HN. The truth is that you don't know what "toxic" means by the author's own definition or what led him to think that way. It may or may have anything to do with "listening to other people". Perhaps this defense is toxic already. And just telling that some place is great for you does not mean that it's great for others.
- downandout 8y ago
  A place to meet people with different opinions and have discussions about those opinions It depends on the topic. Recently, many topics have laid bare the groupthink attitude of the HN community. Any comments even questioning those views, much less actually expressing an opposite view, are instantly downvoted and derided in replies. This attitude is pervasive, all the way up to management. I am currently rate-limited, for example, because I was against GDPR. I was told by @dang: ”I'd be happy to lift the rate limit after these repetitive GDPR controversy threads have died down.” In other words, as soon as my opinion is irrelevant because there are no threads about it, I can speak again. That’s pretty much as toxic as it gets.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
rawrmaan 8y ago
This seems really counterproductive to me. This post is extremely relevant to the HN community and could do a lot of good if people see it here. I read it before this message was put up and thought it was really well-written.
skrebbel 8y ago
This interests me. I find HN to be one of the least toxic places on the internet. I mean, I left Twitter because the outrage constantly made me angry, I never joined Facebook or Instagram. I have a low tolerance for toxic. Yet HN, here I am, and have been for years. I truly wonder, without judgment, why the author thinks that HN is toxic. I doubt he reads this but maybe some people who don't share my impression can guess?
- curiousgal 8y ago
  >I find HN to be one of the least toxic places on the internet I love it here but sometimes it can be very negative. Any discussion of Bitcoin for instance used to bring out the worst of people.
  - reitanqild 8y ago
    > Any discussion of Bitcoin for instance used to bring out the worst of people. Same goes for messaging networks (surprised me) and politics (not all that surprising after all.)
- reitanqild 8y ago
  I agree. I find toxic subthreads from time to time but they are mostly flagged or already dead.
- badcede 8y ago
  It's status signaling, a way of saying that you're better than other people. Same as acting superior to the masses who like a popular band.
- DanBC 8y ago
  HN can be pretty horrible if it's talking about anything connected with diversity.
  - skrebbel 8y ago
    Good one! That said I don't know any place that I don't find horrible when that topic is on. Except places where everybody agrees of course.
Reedx 8y ago
Strange. There was another site doing the same thing recently. Detecting referrals from HN and redirecting to a message. Edit. Found it here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17414652 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17414652
pferde 8y ago
Wait, you guys do not block the referer your browser sends (or rather does not send)? Why would you give up information about yourself just like that?
- stockkid 8y ago
  what is an effective way to block it?
  - pferde 8y ago
    I use a Firefox addon called RefControl. You can set it to handle referer differently on different sites. It can block sending referer completely, or send a custom referer string. EDIT: http://www.stardrifter.org/refcontrol/ http://www.stardrifter.org/refcontrol/
    - sverhagen 8y ago
      Note the sibling thread saying RefControl is broken.
- dzek69 8y ago
  It's not easy to find a mobile browser that both: - does not suck somehow, making me irritated - and has good privacy options So I got the message too. On the other hand, I know we are on HN, but I know hundreds of technical people, but only few of them installs privacy extensions, just the adblock. People don't care I think. I care to the extreme and I have installed uMatrix on desktop. No sane person would do that. Btw as "soon to have" startup business I need people to inform me where they came from.
- roboyoshi 8y ago
  Thanks for bringing this to my intention, it never occured to me to replace/remove the headers. RefControl is not working in the latest FF, but there is a new variant called referer-modifier: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/referer-modifier/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/referer-modif...
tek-cyb-org 8y ago
Why would you flag him? Are you seriously that sensitive?
- bsagdiyev 8y ago
  Because it doesn't link to the article in the title any longer. Whatever asinine reason they have for this referrer block doesn't preclude it from removal for no longer being available. :shrug: Here's an archived copy of the page anyways: http://archive.is/sXaEz http://archive.is/sXaEz
grosjona 8y ago
I think that the author is wrong in saying that HN is toxic but I don't think that the article should be flagged. If HN flags this article, then I might be slightly more inclined to agree with the author.
haburka 8y ago
Hacker news is definitely toxic and fairly prone to being unnecessarily down on npm and JavaScript in general. Although HN thinks HN is very intelligent and good at debate, it’s somewhat prone to promoting one opinion and in a very aggressive way. I read it because I like discussions, but they have been getting more and more one sided over time. Unfortunately, most users seem to think that this is reddit in my opinion.
- paulddraper 8y ago
  HN is predominantly urban, male, OSS-loving, Trump-hating, NN-supporting, anti-GDPR, socially liberal, and fiscally conservative with tendancies towards old-school (C > JS) and estoteric (Rust > Go) tech. But every community has some sort of bias. Otherwise, it's not really a community. Yes, my comments about issues with NN are disagreed with and downvoted to oblivion, but there's very few verbal attacks, and generally well-reasoned arguments.
- RaleyField 8y ago
  > unnecessarily down on npm What if, perhaps, they are deservedly [1][2]. [1] https://hackernoon.com/im-harvesting-credit-card-numbers-and-passwords-from-your-site-here-s-how-9a8cb347c5b5 https://hackernoon.com/im-harvesting-credit-card-numbers-and... [2] https://web.archive.org/web/20150515011238/https://nodejs.org/ https://web.archive.org/web/20150515011238/https://nodejs.or...
anonytrary 8y ago
I really liked this article and I'm disappointed that he felt he had to block HN. There's an old saying: > If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. That's exactly what he did, and I guess I don't blame him. The internet can be too much for some people.

