6 ms·

lol - you're not alone ;]. see, i'm here for 800 days now but stopped commenting on most of the threads long ago when I realized that my views are somewhat dia

by frevd 16y ago

lol - you're not alone ;]. see, i'm here for 800 days now but stopped commenting on most of the threads long ago when I realized that my views are somewhat diametrically different and would not be accepted easily by those so more wise and better connected than my dumb self. they installed a nice feedback mechanism that effectively limits my input - whenever I post something I must fear ridiculous downvoting by those higher priviledged clergy folks. I guess that keeps the platform at a common standard, unfortunately I have not much to say at that point.. and I know some more people that do not post a single response, people much brighter than me. Not everybody communicates at the same rate, though.

Mz 16y ago
I'm a former homemaker and the only coding I know is a little (x)html and css, so I am very much a demographic outlier for this forum. Plus, my views tend to not quite fit in anywhere I go. Prompt feedback, like votes and comments, can be a mechanism for honing your communication skills. Presentation can go a long way towards making it palatable to express an opposing point of view. You probably won't get a lot of upvotes for it. But you don't necessarily have to be downvoted into oblivion either. Attitude towards such things can make a big difference. :-)
- frevd 16y ago
  fortunately this is not a strict coders' forum as far as i'm concerned - i appreciate all kinds of people with varying experience from diverse sectors, after all this is what information exchange is about, and more variance adds to a broader and more objective view, lots of fun and more information (and entropy for that matter). in fact i don't even believe there is a specific topic other than things that are obviously very interesting to a certain group of people. as for my communication skills - i think i have none, and despite my earlier statement being more a lame excuse for my lazyness to communicate, I'm kind of proud of being disconnected and I somewhat aim for provocations, since all I care about is rationally and deliberately looking at things from a different and unique perspective, since i believe this kind of contribution to be of value, even if it might appear naive or if i'm slashing the common ground or if i don't point out purpose. but since english is not my native tongue I'm not really successful at communicating sarcasm in a rhetorical way. so please don't vote for me since i'm not used to that :p.
  - Mz 16y ago
    Of course it is not a strict coders forum. Even simply being female makes me very much a minority here and I have seen a number of posts from women who cite that as an obstacle to effective participation. I like getting a diversity of views and feedback/information. It is one of the reasons I work hard on coming across politely and respectfully when speaking with people who have strongly different views from mine: It is the only way I have found for such interactions to be really good opportunities for growth instead of pissing contests. Pissing contests rarely have any productive value. As for speaking English as a second language: Stating up front "please forgive my English" seems to work pretty well to smooth things over for some members here. Practicing your English will improve it, possibly quite a lot in a short time. (I have seen that with foreign friends who chose to speak with me in spite of sometimes having very poor English and me not knowing their language at all.) And I apologize if you don't actually want solutions. Many people don't. I am often annoying in that way. Peace.
    - jarek 16y ago
      "As for speaking English as a second language: Stating up front "please forgive my English" seems to work pretty well to smooth things over for some members here." This isn't my discussion and so I apologize for potentially butting in, but being an ESL speaker myself it bothers me a bit to see ESL writers apologize for their English. I'm not sure if this is unique to those who are ESL themselves, but I find distinguishing between an ESL writer and a sloppy native writer trivial. If it's at a point where it causes problems communicating, we'll know it's because English isn't your first language, and we know the writer would rather not make these mistakes - no need to apologize. As for conveying sarcasm in short posts on the internet, the difficulty is far from limited to ESL writers.
