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HN works well because the top stories are same the top stories for everyone. Having the #1 story be unique and algorithm-driven for every user would be detrimen
by listenallyall 3y ago
HN works well because the top stories are same the top stories for everyone. Having the #1 story be unique and algorithm-driven for every user would be detrimental to the site and the sense of community.
- voisin 3y agoIn what sense would it be detrimental? If the top news for the day is a new Google product, and I don’t care about Google, why would it be detrimental to anyone if I didn’t see that? I think you are conflating externally driven, top down algorithms, with users expressing their own preferences over what they see.
- listenallyall 3y agoI disagree, HN is like a broadsheet newspaper, it encourages a sense of discovery and often learning that things you didn't initially have an interest in, can be interesting or perhaps a parallel to something with which you are engaged. Further, no personal preferences means the site isn't expected to be tailored to you specifically, this promotes a certain sense of deference where people are exposed to lots of ideas, concepts, industries, experiences and viewpoints -- nobody is an "expert" here and on any particular day, there may be multiple things for you to weigh in on, or none, and that's ok. Along with fair, objective moderation, the discussions here are mostly well-behaved, non-partisan and civil, which all the sites you can personally customize fail to achieve.