3 ms·

IMO it should be configurable per user. Not only twitter, but all social media, paywalls, politics, etc. Also HN desperately lacking tags: I only interested i

IMO it should be configurable per user. Not only twitter, but all social media, paywalls, politics, etc. Also HN desperately lacking tags: I only interested in couple of tech stacks/protocols and several problem domains/verticals - why do I need sift through all these unrelevant submissions?

config_yml 5y ago
IMHO that's the beauty of HN. By "sifting" through "unrelevant" submissions you discover things that you wouldn't have looked at otherwise.
mywacaday 5y ago
I have agreed with all your points at one time or another but I now think that it's HNs structure that stops it turning into Reddit/social media or another echo chamber. I don't program or develop for a living or hobby any more but the realtively high quality submissions and the super high quality comments and discussions make the the trawl worth while, I regularly find interesting discussion in subjects I have no real interest in that cause me to reflect on my own opinions and thinking, to me that is invaluable and I don't get it anywhere else.
dspillett 5y ago
I think that would be complex to implement in a way that would be useful to enough people without getting in the way of everyone else, you are either putting a log of load on detecting what content is into the site, or putting that load onto submitters by expecting them to take time to tag things appropriately. And the just isn't enough traffic to make it worthwhile IMO (is scanning a page, or maybe two, of HN to see if anything piques your interest really a chore?). I avoid clicking twitter links generally, Medium too, but the discussion they bring up can be interesting, and often include links to relevant information from less irritating sources, so I wouldn't want them to simply not be here. If you do want fully rid of the links yourself, maybe a userscript is a practical answer? Though if you are a Chrome user that option will be less convenient in future as IIRC Manifest 3 will break options like Tapermonkey (a bookmarklet will still work, assuming you don't mind an extra click).

config_yml 5y ago

IMHO that's the beauty of HN. By "sifting" through "unrelevant" submissions you discover things that you wouldn't have looked at otherwise.

mywacaday 5y ago

I have agreed with all your points at one time or another but I now think that it's HNs structure that stops it turning into Reddit/social media or another echo chamber. I don't program or develop for a living or hobby any more but the realtively high quality submissions and the super high quality comments and discussions make the the trawl worth while, I regularly find interesting discussion in subjects I have no real interest in that cause me to reflect on my own opinions and thinking, to me that is invaluable and I don't get it anywhere else.

dspillett 5y ago

I think that would be complex to implement in a way that would be useful to enough people without getting in the way of everyone else, you are either putting a log of load on detecting what content is into the site, or putting that load onto submitters by expecting them to take time to tag things appropriately. And the just isn't enough traffic to make it worthwhile IMO (is scanning a page, or maybe two, of HN to see if anything piques your interest really a chore?). I avoid clicking twitter links generally, Medium too, but the discussion they bring up can be interesting, and often include links to relevant information from less irritating sources, so I wouldn't want them to simply not be here. If you do want fully rid of the links yourself, maybe a userscript is a practical answer? Though if you are a Chrome user that option will be less convenient in future as IIRC Manifest 3 will break options like Tapermonkey (a bookmarklet will still work, assuming you don't mind an extra click).