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No offence mkrency, but I am so tired of these "HN is going to the dogs" posts, so finally I created a table of them, here it is: https://spreadsheets.google.c

by Jun8 16y ago

No offence mkrency, but I am so tired of these "HN is going to the dogs" posts, so finally I created a table of them, here it is: https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Ao73DTH98IRgdEY2LXNLeExxV080QnZVWGR3TVJMbkE&hl=en&authkey=CM3Ij64K https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Ao73DTH98IRgdEY2LXN... Feel free to add any that I have missed.

mkrecny 16y ago
Cool. You're a veteran. None of the posts in your table are the same as mine. It would be nice if someone actually answered my question rather than criticizing me for pointing out a phenomena that I think, is evidently true.
- Jun8 16y ago
  Sorry, my purpose was not to criticize you in particular but to show that such sentiments are (i) common and (ii) occur quite regularly. I think one cause of this is that people mistake transient fluctations in HN post/comment quality (I don't know if one can even measure this in a relatively objective manner) for real trends. Now, your indicated observational interval was 9 months, so you can argue that thesze effects don't matter. This leads to the other cause, which may be more important: people place more emphasis on evidence that agrees with their opinions, creating a self serving loop. You see 2-3 bad posts and think that HN is deteriorating. Then, good posts won't be counted against this hypothesis but bad posts will be, so it'll get stronger. There's nothing wrong with you, this is how our brains work. The antidote would be rigourous analysis. Come up with a quality measure, scrape HN data, analyze and post your analysis. I, for one, would be very interested in seeing them. EDIT: Also, agressive "so what" replies generally get downvoted, as I now see with yours. I find too much downvoting, especially with newcomers, to be discouraging, so you're getting my upvote. There, one explaination cfrom a "cool veteran".

by Jun8 16y ago

mkrecny 16y ago

Cool. You're a veteran. None of the posts in your table are the same as mine. It would be nice if someone actually answered my question rather than criticizing me for pointing out a phenomena that I think, is evidently true.

Jun8 16y ago
Sorry, my purpose was not to criticize you in particular but to show that such sentiments are (i) common and (ii) occur quite regularly. I think one cause of this is that people mistake transient fluctations in HN post/comment quality (I don't know if one can even measure this in a relatively objective manner) for real trends. Now, your indicated observational interval was 9 months, so you can argue that thesze effects don't matter. This leads to the other cause, which may be more important: people place more emphasis on evidence that agrees with their opinions, creating a self serving loop. You see 2-3 bad posts and think that HN is deteriorating. Then, good posts won't be counted against this hypothesis but bad posts will be, so it'll get stronger. There's nothing wrong with you, this is how our brains work. The antidote would be rigourous analysis. Come up with a quality measure, scrape HN data, analyze and post your analysis. I, for one, would be very interested in seeing them. EDIT: Also, agressive "so what" replies generally get downvoted, as I now see with yours. I find too much downvoting, especially with newcomers, to be discouraging, so you're getting my upvote. There, one explaination cfrom a "cool veteran".