4 ms·

Could we try to keep the topic on the article itself instead of complaints about C? It sucks to come and read the comments about this very nice article and have

Could we try to keep the topic on the article itself instead of complaints about C? It sucks to come and read the comments about this very nice article and have to scroll and scroll until I finally get to comments written by people who actually have something to say. This is a great blog, and the author puts a ton of effort into their posts. It’s hard for me not to view comments like this as being a bit thoughtless and inconsiderate.

mjburgess 4y ago
That's why comments collapse. There's little more useful to say here, other than I don't think most people would agree with your view of what HN is. It's a discussion forum, not an exegetical seminar. "On topic" is whatever the topic of discussion is; and this is not constrained to the article.
- dilap 4y ago
  Since we're already way off-topic, allow me to share my idea for solving this perennial problem: When commenting, there is a little selector: [ ] My comment is on-topic and positive to neutral [ ] My comment is critical [ ] My comment is off-topic You've got to select one. When viewing, the comment thread defaults to just showing on-topic, non-negative comments, but you can see the other stuff, too, if you want. This solves two seemingly contradictory desires: the ability to read comments on things that interest you without having to fend off waves of negativity and wade through pools of offtopic text and the ability to speak freely.
  - Nullabillity 4y ago
    It sounds like you're looking for an upvote counter, not a comment section.
    - dilap 4y ago
      No, that's not it at all. The point is to give a small amount of structure to the comments section, so people can see what they want. Think of it as very roughly analoguous to the different sections of a newspaper.
subarctic 4y ago
That's not really how comment threads work. If you reply to a specific comment, you're replying to the stuff they said in that comment. The guy's not even complaining about c either, he's commenting on the bit of c code that the parent commenter wrote

mjburgess 4y ago

That's why comments collapse. There's little more useful to say here, other than I don't think most people would agree with your view of what HN is. It's a discussion forum, not an exegetical seminar. "On topic" is whatever the topic of discussion is; and this is not constrained to the article.

dilap 4y ago
Since we're already way off-topic, allow me to share my idea for solving this perennial problem: When commenting, there is a little selector: [ ] My comment is on-topic and positive to neutral [ ] My comment is critical [ ] My comment is off-topic You've got to select one. When viewing, the comment thread defaults to just showing on-topic, non-negative comments, but you can see the other stuff, too, if you want. This solves two seemingly contradictory desires: the ability to read comments on things that interest you without having to fend off waves of negativity and wade through pools of offtopic text and the ability to speak freely.
- Nullabillity 4y ago
  It sounds like you're looking for an upvote counter, not a comment section.
  - dilap 4y ago
    No, that's not it at all. The point is to give a small amount of structure to the comments section, so people can see what they want. Think of it as very roughly analoguous to the different sections of a newspaper.

subarctic 4y ago

That's not really how comment threads work. If you reply to a specific comment, you're replying to the stuff they said in that comment. The guy's not even complaining about c either, he's commenting on the bit of c code that the parent commenter wrote