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Okay, really. With all due respect to the passing of a fellow human, this story has absolutely nothing to do with hackers, with software development, with the

by numair 15y ago

Okay, really. With all due respect to the passing of a fellow human, this story has absolutely nothing to do with hackers, with software development, with the startup business... I know people are going to reply to this with some reference to "but it is of intellectual interest!" -- but really, there are lots of different places on the Internet (thousands, maybe millions!) to discuss lots of different things. If you have begun to look at Hacker News as your sole source of news and information in the world -- of which such stories and their upvoting may be a sign -- you really need to diversify your life. It will be better for your health, and for your work. It would be great if we could allow this place remain a silo of thought on technical and business matters, and seek out other places and people for other sorts of information and discourse.

antics 15y ago
There is some truth to what you say, but who is going to be the arbiter of what is "hacker" content and what is not? You? And where does it end? Is a blog post detailing how to deal with stock options really hacker content, for example? HN is still a pretty small community, and regardless of whether or not it upvotes strict tech articles or not I think is besides the point. I come here because it's like being in the center of an intellectual panopticon, and to a large extent, I trust people here to show me things that will make me grow. I'm not interested in _everything_ posted here, but it is also not important to me (and I imagine a lot of other people as well) that all the articles here are strictly super technical.
- numair 15y ago
  There's a variety of places from where we can get our news. For example, I'm super-concerned about the end result of the Euro crisis (which directly affects global businesses, such as the online businesses many of us are building, far more than is ever discussed here) -- but rather than looking for economic insight here, or posting articles about the matter here for discussion, I turn to the Financial Times, and talk to my friends who work in finance. You have to find the best outlet for information and discussions regarding the topic at hand; as it stands, Hacker News is an excellent place for discussion about technical topics, but if we continue to have more of this mainstream-type stuff because of a more general audience that chooses to use this as their version of CNN, we're going to quickly alienate more technical-minded people who come here to avoid general news topics. If you want this place to remain special, you have to keep it special.
  - antics 15y ago
    > If you want this place to remain special, you have to keep it special. I agree with, but this is also #1 story on the frontpage right now, which makes your statement not indictment a flood of "bad" content in the "new" section, but an indictment the HN population for upvoting it. If HNers didn't believe it was relevant content, why vote it up in the first place? HN is small enough that I just have a lot of trouble believing this is the result of user dilution.
hyperbovine 15y ago
You post a story. It gets voted up. It gets voted down. The site is never out of step with its users' interests, because it can't be. So simple, and yet somebody is always there to complain about what should or should not be. Why?
- nandemo 15y ago
  I don't think stories can get voted down (at least for me no down-arrow is displayed). In any case, I disagree with the "the people have spoken" argument. It boils down to "if you don't like it, then leave". It should be the other way round: if you want to discuss this, then use another forum. HN has a certain purpose, even if it's not completely well-defined. It follows that there are stories that should be deemed off-topic, regardless of whether a large minority votes them up. I'm not talking about the on-topic-ness of this particular story (though I'd say it's off-topic even though I am a fan of Hitchens), but trying to defend the notion that it's fine to complain about highly upvoted off-topic stories. PS: a related comment of mine in a recent thread on Stackoverflow: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3357506 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3357506
  - pohl 15y ago
    Flagging is just voting-down in drag.
logic 15y ago
There are enough of us in this relatively small community of free-thinkers who were touched by this man's work that, for a few moments, we'd like to pause to remember him. This has absolutely nothing to do with "intellectual interest": we're mourning, and it's a sign we're all basically human.
vacri 15y ago
Hitchens was one of those people that teaches other people how to think better. That classes him as 'of interest' to both tech and business.
maximusprime 15y ago
HN used to be about hacking. It's now largely about politics and lolcats. It's "Reddit lite" if you like.
gruseom 15y ago
Hitchens was perhaps the greatest master of the English language of our time. If that doesn't make him of intellectual interest, maybe the fault lies with the intellect. What's a pity is that the discussion here is of such low quality, picking nits about heaven and the like. Hitchens as a writer was a force of nature. Who else could produce such exquisitely wrought pieces at such a rate? In this respect he reminds me a little of Dickens. Edit: here's a marvelous remembrance by Christopher Buckley: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/12/postscript-christopher-hitchens.html http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/12/posts...

