2 ms·

I appreciate the idea, but I disagree. It's not that you should never put down, it's that you should do it sparingly. Look, the real degradation has been in "m

by jrm4 5y ago

I appreciate the idea, but I disagree. It's not that you should never put down, it's that you should do it sparingly. Look, the real degradation has been in "modern" computing. Our devices have literally gotten worse in terms of empowering the users to do what they wish. And that's stupid.

dang 5y ago
People mostly say this kind of thing about points they agree with. Otherwise it's pretty easy to see that the putdown/swipe stuff is cheap and gratuitous. Maybe in other environments it works better, but on the open internet it's just low-quality noise, and a post can basically always be improved by editing it out. This is one thing the original HN guidelines really got right. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- jrm4 5y ago
  What do you consider improvement?" I'm not here to have "nice conversations," when there's something wrong or dumb occurring; I want to draw attention to the topic. I get that people say that they like politeness and so-called constructive conversation -- but the reality is that people respond more to more intense stimuli. Overall, I've found that I've had a much better time on the internet (here and elsewhere) by removing such filtering a bit. Of course, this depends on where you start from. I did start from that exact same place of "be very polite all the time," and I have definitely found that -- for me -- straying away from that has improved my experience.
  - dang 5y ago
    Well, it's complex and YMMV but our experience is that when people take swipes at each other or each other's points/side/identifications, discussion goes downhill fast. Calling things stupid may improve your experience (or feel like it does) but I don't think it improves the threads overall, which is what we're trying to optimize for.

2 ms·

I appreciate the idea, but I disagree. It's not that you should never put down, it's that you should do it sparingly. Look, the real degradation has been in "m

by jrm4 5y ago

dang 5y ago
People mostly say this kind of thing about points they agree with. Otherwise it's pretty easy to see that the putdown/swipe stuff is cheap and gratuitous. Maybe in other environments it works better, but on the open internet it's just low-quality noise, and a post can basically always be improved by editing it out. This is one thing the original HN guidelines really got right. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- jrm4 5y ago
  What do you consider improvement?" I'm not here to have "nice conversations," when there's something wrong or dumb occurring; I want to draw attention to the topic. I get that people say that they like politeness and so-called constructive conversation -- but the reality is that people respond more to more intense stimuli. Overall, I've found that I've had a much better time on the internet (here and elsewhere) by removing such filtering a bit. Of course, this depends on where you start from. I did start from that exact same place of "be very polite all the time," and I have definitely found that -- for me -- straying away from that has improved my experience.
  - dang 5y ago
    Well, it's complex and YMMV but our experience is that when people take swipes at each other or each other's points/side/identifications, discussion goes downhill fast. Calling things stupid may improve your experience (or feel like it does) but I don't think it improves the threads overall, which is what we're trying to optimize for.