3 ms·

This is one of the first times I've ever flagged an article. This is definitely NOT hacker news: Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, u

This is one of the first times I've ever flagged an article. This is definitely NOT hacker news: Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

epo 16y ago
I do sympathise but On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. There is no doubt that people find this relevant and interesting. It'll pass.
- jessriedel 16y ago
  I have to agree with Brandon on this one. It seems clear to me that this topic is popular among the HN crowd not because there is anything particularly technical or intellectual about it, but because it fires up the libertarian political passions that happen to correlate with being a hacker. It's very similar to standard media coverage of political horse races: This topic may be very important, in terms of consequences, but it's not intellectually interesting.
- BrandonM 16y ago
  There is no doubt that "people" find this relevant and interesting. Do "good hackers", in their capacity as good hackers, find it relevant and interesting? I would definitely expect to see it high on the front page of Reddit, but this is not the sort of thing I come to Hacker News for. Politicians using their positions for future profit is not an interesting new phenomenon in any way.
  - rhizome 16y ago
    A lot of people who read HN do fly. I know it's a slippery slope for submissions that can easily lead to psytrance music reviews on the front page, but these scanners are currently a hot topic and definitely something "people around here" bump up against in the course of their nerdly duties. That is to say, these things typically work on a case by case basis as far as your complaints go, and well, sometimes the b'ar eats you.

epo 16y ago

I do sympathise but On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. There is no doubt that people find this relevant and interesting. It'll pass.

jessriedel 16y ago
I have to agree with Brandon on this one. It seems clear to me that this topic is popular among the HN crowd not because there is anything particularly technical or intellectual about it, but because it fires up the libertarian political passions that happen to correlate with being a hacker. It's very similar to standard media coverage of political horse races: This topic may be very important, in terms of consequences, but it's not intellectually interesting.
BrandonM 16y ago
There is no doubt that "people" find this relevant and interesting. Do "good hackers", in their capacity as good hackers, find it relevant and interesting? I would definitely expect to see it high on the front page of Reddit, but this is not the sort of thing I come to Hacker News for. Politicians using their positions for future profit is not an interesting new phenomenon in any way.
- rhizome 16y ago
  A lot of people who read HN do fly. I know it's a slippery slope for submissions that can easily lead to psytrance music reviews on the front page, but these scanners are currently a hot topic and definitely something "people around here" bump up against in the course of their nerdly duties. That is to say, these things typically work on a case by case basis as far as your complaints go, and well, sometimes the b'ar eats you.