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I think the addition of "comments" on webpage is more of a cruse than a blessing.

by ksec 2y ago

victorstanciu 2y ago
It is! For the latest incarnation of my blog I forwent comments in favor of a simple mailto: link at the bottom of each post which prefills the email subject with the post's title. I've had significantly fewer interactions with readers this way, but they've also been much more meaningful and insightful. There is a performative nature to public forums of any kind--and HN is not immune to this--that stifles any genuine discussion, or drowns it in a sea of attention-seekers. Yes, I am aware of the hypocritical irony of complaining about online comments in an online comment.
- famahar 2y ago
  This is a simple and great idea. I do something similar with my website. My newsletter is just a list of emails I have in a .txt file. I email to everyone when I write a blog post and we chat through email exchanges about it. The interactions feel more in-depth, and as you say, less performative as the exchange is just between us. Now I'm thinking of adding an email link at the end of every blog post with the blog title.
  - a-french-anon 2y ago
    Personally, I wouldn't consider a blog without a newsfeed usable, newsletters are the wrong tool IMO (select push vs pull available to everyone without maintenance). (In Ballmer's voice) RSS! RSS! RSS!
- benoliver999 2y ago
  That's exactly what I do and it works great.
samename 2y ago
Isn’t Hacker News a form of a comment section?
- Etheryte 2y ago
  It is, but HN has the saving grace that dang is an angel and Y Combinator pays him to do the chores every day.
  - bluebarbet 2y ago
    That's important, and what gives it the edge over peers, but IMO it's more than that. It's mainly that this is a specialized forum (so its community already has something in common beyond the lowest common denominator of politics) and it's dedicated to highly technical subjects (so contributors here tend to be more literalist and, let's say, spectrum-tending, which really helps with text communication). That's how I explain it.
    - vacuity 2y ago
      As much as I like HN, I'm not sure the average discussion is all that, and for all its supposed virtues I don't see them in practice usually. But when there's a good thread, it's really good. I think it's worth navigating the churn for those. In real time or as an archive, there's lots of gold to be found.
    - rchaud 2y ago
      But without moderation, there is decay over time. It will just happen more slowly in a purposeful forum, but it will happen. Before HN, there was Slashdot after all.
      - bluebarbet 2y ago
        Yes, I agree. That's why I say it has the edge over its peers, i.e. Slashdot. But AFAIK Slashdot is still operating just fine. It's probably helped by its sophisticated distributed-moderation system, but surely mainly because it's the same kind of users as here.
Cthulhu_ 2y ago
It is nowadays, not just because of spam (there's both hosted and 3rd party solutions for that) but non-spam but unwanted / vile comments. Internet anonymity has always brought out the worst in people.

I think the addition of "comments" on webpage is more of a cruse than a blessing.

by ksec 2y ago

I think the addition of "comments" on webpage is more of a cruse than a blessing.

It is! For the latest incarnation of my blog I forwent comments in favor of a simple mailto: link at the bottom of each post which prefills the email subject with the post's title. I've had significantly fewer interactions with readers this way, but they've also been much more meaningful and insightful. There is a performative nature to public forums of any kind--and HN is not immune to this--that stifles any genuine discussion, or drowns it in a sea of attention-seekers. Yes, I am aware of the hypocritical irony of complaining about online comments in an online comment.

famahar 2y ago
This is a simple and great idea. I do something similar with my website. My newsletter is just a list of emails I have in a .txt file. I email to everyone when I write a blog post and we chat through email exchanges about it. The interactions feel more in-depth, and as you say, less performative as the exchange is just between us. Now I'm thinking of adding an email link at the end of every blog post with the blog title.
- a-french-anon 2y ago
  Personally, I wouldn't consider a blog without a newsfeed usable, newsletters are the wrong tool IMO (select push vs pull available to everyone without maintenance). (In Ballmer's voice) RSS! RSS! RSS!
benoliver999 2y ago
That's exactly what I do and it works great.

samename 2y ago

Isn’t Hacker News a form of a comment section?

Etheryte 2y ago
It is, but HN has the saving grace that dang is an angel and Y Combinator pays him to do the chores every day.
- bluebarbet 2y ago
  That's important, and what gives it the edge over peers, but IMO it's more than that. It's mainly that this is a specialized forum (so its community already has something in common beyond the lowest common denominator of politics) and it's dedicated to highly technical subjects (so contributors here tend to be more literalist and, let's say, spectrum-tending, which really helps with text communication). That's how I explain it.
  - vacuity 2y ago
    As much as I like HN, I'm not sure the average discussion is all that, and for all its supposed virtues I don't see them in practice usually. But when there's a good thread, it's really good. I think it's worth navigating the churn for those. In real time or as an archive, there's lots of gold to be found.
  - rchaud 2y ago
    But without moderation, there is decay over time. It will just happen more slowly in a purposeful forum, but it will happen. Before HN, there was Slashdot after all.
    - bluebarbet 2y ago
      Yes, I agree. That's why I say it has the edge over its peers, i.e. Slashdot. But AFAIK Slashdot is still operating just fine. It's probably helped by its sophisticated distributed-moderation system, but surely mainly because it's the same kind of users as here.

Cthulhu_ 2y ago

It is nowadays, not just because of spam (there's both hosted and 3rd party solutions for that) but non-spam but unwanted / vile comments. Internet anonymity has always brought out the worst in people.