      - Mz 16y ago
        Some people here are quite anal about grammar and spelling and do not seem to readily infer that someone is an ESL speaker. I come from a bicultural/bilingual home. English is my native language but I also am prone to imposing German-isms (for lack of a better word) onto my writing, especially when tired. I do this in spite of not growing up knowing much German. I'm generally pretty tolerant of individual quirks and of the acclimation process new people go through. Lots of people are not. I basically agree with you that they shouldn't need to apologize/explain but in some instances it does seem to help smooth things over. Peace.
SamReidHughes 16y ago
You'd have better success if you showed some respect for your readers by capitalizing and writing your posts in a normal style. Starting off with "lol" and an emoticon marks you as somebody who hasn't thought about what he is about to write, and who doesn't care to present his thoughts to the reader in an organized manner. In your comment history, other posts have it worse, and your writing style and mannerisms make you seem like a nut-case. If your comments were written using normal sentences, that would not be the case. However, if you're talking about "higher privileged clergy folks" downvoting you, writing style won't help much on that front.
- myusuf3 16y ago
  At first I wanted to say true dat. I am now going to say, True that.
- notyourwork 16y ago
  English is nothing more than another vehicle humans use to communicate. For you to claim using proper grammar and well formed sentences of the english language is just a cop out to the point the OP was trying to make. Let me paraphrase in a grammar that is perhaps closer to on par with the level you seek: "I have spent a long time on hacker news. In fact I used to communicate with others on a regular basis but that ceased awhile ago. My views are probably considered extreme to most in the community and thus I chose not to comment due to the "instant karma" I would receive based on my view that the community would most likely as a whole disagree with. Additionally, I know some who are much more intelligent than myself and yet they never comment. They merely troll (troll is a non-negative attribute here) the site soaking up information and leaving nothing in return. " My opinion: the community is here to get down to business. Humor is pushed aside in most cases and discussions focus much more on the topic at hand. (No I am not claiming hacker news users do not have a sense of humor, I am trying to say that this community is driven by information and not jokes.) For those who would like this clarified: If you want jokes, digg, reddit, etc all exist, if you want information and perhaps a chance to learn a thing or two than hacker news is for you. Personally, this is why I regularly browse the site. I view hacker news as a geek's fantasy show and tell.
mkr-hn 16y ago
I'm not even a programmer (writer who programs from time to time) and have gotten into extended (and karma-filled) discussions with people who make my little AAS degree look like a toy. I think you might have misdiagnosed the problem.
Confusion 16y ago
I just went through your history and concluded you've got a seriously skewed view of reality. Of your few dozen comments, only a handful has been downvoted, of which only one to -4, which was because you posted: YAWN! n00bz, you really bore me here. Your assertion that your answers are not 'accepted easily' and suffer 'ridiculous downvoting' is completely unfounded.
- frevd 16y ago
  Sure, pick that one mistake of mine.. I remember that, and I wanted to directly express the low-quality of that particular post, which of course must have been of value for some people but me, nevertheless. For my defence, I immediately regretted that comment, however I'm not deleting none of them. Regarding the skewed view, it's not solely based on this forum and this account only ;].

