4 ms·

Glad and, at the same time sorry, to read I am not the only one noticing what you and the other commenters are experiencing. Unfortunately I don't think it's a

Glad and, at the same time sorry, to read I am not the only one noticing what you and the other commenters are experiencing. Unfortunately I don't think it's a 'so many good posts differentiation of which ones are the best becomes hard' problem, since the front page lately has been of consistently repetitive content (some article about this new fancy Stable Diffusion flavor) or downright of dubious quality submissions which deteriorates further from editorializing of their title. I've said this dozen of times but sometimes it's really like I'm on my LinkedIn frontpage, full of grifters and corporate/entrepreneur BS. The problem imo lies on the rise of HN's popularity which unavoidably deviates its once astute userbase to a one that is prone to sensationalism and occasionally ignorance. I still believe this is a good portal to learn first about news on tech as well as read some comments by users that happen to be prominent in the industry.

is_true 4y ago
On the topic of popularity, I've noticed that there are more post of companies that don't look natural.
mudrockbestgirl 4y ago
You nailed it, I'm noticing the same thing. I'm sure there are many posts that don't get the attention they deserve, but what stands out more to me is how many of the frontpage post are BS with no meat in them. Anything with AI, Rust, useless startup platitudes/stories, etc is on the frontpage almost automatically, even if it's a shallow article that's just marketing and PR. It almost feels like people just read the title and never check the actual content. At least I hope so, because if people actually find value in that useless content it'd be pretty sad. There is also a lot of post manipulation going on. Articles on company blogs often have lots of boilerplate comments from newish 1-karma accounts.
- dang 4y ago
  > even if it's a shallow article that's just marketing and PR You should flag those! It's easy and only requires karma > 30.
  - jlokier 4y ago
    I think people read "flag" as "tell HN this article/comment has offensive content", so will not think it's appropriate to use "flag" for content that's merely shallow. We don't flag comments for being merely shallow.
    - dang 4y ago
      I'd say flag things that go against the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
  - sph 4y ago
    dang, a question for you: I lost my vouch privileges because I did vouch dubious comments (we spoke about it and you graciously restored that functionality to my account), and I am now afraid that flagging stuff I don't like would incur a similar penalty. Can you confirm that I can flag anything I do not wish to see, even if it's objectively not bad content? I am a little confused if flagging is just reserved for abuse and spam or not. Will I lose my flagging privileges if I keep flagging a certain topic I'd rather not see?
    - Tomte 4y ago
      I did, but was restored. Strangely I still haven't got vouching privileges, although I can't have vouched for many articles, I think. It's intentionally ambiguous. Like HN's little sister to nuclear weapons.
      - dang 4y ago
        Your account has vouching privileges.
    - dang 4y ago
      You shouldn't flag things just because you don't like them, but you should flag them if they go against the site guidelines. "Shallow article that's just marketing and PR" sounds like that to me.
denton-scratch 4y ago
> comments by users that happen to be prominent in the industry. I don't see such comments often; I do see a lot of comments that are very good. I spend a lot more time reading comments than articles, in fact. I'm not sure what you mean by "prominent in the industry" - I take it you mean the IT industry, but a lot of articles that get posted aren't to do with IT - there's a lot of physics, sci-fi, life-hacking, making, art and history. It's like a holographic projection into 2D of the contents of my head!

is_true 4y ago

On the topic of popularity, I've noticed that there are more post of companies that don't look natural.

mudrockbestgirl 4y ago

You nailed it, I'm noticing the same thing. I'm sure there are many posts that don't get the attention they deserve, but what stands out more to me is how many of the frontpage post are BS with no meat in them. Anything with AI, Rust, useless startup platitudes/stories, etc is on the frontpage almost automatically, even if it's a shallow article that's just marketing and PR. It almost feels like people just read the title and never check the actual content. At least I hope so, because if people actually find value in that useless content it'd be pretty sad. There is also a lot of post manipulation going on. Articles on company blogs often have lots of boilerplate comments from newish 1-karma accounts.

dang 4y ago
> even if it's a shallow article that's just marketing and PR You should flag those! It's easy and only requires karma > 30.
- jlokier 4y ago
  I think people read "flag" as "tell HN this article/comment has offensive content", so will not think it's appropriate to use "flag" for content that's merely shallow. We don't flag comments for being merely shallow.
  - dang 4y ago
    I'd say flag things that go against the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
- sph 4y ago
  dang, a question for you: I lost my vouch privileges because I did vouch dubious comments (we spoke about it and you graciously restored that functionality to my account), and I am now afraid that flagging stuff I don't like would incur a similar penalty. Can you confirm that I can flag anything I do not wish to see, even if it's objectively not bad content? I am a little confused if flagging is just reserved for abuse and spam or not. Will I lose my flagging privileges if I keep flagging a certain topic I'd rather not see?
  - Tomte 4y ago
    I did, but was restored. Strangely I still haven't got vouching privileges, although I can't have vouched for many articles, I think. It's intentionally ambiguous. Like HN's little sister to nuclear weapons.
    - dang 4y ago
      Your account has vouching privileges.
  - dang 4y ago
    You shouldn't flag things just because you don't like them, but you should flag them if they go against the site guidelines. "Shallow article that's just marketing and PR" sounds like that to me.

denton-scratch 4y ago

> comments by users that happen to be prominent in the industry. I don't see such comments often; I do see a lot of comments that are very good. I spend a lot more time reading comments than articles, in fact. I'm not sure what you mean by "prominent in the industry" - I take it you mean the IT industry, but a lot of articles that get posted aren't to do with IT - there's a lot of physics, sci-fi, life-hacking, making, art and history. It's like a holographic projection into 2D of the contents of my head!