5 ms·

Feel like there has been increasingly more cuss / inappropriate words showing up on top page of HN. I recommend HN to my kids. Not that they are not exposed to

Feel like there has been increasingly more cuss / inappropriate words showing up on top page of HN. I recommend HN to my kids. Not that they are not exposed to these words online but I would rather not come this from their parent. Not sure how to feel.

gregd 5y ago
The rules in our house are, the only bad words, are words used to hurt other people. Having said that, cussing is a rite of passage in our house. We all cuss like sailors.
- seanw444 5y ago
  I think that's actually a great rule of thumb.
nameisname 5y ago
I recommend you no longer recommend content aggregation websites to people who you want to see only certain content.
- anthropodie 5y ago
  Exactly always prefer search over feeds Edit: To add more to this, feeds train our brain to consume content which we don't even need. Search on other hand is inherently required when we are working on something cool.
anthropodie 5y ago
Sounds like an opportunity for someone to create an extension that replaces these words with somethingm that would be good for kids.
- theshrike79 5y ago
  It's not as easy as you think: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_problem =)
  - iqanq 5y ago
  - wanderer_ 5y ago
    Yeah, and sometimes you can lose meaning too. If I were implementing this, I would bleep out things like slurs, and words like 'shit' would be replaced with their (arbitrarily less crude) counterparts - 'crap' in this case. There are existing software and methods to get around this problem of accidental censorship. Someone mentioned maintaining a professional vocabulary, and I am inclined to agree: The more you read people writing with crude language, the more likely you are to accidentally let it slip around your parents, or someone like a small child. Anyway, on the subject of the actual post, comments are you and your future self's mutual friends.
- foxfluff 5y ago
  clbuttic
Cthulhu_ 5y ago
Isn't there a minimum age requirement to be on HN? I mean I don't see anything obvious. That said, we're all adults here, mostly liberal leaning, and we all grew up with the internet; a bit of potty mouth won't hurt anyone. I mean you can take the moral high ground and consider anyone using swear words as immature and move on, I guess.
throw__away7391 5y ago
This is a pretty entitled comment. I'd suggest that if you don't want kids to read the word "shit" you keep them off the Internet entirely for life rather than running around trying to impose your morality on everyone else.
- satyrnein 5y ago
  He expressed a concern and said he's "not sure how to feel". Your response seems way over the top.
nottorp 5y ago
Isnt cursing a requirement to make electronic/mechanical stuff perform as specced? Im pretty sure my computers overclock when cursed at.
Ensorceled 5y ago
> Feel like there has been increasingly more cuss / inappropriate words showing up on top page of HN. I wouldn't consider the word "shit" to be inappropriate for a reader that I felt mature enough to expose to HN content and conversations.
kasey_junk 5y ago
I’m not worried about my kids seeing curse words. I am concerned about the downward pull normalizing unprofessional writing has on my profession. Does it make our whole environment less professional? Does it influence us to be unprofessional in other parts of our craft? Do outside observers view us as less a profession because of it? I don’t know the answers but I certainly worry about it. Though perhaps I’m just aging out of this audience.
- d1sxeyes 5y ago
  I think there is something to worry about, but it's not 'unprofessional writing' or any kind of external downward pull, I'd say a lot of the problem is how much time professionals now spend in unprofessional contexts, even during working hours (he says, typing while clock-watching...). This is a post on someone's personal blog with some reflections on something they saw at work. I'm not sure why we should expect him to write professionally (leaving aside the question of whether swearing is acceptable in professional writing or not). I also wouldn't necessarily expect HN to only carry professional content - although some of what's shared here might be interesting from a professional viewpoint, it's not a portal for professionals (what even is 'hacker' as a profession? What percentage of the HN community are amateur hackers rather than professional hackers?). Ultimately, it's a discussion forum on the internet, where self-proclaimed hackers share things they think are cool, and if others think it's cool too, then it gets shown to more and more 'hackers' until not enough new people think it's cool enough, at which point it gets shown to fewer and fewer people.
- TheGigaChad 5y ago
- tptacek 5y ago
  This audience is at a particular peak of glibness and superficiality this week. It's interesting to think about what kind of place it would be if there were a couple artificial norms of decorum, like "no swearing" (I'd find that difficult to adhere to, at least at first). It might be better; sometimes rules like that can subtly remind people that there's a minimum threshold of thoughtfulness required before chiming in.
gostsamo 5y ago
Agree, the overuse of a word devalues its meaning. It shows certain lack of imagination as well.
gregd 5y ago
This is kind of an odd viewpoint. Whether we spell "shit" or "s**t", you say the same word in your head.
TheGigaChad 5y ago

gregd 5y ago

The rules in our house are, the only bad words, are words used to hurt other people. Having said that, cussing is a rite of passage in our house. We all cuss like sailors.