by numair 15y ago

antics 15y ago

There is some truth to what you say, but who is going to be the arbiter of what is "hacker" content and what is not? You? And where does it end? Is a blog post detailing how to deal with stock options really hacker content, for example? HN is still a pretty small community, and regardless of whether or not it upvotes strict tech articles or not I think is besides the point. I come here because it's like being in the center of an intellectual panopticon, and to a large extent, I trust people here to show me things that will make me grow. I'm not interested in _everything_ posted here, but it is also not important to me (and I imagine a lot of other people as well) that all the articles here are strictly super technical.

numair 15y ago
There's a variety of places from where we can get our news. For example, I'm super-concerned about the end result of the Euro crisis (which directly affects global businesses, such as the online businesses many of us are building, far more than is ever discussed here) -- but rather than looking for economic insight here, or posting articles about the matter here for discussion, I turn to the Financial Times, and talk to my friends who work in finance. You have to find the best outlet for information and discussions regarding the topic at hand; as it stands, Hacker News is an excellent place for discussion about technical topics, but if we continue to have more of this mainstream-type stuff because of a more general audience that chooses to use this as their version of CNN, we're going to quickly alienate more technical-minded people who come here to avoid general news topics. If you want this place to remain special, you have to keep it special.
- antics 15y ago
  > If you want this place to remain special, you have to keep it special. I agree with, but this is also #1 story on the frontpage right now, which makes your statement not indictment a flood of "bad" content in the "new" section, but an indictment the HN population for upvoting it. If HNers didn't believe it was relevant content, why vote it up in the first place? HN is small enough that I just have a lot of trouble believing this is the result of user dilution.

hyperbovine 15y ago

You post a story. It gets voted up. It gets voted down. The site is never out of step with its users' interests, because it can't be. So simple, and yet somebody is always there to complain about what should or should not be. Why?

nandemo 15y ago
I don't think stories can get voted down (at least for me no down-arrow is displayed). In any case, I disagree with the "the people have spoken" argument. It boils down to "if you don't like it, then leave". It should be the other way round: if you want to discuss this, then use another forum. HN has a certain purpose, even if it's not completely well-defined. It follows that there are stories that should be deemed off-topic, regardless of whether a large minority votes them up. I'm not talking about the on-topic-ness of this particular story (though I'd say it's off-topic even though I am a fan of Hitchens), but trying to defend the notion that it's fine to complain about highly upvoted off-topic stories. PS: a related comment of mine in a recent thread on Stackoverflow: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3357506 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3357506
- pohl 15y ago
  Flagging is just voting-down in drag.

logic 15y ago

There are enough of us in this relatively small community of free-thinkers who were touched by this man's work that, for a few moments, we'd like to pause to remember him. This has absolutely nothing to do with "intellectual interest": we're mourning, and it's a sign we're all basically human.

vacri 15y ago

Hitchens was one of those people that teaches other people how to think better. That classes him as 'of interest' to both tech and business.

maximusprime 15y ago

HN used to be about hacking. It's now largely about politics and lolcats. It's "Reddit lite" if you like.

gruseom 15y ago

Hitchens was perhaps the greatest master of the English language of our time. If that doesn't make him of intellectual interest, maybe the fault lies with the intellect. What's a pity is that the discussion here is of such low quality, picking nits about heaven and the like. Hitchens as a writer was a force of nature. Who else could produce such exquisitely wrought pieces at such a rate? In this respect he reminds me a little of Dickens. Edit: here's a marvelous remembrance by Christopher Buckley: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/12/postscript-christopher-hitchens.html http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/12/posts...