by rmccue 8y ago

andrewstuart2 8y ago

Making a Referrer handler like that is a great way to let me know that you're probably not worth the read anyway, because you're not likely one to listen to anybody else. I've never once found HN a toxic place in the last 4 years. A place to meet people with different opinions and have discussions about those opinions, yeah, but that's beneficial -- literally the opposite of toxic.

rusbus 8y ago
Having had a few posts show up on HN from my site usually because I posted them (although not always), I can say that the comments are frequently nitpicky, unrelated to what you're talking about, and frequently unnecessarily critical. They rarely engage in the substance, and instead engage aggressively in minutiae. Not wanting to have to deal with the HN comments on your work is something I completely understand.
- andrewstuart2 8y ago
  I'm not saying I don't understand, but I am saying that I've found it more valuable to engage with nitpickers (and learn their perspective while sharing mine) than to continue to do my work in a vacuum free of nitpickers. I've got plenty of nits worth picking. I think most people do.
lifthrasiir 8y ago
My personal opinions: - HN is generally favorable than many other websites, but only because those websites are hopelessly toxic. - Voting system works well for filtering non-informative contents out, but it does prefer some kinds of informative contents than others. - Conflicts in HN are not common, but once started they are hard to control. HN is not a good place for managing conflicts; it's only good for mild discussions and it has no effective measure to stop discussions from becoming conflicts. - Of course there are many different opinions less represented in HN. Some of them can be considered as to an inherent bias of HN.
andersonmvd 8y ago
You just rationalized being rejected from a website because you came from HN. The truth is that you don't know what "toxic" means by the author's own definition or what led him to think that way. It may or may have anything to do with "listening to other people". Perhaps this defense is toxic already. And just telling that some place is great for you does not mean that it's great for others.
downandout 8y ago
A place to meet people with different opinions and have discussions about those opinions It depends on the topic. Recently, many topics have laid bare the groupthink attitude of the HN community. Any comments even questioning those views, much less actually expressing an opposite view, are instantly downvoted and derided in replies. This attitude is pervasive, all the way up to management. I am currently rate-limited, for example, because I was against GDPR. I was told by @dang: ”I'd be happy to lift the rate limit after these repetitive GDPR controversy threads have died down.” In other words, as soon as my opinion is irrelevant because there are no threads about it, I can speak again. That’s pretty much as toxic as it gets.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]

rawrmaan 8y ago

This seems really counterproductive to me. This post is extremely relevant to the HN community and could do a lot of good if people see it here. I read it before this message was put up and thought it was really well-written.

skrebbel 8y ago

This interests me. I find HN to be one of the least toxic places on the internet. I mean, I left Twitter because the outrage constantly made me angry, I never joined Facebook or Instagram. I have a low tolerance for toxic. Yet HN, here I am, and have been for years. I truly wonder, without judgment, why the author thinks that HN is toxic. I doubt he reads this but maybe some people who don't share my impression can guess?

