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Not Hacker News. This is low-quality fearmongering, more appropriate to Reddit or even Digg.

by Eliezer 18y ago

ph0rque 18y ago
I understand your sentiment, but let's not make Digg/Reddit a fearmongering catchphrase, like the word "communist" in the 1950's, or the word "terrorist" of today.
- lionhearted 18y ago
  Reddit scares the hell out of us, because Reddit used to be as good as Hacker News, and slowly... oh so slowly are lower quality submissions coming. And then slowly that'll prompt lesser caliber people to enjoy participating. Who'll submit more lesser caliber stories, and then HN is a wasteland full of "puns" and just outright goofyness. The average American isn't becoming a terrorist, or in any danger of terrorism. Hacker News will sink to the level of Reddit unless it's actively fought by the culture and leadership here.
  - ph0rque 18y ago
    I understand your concern, but there's a key difference between reddit and HN: one is general news the other--hacker news. So you should really be comparing reddit to CNN or other mainstream news organizations. In that sense, I think reddit is still a better source, even if it is very biased. My initial point was: we shouldn't call a particular story redditlike as a catch-all Bad Thing(tm).
  - Herring 18y ago
    Have you looked at the front page? I'm finding there's precious little I can use. The V8 is nice & certainly the python articles are decent, but there's really nothing else. I can get better from the programming/linux/python subreddit.
rms 18y ago
If it's that egregious, the guidelines say you should flag it rather than cry "Reddit" in the comments.
daniel-cussen 18y ago
I think this is high quality fearmongering. Different aspects of what this guy is talking about happen all the time, all over the world. Take Argentina in 2001, Chile in the early 70s, Bolivia in 2004 or so, and the Rodney King riots of 1992. I've spoke to a teacher who was in Chile during the coup and he told me never in his wildest dreams did he imagine soldiers ransacking university libraries and burning books on the street. Not in Chile! Now of course, there are fearmongers who aren't worth listening to, but that doesn't mean this guy's one of them. I think he's off on some points, but he tries to give an idea of what people can reasonably expect in the off chance there is a collapse. It's not the end of the world, but it's worth thinking about. Also, keep in mind that there are times when it makes a lot of sense to be afraid. A lot of people are dead because they weren't scared enough to emigrate when they still had the chance. Disaster scenarios are always shockers, perhaps because if people had the foresight to prepare for them they wouldn't be so disastrous.

Not Hacker News. This is low-quality fearmongering, more appropriate to Reddit or even Digg.

by Eliezer 18y ago

Not Hacker News. This is low-quality fearmongering, more appropriate to Reddit or even Digg.

I understand your sentiment, but let's not make Digg/Reddit a fearmongering catchphrase, like the word "communist" in the 1950's, or the word "terrorist" of today.

lionhearted 18y ago
Reddit scares the hell out of us, because Reddit used to be as good as Hacker News, and slowly... oh so slowly are lower quality submissions coming. And then slowly that'll prompt lesser caliber people to enjoy participating. Who'll submit more lesser caliber stories, and then HN is a wasteland full of "puns" and just outright goofyness. The average American isn't becoming a terrorist, or in any danger of terrorism. Hacker News will sink to the level of Reddit unless it's actively fought by the culture and leadership here.
- ph0rque 18y ago
  I understand your concern, but there's a key difference between reddit and HN: one is general news the other--hacker news. So you should really be comparing reddit to CNN or other mainstream news organizations. In that sense, I think reddit is still a better source, even if it is very biased. My initial point was: we shouldn't call a particular story redditlike as a catch-all Bad Thing(tm).
- Herring 18y ago
  Have you looked at the front page? I'm finding there's precious little I can use. The V8 is nice & certainly the python articles are decent, but there's really nothing else. I can get better from the programming/linux/python subreddit.

rms 18y ago

If it's that egregious, the guidelines say you should flag it rather than cry "Reddit" in the comments.

daniel-cussen 18y ago

I think this is high quality fearmongering. Different aspects of what this guy is talking about happen all the time, all over the world. Take Argentina in 2001, Chile in the early 70s, Bolivia in 2004 or so, and the Rodney King riots of 1992. I've spoke to a teacher who was in Chile during the coup and he told me never in his wildest dreams did he imagine soldiers ransacking university libraries and burning books on the street. Not in Chile! Now of course, there are fearmongers who aren't worth listening to, but that doesn't mean this guy's one of them. I think he's off on some points, but he tries to give an idea of what people can reasonably expect in the off chance there is a collapse. It's not the end of the world, but it's worth thinking about. Also, keep in mind that there are times when it makes a lot of sense to be afraid. A lot of people are dead because they weren't scared enough to emigrate when they still had the chance. Disaster scenarios are always shockers, perhaps because if people had the foresight to prepare for them they wouldn't be so disastrous.