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I stopped using FB 6 months ago, not by cancelling or suspending my account, just by not going there. I'm happier. I have more time. I have less adversarial
by wombatmobile 6y ago
I stopped using FB 6 months ago, not by cancelling or suspending my account, just by not going there.
I'm happier. I have more time. I have less adversarial interactions and stress in my thoughts.
At first I wondered how I could do this, since it would mean losing contact with friends. But a surprising number of friends contacted me via messenger to ask how I'm doing, and now we just interact one to one, like in the old days.
I find the interaction I get on HN far more satisfying and challenging than FB. The HN guidelines make it so.
It's not rocket science.
> Be kind. Don't be snarky. Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine. Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community.
> Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive.
With guidelines like these, and a community mod system that works, there is no need for sisyphean AI or data scientists.
What concerns me for the future is that HN is dependent for its discussions on the existence of independent journalism to provide the articles on which the HN community comments. If the economic and political trends that gave FB its power continue, what will HN readers have left to discuss? Tech news? That might not be enough.
I understand why HN excludes political discussion, and that makes sense in isolation. But outside of HN, this article about FB highlights that quality civics requires informed, civil discourse. How is that going to happen?
- r00fus 6y agoI don't come to HN to read details in articles unless they actually contain new information, it's the commentary that's engaging. Comments that highlight or put into context information that's usually on dozens of news sites. Twitter is rife with highly timely good content. As you mentioned the rules and moderation is key to civil discussion. HN has it, FB does not.
- gralx 6y agoI read HN comments before visiting a submitted link maybe 99% of the time. After that I would visit the link less than 10% of the time. Eternal September[1] hasn't hit us here, and I also attribute that to HN's moderation policy. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September
- ulisesrmzroche 6y agoThis forum is heavily moderated, its members are highly educated, it's also not very diverse, is not very large, and anything even slightly related to politics gets flagged to oblivion. FB is nothing like that.
- bluntfang 6y ago>I stopped using FB 6 months ago...friends contacted me via messenger to ask how I'm doing, and now we just interact one to one I hear what you're saying, but you stopped using Facebook's feed feature and now you only use the Messenger feature. I know this seems a bit pedantic, but you didn't stop using Facebook.
- wombatmobile 6y agoI have the messenger app on my phone. I stopped all exposure to FB content except dm via the messenger app.