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>The site’s now characteristic tone of performative erudition—hyperrational, dispassionate, contrarian, authoritative—often masks a deeper recklessness. Ill-adv

>The site’s now characteristic tone of performative erudition—hyperrational, dispassionate, contrarian, authoritative—often masks a deeper recklessness. Ill-advised citations proliferate; thought experiments abound; humane arguments are dismissed as emotional or irrational. Logic, applied narrowly, is used to justify broad moral positions. The most admired arguments are made with data, but the origins, veracity, and malleability of those data tend to be ancillary concerns. Ah yes, I remember this article. Oddly enough, this is a major reason why I still enjoy browsing HN. There are few places left that cover a variety of topics while also encouraging this open style of discussion.

riedel 7y ago
Would still be interesting if someone could train language / interaction model on different years of hacker news to see how a certain topic would be discussed differently over the years.
- filoeleven 7y ago
  Neat idea. HN explicitly allows reposts of older links after some time, so you would be able to see how discussion of literally the same article has changed in some cases.
api 7y ago
Another reason IMHO that this site has maintained its relative quality is the policy of effectively banning memes (whether textual or visual) and not embedding images from links or allowing them to be attached. Someone needs to do a deep cognitive study of how memes, especially in image form, affect cognition during discourse. Whatever is going on it seems obvious that their presence immediately reverts people to a juvenile junior high level of discussion at best. They also seem to lead to the development of this kind of obscure signaling culture hive mind. I don't even know how to describe it. In Star Trek TNG they called it the "borg songs," the sort of emotional-cultural carrier wave that pervaded the Borg collective. Meme-dominated sites like 4chan immediately turn me off. I find that whole style creepy and culty and gross and it feels like some kind of soft mind control technique. I felt this way long before 4chan became "Stormfront for nerds," but the fact that this style if discourse would create an environment compatible with that way of thinking doesn't shock me at all.
- philistine 7y ago
  When you mentioned borg songs, I internally cried because of the new Picard show. It broke the emotional core of TNG for a cheap thrill, and your mention of Borg songs reminded me of that.

riedel 7y ago

Would still be interesting if someone could train language / interaction model on different years of hacker news to see how a certain topic would be discussed differently over the years.

filoeleven 7y ago
Neat idea. HN explicitly allows reposts of older links after some time, so you would be able to see how discussion of literally the same article has changed in some cases.

api 7y ago

Another reason IMHO that this site has maintained its relative quality is the policy of effectively banning memes (whether textual or visual) and not embedding images from links or allowing them to be attached. Someone needs to do a deep cognitive study of how memes, especially in image form, affect cognition during discourse. Whatever is going on it seems obvious that their presence immediately reverts people to a juvenile junior high level of discussion at best. They also seem to lead to the development of this kind of obscure signaling culture hive mind. I don't even know how to describe it. In Star Trek TNG they called it the "borg songs," the sort of emotional-cultural carrier wave that pervaded the Borg collective. Meme-dominated sites like 4chan immediately turn me off. I find that whole style creepy and culty and gross and it feels like some kind of soft mind control technique. I felt this way long before 4chan became "Stormfront for nerds," but the fact that this style if discourse would create an environment compatible with that way of thinking doesn't shock me at all.

philistine 7y ago
When you mentioned borg songs, I internally cried because of the new Picard show. It broke the emotional core of TNG for a cheap thrill, and your mention of Borg songs reminded me of that.