curiousgal 8y ago
>I find HN to be one of the least toxic places on the internet I love it here but sometimes it can be very negative. Any discussion of Bitcoin for instance used to bring out the worst of people.
- reitanqild 8y ago
  > Any discussion of Bitcoin for instance used to bring out the worst of people. Same goes for messaging networks (surprised me) and politics (not all that surprising after all.)
reitanqild 8y ago
I agree. I find toxic subthreads from time to time but they are mostly flagged or already dead.
badcede 8y ago
It's status signaling, a way of saying that you're better than other people. Same as acting superior to the masses who like a popular band.
DanBC 8y ago
HN can be pretty horrible if it's talking about anything connected with diversity.
- skrebbel 8y ago
  Good one! That said I don't know any place that I don't find horrible when that topic is on. Except places where everybody agrees of course.

Reedx 8y ago

Strange. There was another site doing the same thing recently. Detecting referrals from HN and redirecting to a message. Edit. Found it here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17414652 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17414652

pferde 8y ago

Wait, you guys do not block the referer your browser sends (or rather does not send)? Why would you give up information about yourself just like that?

stockkid 8y ago
what is an effective way to block it?
- pferde 8y ago
  I use a Firefox addon called RefControl. You can set it to handle referer differently on different sites. It can block sending referer completely, or send a custom referer string. EDIT: http://www.stardrifter.org/refcontrol/ http://www.stardrifter.org/refcontrol/
  - sverhagen 8y ago
    Note the sibling thread saying RefControl is broken.
dzek69 8y ago
It's not easy to find a mobile browser that both: - does not suck somehow, making me irritated - and has good privacy options So I got the message too. On the other hand, I know we are on HN, but I know hundreds of technical people, but only few of them installs privacy extensions, just the adblock. People don't care I think. I care to the extreme and I have installed uMatrix on desktop. No sane person would do that. Btw as "soon to have" startup business I need people to inform me where they came from.
roboyoshi 8y ago
Thanks for bringing this to my intention, it never occured to me to replace/remove the headers. RefControl is not working in the latest FF, but there is a new variant called referer-modifier: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/referer-modifier/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/referer-modif...

tek-cyb-org 8y ago

Why would you flag him? Are you seriously that sensitive?

bsagdiyev 8y ago
Because it doesn't link to the article in the title any longer. Whatever asinine reason they have for this referrer block doesn't preclude it from removal for no longer being available. :shrug: Here's an archived copy of the page anyways: http://archive.is/sXaEz http://archive.is/sXaEz

grosjona 8y ago

I think that the author is wrong in saying that HN is toxic but I don't think that the article should be flagged. If HN flags this article, then I might be slightly more inclined to agree with the author.

haburka 8y ago

Hacker news is definitely toxic and fairly prone to being unnecessarily down on npm and JavaScript in general. Although HN thinks HN is very intelligent and good at debate, it’s somewhat prone to promoting one opinion and in a very aggressive way. I read it because I like discussions, but they have been getting more and more one sided over time. Unfortunately, most users seem to think that this is reddit in my opinion.

paulddraper 8y ago
HN is predominantly urban, male, OSS-loving, Trump-hating, NN-supporting, anti-GDPR, socially liberal, and fiscally conservative with tendancies towards old-school (C > JS) and estoteric (Rust > Go) tech. But every community has some sort of bias. Otherwise, it's not really a community. Yes, my comments about issues with NN are disagreed with and downvoted to oblivion, but there's very few verbal attacks, and generally well-reasoned arguments.
RaleyField 8y ago
> unnecessarily down on npm What if, perhaps, they are deservedly [1][2]. [1] https://hackernoon.com/im-harvesting-credit-card-numbers-and-passwords-from-your-site-here-s-how-9a8cb347c5b5 https://hackernoon.com/im-harvesting-credit-card-numbers-and... [2] https://web.archive.org/web/20150515011238/https://nodejs.org/ https://web.archive.org/web/20150515011238/https://nodejs.or...

anonytrary 8y ago

I really liked this article and I'm disappointed that he felt he had to block HN. There's an old saying: > If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen. That's exactly what he did, and I guess I don't blame him. The internet can be too much for some people.