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As someone who has been quite active on SO for several years and is also new to HN I’ll definitely say that HN feels more hostile of an environment. Even when

As someone who has been quite active on SO for several years and is also new to HN I’ll definitely say that HN feels more hostile of an environment. Even when making an honest effort to engage in meaningful discussion you might get sent to oblivion without a single reply or any sort of guidance. It feels like I’m violating unspoken community rules and no one bothers to clue you in.

jandrese 7y ago
HN is much easier to get started on. SO's permissions when you're first starting out are so restrictive that it's really hard to earn those first few points.
- rmilejczz 7y ago
  Honestly I disagree, HN seems impossible for me to gain any traction. My karma fluctuates from 0 to 10 on a daily basis essentially, and for seemingly no reason. Example, I made a comment earlier pointing out that North Korea tends to reject outside help due to the juche methodology. That comment was at 3 points, now it sits at 0 and I really have no clue why. At this point I don’t think I’ll see an upward trend in karma growth, not that it particularly matters. On SO what you need to do is quite clear, on HN it’s (to me at least) a mystery
  - krapp 7y ago
    Stop caring about karma, upvotes and downvotes. There's nothing you can do about the HN zeitgeist, There are no guidelines for downvoting here, and complaining about downvotes will only get you downvoted further. Just accept that silent passive-aggressive censorship is part of the culture here and ignore it.
  - nkurz 7y ago
    So I looked at your comment history, thinking that I would see nothing but low-quality one-liners that would explain your lack of traction. Instead, you're right --- you've got a lot of high-quality comments deserving of more upvotes! Anyway, the secret to karma on HN is to submit interesting articles, ideally from sources that few people here are likely otherwise stumble across. While there are probably a few high scorers who get most of their points from comments, I'd bet the vast majority are from submissions. And as the other reply to you says, don't pay too much attention to the points. Submit interesting stuff, keep making good comments, and please stick around.

jandrese 7y ago

HN is much easier to get started on. SO's permissions when you're first starting out are so restrictive that it's really hard to earn those first few points.

rmilejczz 7y ago
Honestly I disagree, HN seems impossible for me to gain any traction. My karma fluctuates from 0 to 10 on a daily basis essentially, and for seemingly no reason. Example, I made a comment earlier pointing out that North Korea tends to reject outside help due to the juche methodology. That comment was at 3 points, now it sits at 0 and I really have no clue why. At this point I don’t think I’ll see an upward trend in karma growth, not that it particularly matters. On SO what you need to do is quite clear, on HN it’s (to me at least) a mystery
- krapp 7y ago
  Stop caring about karma, upvotes and downvotes. There's nothing you can do about the HN zeitgeist, There are no guidelines for downvoting here, and complaining about downvotes will only get you downvoted further. Just accept that silent passive-aggressive censorship is part of the culture here and ignore it.
- nkurz 7y ago
  So I looked at your comment history, thinking that I would see nothing but low-quality one-liners that would explain your lack of traction. Instead, you're right --- you've got a lot of high-quality comments deserving of more upvotes! Anyway, the secret to karma on HN is to submit interesting articles, ideally from sources that few people here are likely otherwise stumble across. While there are probably a few high scorers who get most of their points from comments, I'd bet the vast majority are from submissions. And as the other reply to you says, don't pay too much attention to the points. Submit interesting stuff, keep making good comments, and please stick around.