by frevd 16y ago

Mz 16y ago

I'm a former homemaker and the only coding I know is a little (x)html and css, so I am very much a demographic outlier for this forum. Plus, my views tend to not quite fit in anywhere I go. Prompt feedback, like votes and comments, can be a mechanism for honing your communication skills. Presentation can go a long way towards making it palatable to express an opposing point of view. You probably won't get a lot of upvotes for it. But you don't necessarily have to be downvoted into oblivion either. Attitude towards such things can make a big difference. :-)

frevd 16y ago
fortunately this is not a strict coders' forum as far as i'm concerned - i appreciate all kinds of people with varying experience from diverse sectors, after all this is what information exchange is about, and more variance adds to a broader and more objective view, lots of fun and more information (and entropy for that matter). in fact i don't even believe there is a specific topic other than things that are obviously very interesting to a certain group of people. as for my communication skills - i think i have none, and despite my earlier statement being more a lame excuse for my lazyness to communicate, I'm kind of proud of being disconnected and I somewhat aim for provocations, since all I care about is rationally and deliberately looking at things from a different and unique perspective, since i believe this kind of contribution to be of value, even if it might appear naive or if i'm slashing the common ground or if i don't point out purpose. but since english is not my native tongue I'm not really successful at communicating sarcasm in a rhetorical way. so please don't vote for me since i'm not used to that :p.
- Mz 16y ago
  Of course it is not a strict coders forum. Even simply being female makes me very much a minority here and I have seen a number of posts from women who cite that as an obstacle to effective participation. I like getting a diversity of views and feedback/information. It is one of the reasons I work hard on coming across politely and respectfully when speaking with people who have strongly different views from mine: It is the only way I have found for such interactions to be really good opportunities for growth instead of pissing contests. Pissing contests rarely have any productive value. As for speaking English as a second language: Stating up front "please forgive my English" seems to work pretty well to smooth things over for some members here. Practicing your English will improve it, possibly quite a lot in a short time. (I have seen that with foreign friends who chose to speak with me in spite of sometimes having very poor English and me not knowing their language at all.) And I apologize if you don't actually want solutions. Many people don't. I am often annoying in that way. Peace.
  - jarek 16y ago
    "As for speaking English as a second language: Stating up front "please forgive my English" seems to work pretty well to smooth things over for some members here." This isn't my discussion and so I apologize for potentially butting in, but being an ESL speaker myself it bothers me a bit to see ESL writers apologize for their English. I'm not sure if this is unique to those who are ESL themselves, but I find distinguishing between an ESL writer and a sloppy native writer trivial. If it's at a point where it causes problems communicating, we'll know it's because English isn't your first language, and we know the writer would rather not make these mistakes - no need to apologize. As for conveying sarcasm in short posts on the internet, the difficulty is far from limited to ESL writers.
    - Mz 16y ago
      Some people here are quite anal about grammar and spelling and do not seem to readily infer that someone is an ESL speaker. I come from a bicultural/bilingual home. English is my native language but I also am prone to imposing German-isms (for lack of a better word) onto my writing, especially when tired. I do this in spite of not growing up knowing much German. I'm generally pretty tolerant of individual quirks and of the acclimation process new people go through. Lots of people are not. I basically agree with you that they shouldn't need to apologize/explain but in some instances it does seem to help smooth things over. Peace.

SamReidHughes 16y ago

You'd have better success if you showed some respect for your readers by capitalizing and writing your posts in a normal style. Starting off with "lol" and an emoticon marks you as somebody who hasn't thought about what he is about to write, and who doesn't care to present his thoughts to the reader in an organized manner. In your comment history, other posts have it worse, and your writing style and mannerisms make you seem like a nut-case. If your comments were written using normal sentences, that would not be the case. However, if you're talking about "higher privileged clergy folks" downvoting you, writing style won't help much on that front.

myusuf3 16y ago
At first I wanted to say true dat. I am now going to say, True that.
notyourwork 16y ago
English is nothing more than another vehicle humans use to communicate. For you to claim using proper grammar and well formed sentences of the english language is just a cop out to the point the OP was trying to make. Let me paraphrase in a grammar that is perhaps closer to on par with the level you seek: "I have spent a long time on hacker news. In fact I used to communicate with others on a regular basis but that ceased awhile ago. My views are probably considered extreme to most in the community and thus I chose not to comment due to the "instant karma" I would receive based on my view that the community would most likely as a whole disagree with. Additionally, I know some who are much more intelligent than myself and yet they never comment. They merely troll (troll is a non-negative attribute here) the site soaking up information and leaving nothing in return. " My opinion: the community is here to get down to business. Humor is pushed aside in most cases and discussions focus much more on the topic at hand. (No I am not claiming hacker news users do not have a sense of humor, I am trying to say that this community is driven by information and not jokes.) For those who would like this clarified: If you want jokes, digg, reddit, etc all exist, if you want information and perhaps a chance to learn a thing or two than hacker news is for you. Personally, this is why I regularly browse the site. I view hacker news as a geek's fantasy show and tell.

mkr-hn 16y ago

I'm not even a programmer (writer who programs from time to time) and have gotten into extended (and karma-filled) discussions with people who make my little AAS degree look like a toy. I think you might have misdiagnosed the problem.

Confusion 16y ago

I just went through your history and concluded you've got a seriously skewed view of reality. Of your few dozen comments, only a handful has been downvoted, of which only one to -4, which was because you posted: YAWN! n00bz, you really bore me here. Your assertion that your answers are not 'accepted easily' and suffer 'ridiculous downvoting' is completely unfounded.

frevd 16y ago
Sure, pick that one mistake of mine.. I remember that, and I wanted to directly express the low-quality of that particular post, which of course must have been of value for some people but me, nevertheless. For my defence, I immediately regretted that comment, however I'm not deleting none of them. Regarding the skewed view, it's not solely based on this forum and this account only ;].