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Honestly, I don't see why we should care that other people can't find our comments in the future. That's a lucky side-effect of how comments never expire rather

Honestly, I don't see why we should care that other people can't find our comments in the future. That's a lucky side-effect of how comments never expire rather than our intent when conversing online, and the permanence of our comments also causes a lot of problems like accidental oversharing to people we were never talking to in the first place. Something Gen Z gets right is preferring to localize their friend group discussions in more ephemeral places like Discord. HNers get mad that they can't google "best blender 2023 site:discord" but who cares. IMO it was an accident in the first place that all of our utterances online are broadcast to everyone for eternity when we're almost always only talking to a handful of people, and only for the moment.

thomasahle 3y ago
> That's a lucky side-effect of how comments never expire rather than our intent when conversing online, A lot of online discussion might be a lot more pleasant if people considered the perspective of themselves, or people they care about, reading their comments years in the future. For sites like stackoverflow the intend is clearly to leave a lasting record of information, perhaps even more than answering the original persons question.
- hombre_fatal 3y ago
  > A lot of online discussion might be a lot more pleasant if people considered the perspective of themselves, or people they care about, reading their comments years in the future. Or maybe that hasn't worked so well because it's not a sane default nor the one we operate in when we converse with others on a site like Reddit. For example, I'd like to see the argument for why my utterances on a site like Reddit need to be online forever and why I should want them to be. I can see why that's good for Reddit, but not why I should care. HN doesn't let you delete comments. Yet nobody can even respond to my comments in the future. So it's a feature that does nothing for me no matter how great my comments might be.
  - thomasahle 3y ago
    It's like writing a blogpost in a conversational format. A way for you to share your thoughts with the world. If you only want to share them with a single person, a phone call would probably be better.
    - hombre_fatal 3y ago
      The person I originally replied to explained that deleting your own posts hurts other humans because your posts aren't available to search in the future. I'm saying that helping someone answer "best blenders 2023 site:reddit" isn't the intention you have when you reply to someone on Reddit/HN, so who cares. It's like saying I shouldn't delete my posts because it will hurt ChatGPT's training data. What I'm not saying is that you should expect privacy for comments you post online.
flexagoon 3y ago
I don't know, I think the fact that content is indexable and searchable is one of the best things to ever happen to information. The main reason I hate it when people send me voice messages is not that they're annoying to listen to, it's that I can't find them using the search function. I'd gladly carry a recorder on me that would capture and transcribe all of my IRL conversations, but unfortunately many people would probably consider that creepy so I can't do that.

thomasahle 3y ago

> That's a lucky side-effect of how comments never expire rather than our intent when conversing online, A lot of online discussion might be a lot more pleasant if people considered the perspective of themselves, or people they care about, reading their comments years in the future. For sites like stackoverflow the intend is clearly to leave a lasting record of information, perhaps even more than answering the original persons question.

hombre_fatal 3y ago
> A lot of online discussion might be a lot more pleasant if people considered the perspective of themselves, or people they care about, reading their comments years in the future. Or maybe that hasn't worked so well because it's not a sane default nor the one we operate in when we converse with others on a site like Reddit. For example, I'd like to see the argument for why my utterances on a site like Reddit need to be online forever and why I should want them to be. I can see why that's good for Reddit, but not why I should care. HN doesn't let you delete comments. Yet nobody can even respond to my comments in the future. So it's a feature that does nothing for me no matter how great my comments might be.
- thomasahle 3y ago
  It's like writing a blogpost in a conversational format. A way for you to share your thoughts with the world. If you only want to share them with a single person, a phone call would probably be better.
  - hombre_fatal 3y ago
    The person I originally replied to explained that deleting your own posts hurts other humans because your posts aren't available to search in the future. I'm saying that helping someone answer "best blenders 2023 site:reddit" isn't the intention you have when you reply to someone on Reddit/HN, so who cares. It's like saying I shouldn't delete my posts because it will hurt ChatGPT's training data. What I'm not saying is that you should expect privacy for comments you post online.

flexagoon 3y ago

I don't know, I think the fact that content is indexable and searchable is one of the best things to ever happen to information. The main reason I hate it when people send me voice messages is not that they're annoying to listen to, it's that I can't find them using the search function. I'd gladly carry a recorder on me that would capture and transcribe all of my IRL conversations, but unfortunately many people would probably consider that creepy so I can't do that.