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While I basically agree with you--I too have seen this cycle many times before--what I don't understand is why people feel the need to slap down newbies in an a

by cletus 16y ago

While I basically agree with you--I too have seen this cycle many times before--what I don't understand is why people feel the need to slap down newbies in an attempt to recapture some since-passed golden age. If I get bored of a site or simply get nothing more out of it, I just move on. If I see topics that are boring or simply have no interest to me, I just ignore them. If I see rude, insulting comments or personal attacks, I just flag them and move on. I really don't understand why people need to express so much hate.

jacques_chester 16y ago
Loss aversion, maybe?
jdp23 16y ago
People who are deeply invested in a site want to defend their view of how it should be. Change is threatening, and it's easy to react with knee-jerk hostility.
jedsmith 16y ago
Slapping down newbies takes on a lot of forms, too. This entire submission and the accompanying threads comprise a giant screw-you to relative newbies like myself. I don't kid myself that I'm the kind of person that always remains civil in discussions, because I'm passionate about what I believe in. I know I'm hit-or-miss here, and often the way I communicate my point of view dilutes it and comes across as being a dick. I get that, and I've learned a lot about how to communicate with others from HN and other Web sites. If I'm the problem, though, which this submission and other comments seem to want me to believe, then I'm wondering what the solution is. Agree all the time? The burden is on me to improve, not the community to avoid me. Every time I see a navelgazing submission like this I'm yanked right out of the community and I'm instead thinking about the community instead of the topics that I come to Hacker News to read and discuss. What people don't seem to understand about community sites such as this one is that if you are discussing the community ad infinitum, you've already lost. A bunch of high-karma users, and one commenter in particular reminding us that "on behalf of the elites, this site sucks now due to you," is exactly the kind of thread that is contributing to the problem. If the high-karma users here really want a walled, invitation-only garden where a circlejerk of valley gossip takes place and everybody agrees with each other, this is a pretty good way to go about it. It's really disappointing, to be honest.

by cletus 16y ago

jacques_chester 16y ago

Loss aversion, maybe?

jdp23 16y ago

People who are deeply invested in a site want to defend their view of how it should be. Change is threatening, and it's easy to react with knee-jerk hostility.

jedsmith 16y ago

Slapping down newbies takes on a lot of forms, too. This entire submission and the accompanying threads comprise a giant screw-you to relative newbies like myself. I don't kid myself that I'm the kind of person that always remains civil in discussions, because I'm passionate about what I believe in. I know I'm hit-or-miss here, and often the way I communicate my point of view dilutes it and comes across as being a dick. I get that, and I've learned a lot about how to communicate with others from HN and other Web sites. If I'm the problem, though, which this submission and other comments seem to want me to believe, then I'm wondering what the solution is. Agree all the time? The burden is on me to improve, not the community to avoid me. Every time I see a navelgazing submission like this I'm yanked right out of the community and I'm instead thinking about the community instead of the topics that I come to Hacker News to read and discuss. What people don't seem to understand about community sites such as this one is that if you are discussing the community ad infinitum, you've already lost. A bunch of high-karma users, and one commenter in particular reminding us that "on behalf of the elites, this site sucks now due to you," is exactly the kind of thread that is contributing to the problem. If the high-karma users here really want a walled, invitation-only garden where a circlejerk of valley gossip takes place and everybody agrees with each other, this is a pretty good way to go about it. It's really disappointing, to be honest.