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Interestingly, this isn't a problem related to any particular category of site. Hell, look at 4chan: bitching about newfags and how /b/ isn't good anymore, how

Interestingly, this isn't a problem related to any particular category of site. Hell, look at 4chan: bitching about newfags and how /b/ isn't good anymore, how /b/ was never good, different factions with different ideas on how to fix the problem (or what the problem is, or if there even is one), spinoff sites where the early adopters migrate to... This isn't an HN problem, it's an Internet problem. pg could probably do some things to ward off dilution, but it won't last forever. Interestingly enough, Something Awful seemed to be pretty damned successful in this regard by doing the unthinkable and charging people to post there. I'd hate to suggest it as a solution, but it has been effective in the past.

stcredzero 16y ago
pg could probably do some things to ward off dilution, but it won't last forever. I think a paraphrase of this sentence has appeared in HN comments 100's, perhaps 1000's of times.
- allenbrunson 16y ago
  yep. and in all this time, pg has managed to keep the site hovering just above the shark, as he once put it.
astrange 16y ago
SA has internal problems too. There's a constant slow cycle where the individual topic forums become boring and straightlaced because the users get proud of how mature they are, so they start new subforums where people are allowed to make "bad" but interesting posts as long as they pretend to be doing it ironically. Then everyone moves into those and it collapses, because they really did become bad posts. Sometimes they move offsite instead, usually because the site admins didn't actually like the topic enough to make more forums for them, or because the admins banned all the users because they had formed secret IRC cabals conspiring against them. The last stage is that the admins change the forum CSS so it's unreadable. I haven't figured out that part yet.
- cmaggard 16y ago
  The gist of that (forums "cancer") is that those users "infected" with it have their posts become harder to read outside of those subforums by lightening the font. A quick mouseover returns the text color to black. In my opinion, the method doesn't really work because they aren't reading their own posts. It should probably change everyone else's text color instead of their own. Greasemonkey scripts and the like would still fix it, but it would be a lot more annoying to the shitposters that way.
- redthrowaway 16y ago
  Still, for a site that's been up since the Dark Ages ('99), and relies almost entirely on its users to keep it relevant, it's been remarkably successful.

stcredzero 16y ago

pg could probably do some things to ward off dilution, but it won't last forever. I think a paraphrase of this sentence has appeared in HN comments 100's, perhaps 1000's of times.

allenbrunson 16y ago
yep. and in all this time, pg has managed to keep the site hovering just above the shark, as he once put it.

astrange 16y ago

SA has internal problems too. There's a constant slow cycle where the individual topic forums become boring and straightlaced because the users get proud of how mature they are, so they start new subforums where people are allowed to make "bad" but interesting posts as long as they pretend to be doing it ironically. Then everyone moves into those and it collapses, because they really did become bad posts. Sometimes they move offsite instead, usually because the site admins didn't actually like the topic enough to make more forums for them, or because the admins banned all the users because they had formed secret IRC cabals conspiring against them. The last stage is that the admins change the forum CSS so it's unreadable. I haven't figured out that part yet.

cmaggard 16y ago
The gist of that (forums "cancer") is that those users "infected" with it have their posts become harder to read outside of those subforums by lightening the font. A quick mouseover returns the text color to black. In my opinion, the method doesn't really work because they aren't reading their own posts. It should probably change everyone else's text color instead of their own. Greasemonkey scripts and the like would still fix it, but it would be a lot more annoying to the shitposters that way.
redthrowaway 16y ago
Still, for a site that's been up since the Dark Ages ('99), and relies almost entirely on its users to keep it relevant, it's been remarkably successful.