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But we're hoping that, as in past influxes, the new arrivals will with some prodding from the existing inhabitants learn the local customs. I'm absolutely smit
by robg 18y ago
But we're hoping that, as in past influxes, the new arrivals will with some prodding from the existing inhabitants learn the local customs.
I'm absolutely smitten with this form of social hacking. To me, this seems to be the most revolutionary part of the site. That controlling "free" speech is not an impediment to open speech and that community members can be taught, through participation, to behave according to some simple constraints.
My apologies if this is an inane realization. It just doesn't seem to be said often enough in on-line communities. Lassez faire doesn't work and it's possible to also encourage the worst, trollish, impulses. This is the first clearly positive example I've seen. If there are others please let me know!
- bd 18y agoMetaFilter also works this way. Self-policing is a big part of the community [1][2]. There is a even a whole section of the site devoted to discussing internal stuff (called appropriately MetaTalk [3]). Sometimes I miss something like this on HN - a separate space for meta stuff. BTW MetaFilter is the only other online community I'm aware of that has quality on the level of HN (despite being even larger - over 56,000 registered people). [1] http://mssv.net/wiki.cgi?SelfPolicing http://mssv.net/wiki.cgi?SelfPolicing [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MetaFilter#Moderation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MetaFilter#Moderation [3] http://metatalk.metafilter.com http://metatalk.metafilter.com
- jballanc 18y agoActually, I kind of like that HN is self-meta (i.e. the ability to ask questions as well as post links). There were a few good discussions about how to make a good post a while back: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=419539 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=419539
- DTrejo 18y agoI think his point was that meta does not have its own section, and that because of this some meta comments are voted down (despite validity, good points, etc).
- maximilian 18y agoMetafilter seems pretty cool, but it could desperately use some formatting to help its readability. Basically copy the HN/reddit styling to differentiate posts and comments from each other.
- bonaldi 18y agoMost Metafilter commenters would strongly disagree, and do when the subject arises. Threading is especially frowned upon.
- wheels 18y ago> open speech and that community members can be taught, through participation, to behave according to some simple constraints That's the bread and butter of most open source communities, and part of why they tend to work: open source, in my opinion, is primarily a social phenomenon and the forces for social cohesion, whether in terms of coding standards or ideologies quickly produces communities that work well together online.
- jhancock 18y agoyeah, group think ROCKS!! nah, I know what you mean ;), it is mostly good for now.