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Most of us that have been around since the beginning (this is my second account) are too busy to participate as regularly as we once did. I'd rather spend time

Most of us that have been around since the beginning (this is my second account) are too busy to participate as regularly as we once did. I'd rather spend time on my business than get hooked on discussions here as much as I did in the past. I will jump in here every so often and I still think HN is relatively great. Doesn't everybody remember the big debate over even linking to Techcrunch articles? We have always been whining about what's wrong to realize that this place has consistently been pretty great. And sure, we might be like that dance club that's a bit too mainstream. But pretty soon those early cool kids grow up and are also not cool enough to discover the next hot thing. The next HN will come about and it won't be somebody from here who starts it.

weaksauce 16y ago
I agree. This place has always been mostly good with a sprinkle of fluff pieces every now and then. The one thing that has changed a bit is the comments. Sadly the comments are being muddled a bit by the new kids on the block. Not that the new kids are doing anything intentionally bad, nor are they really bad comments, but I do remember a time where the people replying to comments were actual domain experts in a certain field or they wrote the application that you use every day, etc.... It's a problem with getting a larger user base. I do think that this site has aged about as gracefully as possible though.
- roel_v 16y ago
  Additionally, I think newer users are conditioned by other sites to use voting as a way to agree or disagree with what is said, rather than as a way to rate the quality of the point being made, regardless of what the point is. Which I find very frustrating, and I know people say 'whining about declining quality has always happened', but I really feel that this voting behavior used to be less pronounced.
  - tokenadult 16y ago
    I think newer users are conditioned by other sites to use voting as a way to agree or disagree with what is said, rather than as a way to rate the quality of the point being made, regardless of what the point is. It hasn't just been new users. Rather it has been nearly everyone since the beginning. See what the founder said 1103 days ago about downvoting for disagreement: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171

weaksauce 16y ago

I agree. This place has always been mostly good with a sprinkle of fluff pieces every now and then. The one thing that has changed a bit is the comments. Sadly the comments are being muddled a bit by the new kids on the block. Not that the new kids are doing anything intentionally bad, nor are they really bad comments, but I do remember a time where the people replying to comments were actual domain experts in a certain field or they wrote the application that you use every day, etc.... It's a problem with getting a larger user base. I do think that this site has aged about as gracefully as possible though.

roel_v 16y ago
Additionally, I think newer users are conditioned by other sites to use voting as a way to agree or disagree with what is said, rather than as a way to rate the quality of the point being made, regardless of what the point is. Which I find very frustrating, and I know people say 'whining about declining quality has always happened', but I really feel that this voting behavior used to be less pronounced.
- tokenadult 16y ago
  I think newer users are conditioned by other sites to use voting as a way to agree or disagree with what is said, rather than as a way to rate the quality of the point being made, regardless of what the point is. It hasn't just been new users. Rather it has been nearly everyone since the beginning. See what the founder said 1103 days ago about downvoting for disagreement: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=117171