4 ms·

Sure.. but you've been around this site for at least as long as I have, so you must've seen that you can directly tell how technical a discussion is by the poin

Sure.. but you've been around this site for at least as long as I have, so you must've seen that you can directly tell how technical a discussion is by the points/comments ratio. The ranking goes like this: 1. Political/current events stories have a million comments -- sometimes more comments than points if the OP is a controversial opinion 2. Software engineering opinion pieces have the 2nd most comments (everyone has an opinion), followed by 3. Software engineering technical pieces. These usually have a few comments by some smartypants that has worked with the software, and a few other people hallucinating technical challenges around them for some reason. 4. The least commented on are these kinds of pieces that require at least a master's in some other non-SWE field. Mathematics gets quite popular since most of HN was "good at maths", and thus will upvote it, even though the most maths they have understood in the last decade was when they copied some formulas from a random paper.

stocknoob 4y ago
It’s great. The infamous HN “well actually” contrarian is left speechless.
- sdwr 4y ago
  Well, being contrary on HN is actually the majority viewpoint. Piggybacking on other people's thoughts and poking holes in them is the easiest way to maintain a healthy defensive wall of superiority while communicating.
johnfn 4y ago
I really enjoy this comment because I feel like it articulates a pattern which we are all kind of familiar with. Perhaps you also need a 5th category, for the rare post which is so well-written (or remarkable along some other axis) that people are too stunned to leave comments. E.g. [1] which arguably fits into 2) but is so on-point that the normal opinionated argumentative comments didn't even break out for the most part. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31840331 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31840331

stocknoob 4y ago

It’s great. The infamous HN “well actually” contrarian is left speechless.

sdwr 4y ago
Well, being contrary on HN is actually the majority viewpoint. Piggybacking on other people's thoughts and poking holes in them is the easiest way to maintain a healthy defensive wall of superiority while communicating.

johnfn 4y ago

I really enjoy this comment because I feel like it articulates a pattern which we are all kind of familiar with. Perhaps you also need a 5th category, for the rare post which is so well-written (or remarkable along some other axis) that people are too stunned to leave comments. E.g. [1] which arguably fits into 2) but is so on-point that the normal opinionated argumentative comments didn't even break out for the most part. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31840331 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31840331