4 ms·
Good fences make good neighbors
- tptacek 18y agoDoesn't the Robert Frost poem this article takes its title from make pretty much the exact opposite point? We have to use a spell to make them balance: 'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!' ... It comes to little more: There where it is we do not need the wall [...] ... [...] Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence.
- rantfoil 18y agoI guess online is just bizarro world in that sense... when everyone is anonymous and there are no barriers, we get YouTube-like comments. Like it or not, even Hacker News has significant barriers to new users. Arguably that's why it's such a great place to spend time. I wish it were not so, but it certainly seems to me to be the case.
- elai 18y agoI don't see what are the significant barriers? You can still comment, post new links and articles and read like anyone else. If whatever you say has merit, then nobody will care what your score is in the hacker news game.
- bootload 18y ago"... I don't see what are the significant barriers? ... If whatever you say has merit, then nobody will care what your score is in the hacker news game ..." I think rantfoil is saying it is easy to get "tripped-up" on the unwritten or obscure rules. I guess the "Turing-like" test to participation is understanding how "hackers" think.
- rantfoil 18y agoIf you run HN with "showdead" you'll see the cruft that gets killed. This stuff actually really represents a real danger to every online community. Point is, there are real people who edit HN, and these people use karma score as a major determining factor when deciding whether or not to mark as dead. This is aside from the typical flame or personal insult... that anyone can and will do, even those with high karma scores. ;-)
- bayareaguy 18y agoTo me "Mending Wall" is more about people's inclination to be open or closed minded. The comfort the narrator may gain from leaving the wall open in places comes at the expense of the neighbor's preference for enforced separation. Unfortunately I don't really understand what point the author of the article was trying to make.
- helveticaman 18y agoFlaming someone online is not as bad as taking a dump on their porch.
- rantfoil 18y agoDepends on how bad the flame is... or flaming is just the first level. What about spam? What about hate speech?
- helveticaman 18y agoEDIT: you're right, of course, it depends on the flame. Perhaps I should say I haven't seen a lot of online crap that ranks ranker than a dump on my porch.
- elai 18y agoThis anonymity is also one of the greatest virtues of the internet.
- MicahWedemeyer 18y agoYeah, it's like taking a dump with a mask on knowing you can never get caught.
- mindslight 18y agoAnd note that the vast majority of sites requiring any sort of identity are pseudonymous. If I make an offensive comment on HN or reddit, my exposure is limited to downmods. A site which requires a real name and affiliation exposes me to considerably higher risk.
- MHollender 18y agoWell, as for karma, I'm at -26 without trolling, it's just some people didn't really like some of my political opinions / prejudices. shrug not that I care much, never wanted to be popular, but nevertheless low karma != troll. You see, as long as you are thinking in democratic terms, it cannot ever work well. Democracy is a kludge for those situations where absolutely no one can came up with any good solution. Did you ever live in an apartement building where people voted on whether the roof will be fixed or not? Then you know what I mean.