seanw444 5y ago
I think that's actually a great rule of thumb.

nameisname 5y ago

I recommend you no longer recommend content aggregation websites to people who you want to see only certain content.

anthropodie 5y ago
Exactly always prefer search over feeds Edit: To add more to this, feeds train our brain to consume content which we don't even need. Search on other hand is inherently required when we are working on something cool.

anthropodie 5y ago

Sounds like an opportunity for someone to create an extension that replaces these words with somethingm that would be good for kids.

theshrike79 5y ago
It's not as easy as you think: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_problem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_problem =)
- iqanq 5y ago
- wanderer_ 5y ago
  Yeah, and sometimes you can lose meaning too. If I were implementing this, I would bleep out things like slurs, and words like 'shit' would be replaced with their (arbitrarily less crude) counterparts - 'crap' in this case. There are existing software and methods to get around this problem of accidental censorship. Someone mentioned maintaining a professional vocabulary, and I am inclined to agree: The more you read people writing with crude language, the more likely you are to accidentally let it slip around your parents, or someone like a small child. Anyway, on the subject of the actual post, comments are you and your future self's mutual friends.
foxfluff 5y ago
clbuttic

Cthulhu_ 5y ago

Isn't there a minimum age requirement to be on HN? I mean I don't see anything obvious. That said, we're all adults here, mostly liberal leaning, and we all grew up with the internet; a bit of potty mouth won't hurt anyone. I mean you can take the moral high ground and consider anyone using swear words as immature and move on, I guess.

throw__away7391 5y ago

This is a pretty entitled comment. I'd suggest that if you don't want kids to read the word "shit" you keep them off the Internet entirely for life rather than running around trying to impose your morality on everyone else.

satyrnein 5y ago
He expressed a concern and said he's "not sure how to feel". Your response seems way over the top.

nottorp 5y ago

Isnt cursing a requirement to make electronic/mechanical stuff perform as specced? Im pretty sure my computers overclock when cursed at.

Ensorceled 5y ago

> Feel like there has been increasingly more cuss / inappropriate words showing up on top page of HN. I wouldn't consider the word "shit" to be inappropriate for a reader that I felt mature enough to expose to HN content and conversations.

kasey_junk 5y ago

I’m not worried about my kids seeing curse words. I am concerned about the downward pull normalizing unprofessional writing has on my profession. Does it make our whole environment less professional? Does it influence us to be unprofessional in other parts of our craft? Do outside observers view us as less a profession because of it? I don’t know the answers but I certainly worry about it. Though perhaps I’m just aging out of this audience.

d1sxeyes 5y ago
I think there is something to worry about, but it's not 'unprofessional writing' or any kind of external downward pull, I'd say a lot of the problem is how much time professionals now spend in unprofessional contexts, even during working hours (he says, typing while clock-watching...). This is a post on someone's personal blog with some reflections on something they saw at work. I'm not sure why we should expect him to write professionally (leaving aside the question of whether swearing is acceptable in professional writing or not). I also wouldn't necessarily expect HN to only carry professional content - although some of what's shared here might be interesting from a professional viewpoint, it's not a portal for professionals (what even is 'hacker' as a profession? What percentage of the HN community are amateur hackers rather than professional hackers?). Ultimately, it's a discussion forum on the internet, where self-proclaimed hackers share things they think are cool, and if others think it's cool too, then it gets shown to more and more 'hackers' until not enough new people think it's cool enough, at which point it gets shown to fewer and fewer people.
TheGigaChad 5y ago
tptacek 5y ago
This audience is at a particular peak of glibness and superficiality this week. It's interesting to think about what kind of place it would be if there were a couple artificial norms of decorum, like "no swearing" (I'd find that difficult to adhere to, at least at first). It might be better; sometimes rules like that can subtly remind people that there's a minimum threshold of thoughtfulness required before chiming in.

gostsamo 5y ago

Agree, the overuse of a word devalues its meaning. It shows certain lack of imagination as well.

gregd 5y ago

This is kind of an odd viewpoint. Whether we spell "shit" or "s**t", you say the same word in your head.

TheGigaChad 5y ago