3 ms·

Most of the new comments on any given post are people that didn't read the linked content and complain about stuff addressed in the second paragraph. Almost ev

by wruza 2y ago

Most of the new comments on any given post are people that didn't read the linked content and complain about stuff addressed in the second paragraph. Almost everyone does that since I’m here and that is at least for 10 years. We even have a thread about it from time to time. HN is absolutely fine and didn’t change that much cause it disincentivizes attention seeking, at least cheap one. They may slip in from time to time but mostly get a cold shower from users and mods. Also this forum is much more tricky than it seems, from a technical standpoint.

Karrot_Kream 2y ago
Yes but that's okay at a smaller scale where all the users are more aligned and there's less karma to get. HN now is big enough that gaming the karma system by commenting quickly with rage or nostalgia bait is a winning strategy and for most general appeal topics on the site these days that's exactly what happens.
- wruza 2y ago
  Part of that may be you learned to detect these behaviors and not always correctly. Another part may be old commenters getting nostalgic and/or angry (a thing in life). Did my homework though and checked top ten threads and their first comments where all these karma people should be. All top comments are pretty HN spirited. One of these may be called nostalgic but has a specific request in it and doesn’t look like a bait. Part of that may be my perception problem.
  - Karrot_Kream 2y ago
    Yeah these things are all pretty relative of the reader's perspective. FWIW I mean this specifically for the less technical threads. Technical threads still seem to rank contributions appropriately. But the moment you touch on something more cultural, like the long term computer thread, or the Mr Beast thread from the other day, you get a lot of pretty low signal comments that get a lot of karma. I do find that the very top of the comments page stays okay but the moment you get past the very top you get lots of low effort comments.

by wruza 2y ago

Karrot_Kream 2y ago

Yes but that's okay at a smaller scale where all the users are more aligned and there's less karma to get. HN now is big enough that gaming the karma system by commenting quickly with rage or nostalgia bait is a winning strategy and for most general appeal topics on the site these days that's exactly what happens.

wruza 2y ago
Part of that may be you learned to detect these behaviors and not always correctly. Another part may be old commenters getting nostalgic and/or angry (a thing in life). Did my homework though and checked top ten threads and their first comments where all these karma people should be. All top comments are pretty HN spirited. One of these may be called nostalgic but has a specific request in it and doesn’t look like a bait. Part of that may be my perception problem.
- Karrot_Kream 2y ago
  Yeah these things are all pretty relative of the reader's perspective. FWIW I mean this specifically for the less technical threads. Technical threads still seem to rank contributions appropriately. But the moment you touch on something more cultural, like the long term computer thread, or the Mr Beast thread from the other day, you get a lot of pretty low signal comments that get a lot of karma. I do find that the very top of the comments page stays okay but the moment you get past the very top you get lots of low effort comments.