3 ms·

I asked about it on their meta site (https://meta.stackexchange.com/ https://meta.stackexchange.com/) but was immediately attacked by the snark brigade... Parts

I asked about it on their meta site (https://meta.stackexchange.com/ https://meta.stackexchange.com/) but was immediately attacked by the snark brigade... Parts of the site is still good, but some tags (c++ in particular) is overtaken by snark people and RTFM:ers. The smaller stack exchange sites are much more worthwhile. Fwiw, hn has become very snarky too. So maybe it's a sign of the times.

rl3 7y ago
>Fwiw, hn has become very snarky too. Fortunately it's usually original snark, although usually the same people (myself included on occasion) will sooner die on a hill of pedantry than be proven wrong. It's the HN way. That said, some of my unoriginal, generic favorites include: "This isn't Reddit." and "Please don't do that here." The latter I like to call the pretend dang, wherein the commenter attempts to emulate or otherwise behave like a mod even though they're not a mod, and they have like 200 karma. This usually then triggers a visceral "Get off my lawn!" reaction, which I don't usually verbalize since it isn't constructive and there's always the chance they're actually a stealth mod. Generally speaking however, the most common form of snark tends to be the unspoken snark: being downvoted immediately by someone with a stick up their ass that is probably completely incapable of recognizing humor in any form it may take, and believes themselves to be the sole vanguard ensuring HN remains a serious place. Of course, arguably the best form of snark is meta snark: being snarky while discussing the topic of snark.
muzani 7y ago
I think as communities age, they attract unpleasant people who eventually scare off all the pleasant people if they're not dealt with promptly. Eventually it becomes all unpleasant people. Stack Overflow's is as clear as it gets - you can practically watch the process over the months on the meta sidebar.
- Carpetsmoker 7y ago
  This effect is perhaps most pronounced in comments sections of local news papers, where stories about pretty much anything seem to attract rantings about Muslims, gays, socialists/leftists, SJWs, what-have-you. A lot of the more reasonable nope'd out of there many years ago. I wrote a somewhat related article about this a while ago: https://www.arp242.net/censorship.html https://www.arp242.net/censorship.html
Psyladine 7y ago
Snark isn't the enemy. And 'trolls' were originally forces for social good, countering new usenet posters who decided rules and research weren't for them, they were just going to burst in on whatever conversation was happening and inject their unwarranted opinions. Those people do more collective damage to the community than the most sadistic or narcissistic agitator. Communities can unite against an asshole, but in a room full of idiots the best individual course is to show yourself out. And gods help you when the idiots unite against you for not following the mob zeit geist (reddit du jour).

rl3 7y ago

>Fwiw, hn has become very snarky too. Fortunately it's usually original snark, although usually the same people (myself included on occasion) will sooner die on a hill of pedantry than be proven wrong. It's the HN way. That said, some of my unoriginal, generic favorites include: "This isn't Reddit." and "Please don't do that here." The latter I like to call the pretend dang, wherein the commenter attempts to emulate or otherwise behave like a mod even though they're not a mod, and they have like 200 karma. This usually then triggers a visceral "Get off my lawn!" reaction, which I don't usually verbalize since it isn't constructive and there's always the chance they're actually a stealth mod. Generally speaking however, the most common form of snark tends to be the unspoken snark: being downvoted immediately by someone with a stick up their ass that is probably completely incapable of recognizing humor in any form it may take, and believes themselves to be the sole vanguard ensuring HN remains a serious place. Of course, arguably the best form of snark is meta snark: being snarky while discussing the topic of snark.

muzani 7y ago

I think as communities age, they attract unpleasant people who eventually scare off all the pleasant people if they're not dealt with promptly. Eventually it becomes all unpleasant people. Stack Overflow's is as clear as it gets - you can practically watch the process over the months on the meta sidebar.

Carpetsmoker 7y ago
This effect is perhaps most pronounced in comments sections of local news papers, where stories about pretty much anything seem to attract rantings about Muslims, gays, socialists/leftists, SJWs, what-have-you. A lot of the more reasonable nope'd out of there many years ago. I wrote a somewhat related article about this a while ago: https://www.arp242.net/censorship.html https://www.arp242.net/censorship.html

Psyladine 7y ago

Snark isn't the enemy. And 'trolls' were originally forces for social good, countering new usenet posters who decided rules and research weren't for them, they were just going to burst in on whatever conversation was happening and inject their unwarranted opinions. Those people do more collective damage to the community than the most sadistic or narcissistic agitator. Communities can unite against an asshole, but in a room full of idiots the best individual course is to show yourself out. And gods help you when the idiots unite against you for not following the mob zeit geist (reddit du jour).