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Your discussion of "Tribe Signalling" is interesting. It reminds me of all the stuff that Desmond Morris was talking about in "the Human Animal" (and more rece
by AlexC04 15y ago
Your discussion of "Tribe Signalling" is interesting. It reminds me of all the stuff that Desmond Morris was talking about in "the Human Animal" (and more recently http://www.exactitudes.com/ http://www.exactitudes.com/). By wearing certain clothes you're sending a signal to others about political POV, likes dislikes, interests etc... It helps you find other like minded individuals.
Maybe you're right that being against software patents is generally a tribal signal that says "I'm a hacker" or "computer-type".
When I logged into the comment thread, I was thinking the exact same sort of thing. "Well Duh"
The Hacker News audience is somewhere near 100% the exact demographic that you'd expect to be generally against software patents.
It's like logging on to a Twilight fan-board and asking "Are vampires Awesome?"
- nitrogen 15y agoPredictability of hackers' opposition to software patents doesn't render that opposition inconsequential or irrelevant (unlike a vampire fan's opinion of vampires).
- AlexC04 15y agoYes, but a poll on the question has the same validity and effectiveness of those polls on FoxNews that force the answer to fit a political viewpoint. "Which democrat do you trust least?", "which of President Obama's broken promises disappoints you the most?" The poll isn't opposition it's masturbation. Objectively, there's clearly some value in it as a spawn to discussion, but (IMO) the results are completely disposable. Not only were they a foregone conclusion, the self selecting sample is completely skewed towards the "overhaul software patents" demographic. 99% of Dairy farmers think you should eat more cheese.