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Hacker News is a news aggregator with a comments section. It certainly _feels_ categorically different from the algorithmically suggested endless scroll sites

devjab 2y ago
HN is a social media and was designed as such back when it was a smaller group of tech founders an angel investors sharing knowledge and opportunities. That it has since grown into what is essentially a mix of various Reddit STEM subsides or whatever they call them doesn’t exactly make it any less of a social media. I think one of the few things that has kept it at least a little safe aside from the massive work of Dang is that you need a certain level of “karma” before you can interact with a lot of the functions. Still, if you look at the content and the discussions today they are very different from what they were. I haven’t used my original account for several years because it was associated with my real personality and that became toxic with the increase of Reddit users who would actively stalk you. It doesn’t have doom scroll, but it does have doom update.
mplewis 2y ago
So what do you think Reddit is?
taeric 2y ago
My argument for what makes it different was in my post. It doesn't try to monetize the social activity. It is still algorithm driven. Even has many features people typically don't know. Just nothing driving money that I know of.
- Karrot_Kream 2y ago
  I don't think money changes any of the toxic behaviors that emerge from social media. Every social site I've been on, money or not, has featured: * Exaggerated high-intensity language intended to rant or show indignation * Low effort posting chasing some form of in-network metacurrency (upvotes, likes, replies, etc.) * Argumentative conversation threads that devolve because the participants just start shouting at each other. * Angry rumors that get amplified that have dubious or no basis in reality. The rumors generally prey on some pre-existing anger in the community. * General misinformation amplification because most folks on social don't have the bandwidth to verify facts. I've seen these on Usenet, on forums, and all of these things happen on Mastodon despite none of these networks having money tied into them. My feeling is that these behaviors happen on all text-based networks (and many media-based networks, but I think those are different) that humans socialize on. Moderation and filtration is probably the best way to clamp down on this behavior.
  - taeric 2y ago
    I think money adds to it. I don't think it is the only problem. Good moderation is vital. And it is not much, but the friction of having to hit next page slows some of the doom scrolling traps. Reputation style points are probably important in there? Makes it harder to flood with bots.
solid_fuel 2y ago
Hacker News is algorithmically curated. The main inputs are upvotes/downvotes, time posted, and (maybe) number of comments - instead of likes and time spent. But that's still algorithmically curated. I will grant that it is not infinite scroll. I think that speaks more to this site having a limited amount of content.

devjab 2y ago

HN is a social media and was designed as such back when it was a smaller group of tech founders an angel investors sharing knowledge and opportunities. That it has since grown into what is essentially a mix of various Reddit STEM subsides or whatever they call them doesn’t exactly make it any less of a social media. I think one of the few things that has kept it at least a little safe aside from the massive work of Dang is that you need a certain level of “karma” before you can interact with a lot of the functions. Still, if you look at the content and the discussions today they are very different from what they were. I haven’t used my original account for several years because it was associated with my real personality and that became toxic with the increase of Reddit users who would actively stalk you. It doesn’t have doom scroll, but it does have doom update.

mplewis 2y ago

So what do you think Reddit is?

taeric 2y ago

My argument for what makes it different was in my post. It doesn't try to monetize the social activity. It is still algorithm driven. Even has many features people typically don't know. Just nothing driving money that I know of.

Karrot_Kream 2y ago
I don't think money changes any of the toxic behaviors that emerge from social media. Every social site I've been on, money or not, has featured: * Exaggerated high-intensity language intended to rant or show indignation * Low effort posting chasing some form of in-network metacurrency (upvotes, likes, replies, etc.) * Argumentative conversation threads that devolve because the participants just start shouting at each other. * Angry rumors that get amplified that have dubious or no basis in reality. The rumors generally prey on some pre-existing anger in the community. * General misinformation amplification because most folks on social don't have the bandwidth to verify facts. I've seen these on Usenet, on forums, and all of these things happen on Mastodon despite none of these networks having money tied into them. My feeling is that these behaviors happen on all text-based networks (and many media-based networks, but I think those are different) that humans socialize on. Moderation and filtration is probably the best way to clamp down on this behavior.
- taeric 2y ago
  I think money adds to it. I don't think it is the only problem. Good moderation is vital. And it is not much, but the friction of having to hit next page slows some of the doom scrolling traps. Reputation style points are probably important in there? Makes it harder to flood with bots.

solid_fuel 2y ago

Hacker News is algorithmically curated. The main inputs are upvotes/downvotes, time posted, and (maybe) number of comments - instead of likes and time spent. But that's still algorithmically curated. I will grant that it is not infinite scroll. I think that speaks more to this site having a limited amount of content.