3 ms·

I respect your difference in opinion. Note I never said HN is purely rational, just that I find it much more rational than almost every other online platorm I'v

• the_af 6y ago
  To be honest, minus the flamewar moderation (which I like), I find HN about the same as other tech/hacker minded forums. Note that the moderation is no small issue, however! I've found that communities tend to develop a sense of self-importance and overrate their own "good" qualities. I remember when I used to read Slashdot, more than a decade ago, many users would write things like "of course, all of us who read Slashdot are above average users and $PROBLEM does not affect us, but consider a typical Joe User". When I read facebook groups about niche topics I find interesting, inevitably a member will claim "don't you find this is the best facebook group about $TOPIC? We don't argue, we have nice reasonable conversations about $TOPIC, and the mods are top-notch!" (similar groups about the same topic will of course each claim to be the most reasonable, well-moderated, argument-free group). And the list goes on. Unsurprisingly, many HN regulars tend to hold the same views about HN ("the most rational, less biased, most diverse ideas"), possibly unaware that most communities tend to develop the same feelings about themselves. Human nature, I guess :)