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Well, pretty all of my attempts at humour get downvoted and anything which is controversial in the wrong way gets zapped as well. I’ve tried to answer some topi

Well, pretty all of my attempts at humour get downvoted and anything which is controversial in the wrong way gets zapped as well. I’ve tried to answer some topics “honestly without snark” and watched it go negative. This leaves me thinking I’m not quite in sync with the readership as a whole. But the up/down voting system can be frustrating as it can be done without comment. Often, you have no real idea why you did well or poorly. As a guess, the readership tends to like tech stars, the business and neat programming stuff. It dislikes government, left wing politics and criticism of tech stars.

nonrandomstring 4y ago
If you've played minesweeper you'll understand what I'm about to say. There are sacred cows in these fields, and land-mines buried beneath the cow pats. Even casual, humorous criticism of them will lead to swift rebuke by "defenders" (no doubt a tiny minority) who police the pastures. After some months with HN I now see; - It's probably normal and no worse than any online community. - Very little use comes of pointing it out. We all experience it. - Not much to be gained by fighting it. - Making a meal of it goes against the spirit Dang is obviously working hard to cultivate here of avoiding petty confrontation. - It's actually really useful, from a research perspective. It's the last of these points that relates to minesweeper. A lot can be learned from those who reveal themselves and their fealty as they act to suppress. It's great for putting out 'feelers' for those land-mines whose positions reveal a useful map. I'm even starting to sense how negative information is more valuable than affirmative. Keep the down-votes coming :)
- ss108 4y ago
  Or one can make an innocuous comment like mine (no pun) here, and get downvoted and flagged: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33818141 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33818141 Perplexed by that one.
  - necovek 4y ago
    While I haven't downvoted or flagged your comment, I don't immediatelly get it: what is so peculiar that makes you think/joke it might be a UK org? Perhaps if you explained yourself better, you wouldn't get any downvotes.
    - ss108 4y ago
      The original post headline the OP used was "Mozilla have acquired Pulse"

nonrandomstring 4y ago

If you've played minesweeper you'll understand what I'm about to say. There are sacred cows in these fields, and land-mines buried beneath the cow pats. Even casual, humorous criticism of them will lead to swift rebuke by "defenders" (no doubt a tiny minority) who police the pastures. After some months with HN I now see; - It's probably normal and no worse than any online community. - Very little use comes of pointing it out. We all experience it. - Not much to be gained by fighting it. - Making a meal of it goes against the spirit Dang is obviously working hard to cultivate here of avoiding petty confrontation. - It's actually really useful, from a research perspective. It's the last of these points that relates to minesweeper. A lot can be learned from those who reveal themselves and their fealty as they act to suppress. It's great for putting out 'feelers' for those land-mines whose positions reveal a useful map. I'm even starting to sense how negative information is more valuable than affirmative. Keep the down-votes coming :)

ss108 4y ago
Or one can make an innocuous comment like mine (no pun) here, and get downvoted and flagged: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33818141 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33818141 Perplexed by that one.
- necovek 4y ago
  While I haven't downvoted or flagged your comment, I don't immediatelly get it: what is so peculiar that makes you think/joke it might be a UK org? Perhaps if you explained yourself better, you wouldn't get any downvotes.
  - ss108 4y ago
    The original post headline the OP used was "Mozilla have acquired Pulse"