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There is a surprisingly vocal and toxic community that are fringe members on both sides of the aisle on HN. Hypothetically a good thing, but in action it tends

There is a surprisingly vocal and toxic community that are fringe members on both sides of the aisle on HN. Hypothetically a good thing, but in action it tends to derail most conversations. The whole COVID Pandemic, the 2020 election, (edit: and the shutdown of SlateStarCodex) definetly brought a lot of nuts out of the woodwork, and they never left. Edit: Here's an example below. It's one account that I've had significant arguments with before. In addition, it's also a "new" (post-2021) account, ime all of whom don't tend to provide the level of discourse comparable to earlier HN users (yes, I recognize the irony as a combative newish throwaway) There was a large increase in HN usewebase around that time when the SlateStarCodex forum shut down.

typeofhuman 2y ago
Who were "the nuts" during the COVID pandemic? The ones wishing unemployment, imprisonment, and death upon the people who didn't want to get the vaccine? The ones who insisted on forcing kids to were masks? Or the ones who silenced scientists who held differing view points from the mainstream narrative or challenged the efficacy of masks? Or the ones who were saying Ivermectin was for horses? Or the ones who said if you get the vaccine you won't catch or spread COVID?
- ben_w 2y ago
  > Ivermectin was for horses It's for worms. If you have a persistent infection of parasitic horses, it's probably not going to do much good.
  - _djo_ 2y ago
    What they're getting confused with is that as the craze hit and Ivermectin supplies ran low, some people were buying it from veterinary supply stores in formulations meant for horses. People were, quite rightly, saying that taking medicine formulations meant for horses was a bad idea, given the potentially non-human-friendly additional ingredients and the difficulty in keeping within safe dosages.
Tainnor 2y ago
> The whole COVID Pandemic and the 2020 election definetly brought a lot of nuts out of the woodwork, and they never left. HN was downright insufferable during the pandemic, it really made me think about leaving. Thankfully, nowadays the "bad" topics (mostly politically very polarised ones) tend to be fewer and can more easily be avoided.
- alephnerd 2y ago
  > it really made me think about leaving Same here, except it just made me combative on HN. I'm waiting for the day dang blocks my account for a violation AND deletes all my posts, because YC won't honor a CCPA request without proof of identity, and I'm a bit too close for comfort with the YC community so I do not want to furnish that to him or YC. If there was a way to filter accounts created after 2021, or with a polarity score, I'd be happy staying on here, but at this point it's a form of social media addiction due to the dopamine rush of the occasionally level headed conversation and debate.
  - fragmede 2y ago
    fwiw, there's https://news.ycombinator.com/classic https://news.ycombinator.com/classic which is the "Frontpage as voted by ancient accounts", so dang has some notion of that.
    - alephnerd 2y ago
      I forgot about that! Thanks for the reminder. I'll probably use that now (and change my dnsconfig to automatically change to that).
ajfhag 2y ago
Not fringe at all. Watch the all-in podcast on YouTube, who just had Mearsheimer and Jeffrey Sachs as guests, with a large and enthusiastic live audience. Speaking of which, Calacanis just had Covid. Are you still wearing a mask? If not, why not? Covid is still present but Biden declared it over in March 2022 and then it was suddenly officially over for all followers.
- alephnerd 2y ago
  You created an account just to argue with me? Use your real account.
  - ben_w 2y ago
    I sympathise, having had someone hunt down my (now old) Wordpress blog and post an angry and barely coherent rant there due to something pro-mask that I wrote here: https://benwheatley.github.io/blog/2021/06/14-21.59.37.html https://benwheatley.github.io/blog/2021/06/14-21.59.37.html And yes, I still wear masks on public transport. Except when I clear my pockets and forget to replace them.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]

typeofhuman 2y ago

Who were "the nuts" during the COVID pandemic? The ones wishing unemployment, imprisonment, and death upon the people who didn't want to get the vaccine? The ones who insisted on forcing kids to were masks? Or the ones who silenced scientists who held differing view points from the mainstream narrative or challenged the efficacy of masks? Or the ones who were saying Ivermectin was for horses? Or the ones who said if you get the vaccine you won't catch or spread COVID?

ben_w 2y ago
> Ivermectin was for horses It's for worms. If you have a persistent infection of parasitic horses, it's probably not going to do much good.
- _djo_ 2y ago
  What they're getting confused with is that as the craze hit and Ivermectin supplies ran low, some people were buying it from veterinary supply stores in formulations meant for horses. People were, quite rightly, saying that taking medicine formulations meant for horses was a bad idea, given the potentially non-human-friendly additional ingredients and the difficulty in keeping within safe dosages.

Tainnor 2y ago

> The whole COVID Pandemic and the 2020 election definetly brought a lot of nuts out of the woodwork, and they never left. HN was downright insufferable during the pandemic, it really made me think about leaving. Thankfully, nowadays the "bad" topics (mostly politically very polarised ones) tend to be fewer and can more easily be avoided.

alephnerd 2y ago
> it really made me think about leaving Same here, except it just made me combative on HN. I'm waiting for the day dang blocks my account for a violation AND deletes all my posts, because YC won't honor a CCPA request without proof of identity, and I'm a bit too close for comfort with the YC community so I do not want to furnish that to him or YC. If there was a way to filter accounts created after 2021, or with a polarity score, I'd be happy staying on here, but at this point it's a form of social media addiction due to the dopamine rush of the occasionally level headed conversation and debate.
- fragmede 2y ago
  fwiw, there's https://news.ycombinator.com/classic https://news.ycombinator.com/classic which is the "Frontpage as voted by ancient accounts", so dang has some notion of that.
  - alephnerd 2y ago
    I forgot about that! Thanks for the reminder. I'll probably use that now (and change my dnsconfig to automatically change to that).

ajfhag 2y ago

Not fringe at all. Watch the all-in podcast on YouTube, who just had Mearsheimer and Jeffrey Sachs as guests, with a large and enthusiastic live audience. Speaking of which, Calacanis just had Covid. Are you still wearing a mask? If not, why not? Covid is still present but Biden declared it over in March 2022 and then it was suddenly officially over for all followers.

alephnerd 2y ago
You created an account just to argue with me? Use your real account.
- ben_w 2y ago
  I sympathise, having had someone hunt down my (now old) Wordpress blog and post an angry and barely coherent rant there due to something pro-mask that I wrote here: https://benwheatley.github.io/blog/2021/06/14-21.59.37.html https://benwheatley.github.io/blog/2021/06/14-21.59.37.html And yes, I still wear masks on public transport. Except when I clear my pockets and forget to replace them.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]