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I honestly don’t understand the consistent (self) praise for HN comments. Perhaps the mods make valiant efforts to enforce some vague standard of decorum and it

I honestly don’t understand the consistent (self) praise for HN comments. Perhaps the mods make valiant efforts to enforce some vague standard of decorum and it would be worse without that thankless work, but any topic that doesn’t lend itself to software industry anecdote sharing is filled with the same vacuous, uninformed polemic as any other generalist social media site, just with a thin veneer of politeness. And even that supposed politeness is missing if I happen to open the comments section at the wrong time (presumably before a mod could clean them up, but isn’t that enough of a sign it doesn’t scale particularly well?)

nverno 4y ago
You have a much different experience on general social media sites than I do. When I open a twitter thread that isn't sandboxed to nerds geeking out with other nerds about cool stuff, half the stuff I see is flamebait or just nasty adhominem vitriol. But, I think it just goes with the territory, if HN was a place for politics/culture wars/etc. it would probably devolve into the filth despite Dang's best efforts. This and stackoverflow are the only sites that I actively want to read comments, instead of mindlessly scrolling down to them and regretting it.
- andirk 4y ago
  Agreed. HN is one my fave places for hardly strictly tech discourse. But its commenters have that unfortunate undying love for the American Democratic Party where any purely factual dissent is thumbed down with no explanation. I'm personally "far left" (more accurately: believe what the mainstream American wants from their govt) and twice I mentioned something negative about some MSDNC person and got negative a million points. Other than that, I learn a lot every day from y'alls!
- blargey 4y ago
  That might be it - I’m just using the “saner” parts of the Internet as my reference (at least compared to Politics On Twitter), which usually means “smaller scope of community and discussion / human moderation”, much like HN on a good day. So HN wouldn’t feel special in that light.
kurtreed 4y ago
Too true -- as topics get less technological and more political, comments here become increasingly naive without any corresponding reduction in certainty.
ridesbikes 4y ago

nverno 4y ago

You have a much different experience on general social media sites than I do. When I open a twitter thread that isn't sandboxed to nerds geeking out with other nerds about cool stuff, half the stuff I see is flamebait or just nasty adhominem vitriol. But, I think it just goes with the territory, if HN was a place for politics/culture wars/etc. it would probably devolve into the filth despite Dang's best efforts. This and stackoverflow are the only sites that I actively want to read comments, instead of mindlessly scrolling down to them and regretting it.

andirk 4y ago
Agreed. HN is one my fave places for hardly strictly tech discourse. But its commenters have that unfortunate undying love for the American Democratic Party where any purely factual dissent is thumbed down with no explanation. I'm personally "far left" (more accurately: believe what the mainstream American wants from their govt) and twice I mentioned something negative about some MSDNC person and got negative a million points. Other than that, I learn a lot every day from y'alls!
blargey 4y ago
That might be it - I’m just using the “saner” parts of the Internet as my reference (at least compared to Politics On Twitter), which usually means “smaller scope of community and discussion / human moderation”, much like HN on a good day. So HN wouldn’t feel special in that light.

kurtreed 4y ago

Too true -- as topics get less technological and more political, comments here become increasingly naive without any corresponding reduction in certainty.

ridesbikes 4y ago