4 ms·
Ask HN: What's with the low-quality comments?
I'm a long-time Reddit user, trying to find better alternatives for things like news and communities related to my interests.
Among the long list of reasons to leave Reddit behind is the comment quality. It's often difficult to find thoughtful and informative comments amongst all the jokes, sarcasm, memes, "Reddit-isms" (e.g. "take my upvote!"), and so on.
I don't expect much more out of Reddit, especially considering a significant portion of the comments are left by bots, but it seems as though comments like these are becoming increasingly common here on HN. Are comment bots common here as well? I don't understand what's happening, but it seems a bit concerning.
Just putting my thoughts out there, I guess.
- pavel_lishin 2y ago> it seems as though comments like these are becoming increasingly common here on HN. My guess is Reddit refugees coming here. Just another day in the Eternal September of the internet.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- sksxihve 2y agoI've been a long time lurker on HN, since probably 2008, and this has been a common complaint so much so that it's in the site guidelines. > Please don't post comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit. It's a semi-noob illusion, as old as the hills.
- dang 2y ago> a semi-noob illusion, as old as the hills Nine words, nine links! (from https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13852 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13852 (April 2007) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=60767 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=60767 (Sept 2007) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=66057 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=66057 (Oct 2007) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=253657 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=253657 (July 2008) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=289254 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=289254 (Aug 2008) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=582513 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=582513 (April 2009) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=633099 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=633099 (May 2009) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=926703 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=926703 (Nov 2009) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1524184 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1524184 (July 2010) That last comment (from July 2010) has links to a bunch more, including this edw519 classic: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=926644 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=926644 (Nov 2009)
- JohnFen 2y agoHN readers are pretty good about downvoting low-quality comments (including ones that I've made). You can help by doing the same.
- ThrowawayR2 2y agoI personally agree that there seem more low quality comments and also submissions but, as a sibling poster points out, we aren't permitted to discuss it because of the guidelines. There's nothing really to be done about it other than downvoting or flagging until the site moderators decide otherwise.
- solardev 2y agoPurely anecdotal, but to me there was a pretty noticeable downturn in comment quality over the last 1.5 - 2 years, when the post-covid-bubble layoffs and RTO stuff started. Maybe commenters who were previously able to waste time on their jobs posting here no longer could?