4 ms·

There are lots of important stories in the world, and each has its place depending on the news stream.

pg 18y ago
Sometimes stories become big enough that they spill out of their ordinary stream. For example, there is a stream of news about Ebola fever that under normal circumstances is read mainly by infectious disease specialists. But if there is a really big Ebola outbreak somewhere, that starts to be relevant to everyone. What's happening in Gaza now seems pretty serious.
- davidw 18y ago
  > What's happening in Gaza now seems pretty serious. Serious things have been happening in that part of the world for more than 2000 years, and will continue to happen long after we're all dead. I think they are given ample coverage on other sites, and there are plenty of other forums to discuss them on the internet. Or, put another way, say this site had some hawkish Israeli users and some Hamas-oriented Palistinians. Wouldn't it be nice if here, they could just stick to peacefully discussing the things this site is about, rather than getting sucked into an endless, fruitless discussion, which is what 99% of discussions about that area are?
  - azharcs 18y ago
    Serious things have been happening in that part of the world for more than 2000 years, and will continue to happen long after we're all dead. Your argument seems like "This is not my problem, Why do i care" kind of thing. It is very important for smart people to bring out a solution to this serious conflict which has continued for almost 60 years. We can clearly write it off as an conflict which cannot be solved and it will continue forever. I am pretty much sure there is a solution to this conflict and it has to come from a bunch of smart people who want to change world in a good way, HN community looks like that group. I think they are given ample coverage on other sites, and there are plenty of other forums to discuss them on the internet. There are tons of sites to discuss Ruby, Python, Erlang etc and there are bunch of other sites to discuss Google, Yahoo or the current Economic Situation. Why should that news even be discussed here? The answer is in HN, we get a different and rational perspective to certain news stories unlike other places. I would pretty much like to say, any news which is serious and impacts lot of people or a region should be discussed here for finding peaceful solutions. 'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing' - Edmund Burke
    - palish 18y ago
      Okay guys, listen up. I think azharcs is on to something. SwellJoe, you're in charge of making contact with the Palestinian leadership. unalone, you'll be writing excellent-yet-slightly-sensational articles that will shake the belief system of the zealots perpetuating this conflict. stcredzero's job is to apply Buddhist techniques to invoke a general aura of well-being and connectedness. pg, you're going to set up an Arc-powered community for Israelis and Palestinians to have constructive dialogs about the pros and cons of calling a truce. And if you rename Arc to Ark then we can use the tag line "drowning hate, one comment at a time". By our powers combined, we can end this conflict once and for all! Let's do it, people!
      - azharcs 18y ago
        ouch!!! When i said we can bring a solution, I certainly didn't keep in mind Power Rangers or Captain Planet. It was more like, why be a pessimist, when you can be optimist about things around which are not right.
        davidw 18y ago
        Yes, but you didn't say "be an optimist" - you argued that I don't care, because I don't want to discuss it on this site, which is a bad argument. There are plenty of issues that I care deeply about for which this site is not an appropriate forum. > 'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing' - Edmund Burke Discussing the issue on internet forums is so close to "doing nothing" as to be virtually indistinguishable.
        pg 18y ago
        Discussing the issue on internet forums is so close to "doing nothing" as to be virtually indistinguishable. I don't think that's true. People are very much influenced by things other people say, and there is nothing magic about the web that makes this stop working online. I've often been influenced by things I read in forums. And in this specific case, you're particularly mistaken, because the situation is so much influenced by public opinion. If everyone in the world was talking now about what's happening in Gaza, the Israelis would have to stop.
  - aswanson 18y ago
    I share your fears on the flame war types this can attract, but we weathered a few hundred submissions on economics, libertarianism, etc ok, so maybe this area can be explored with rational, cogent dialogue.
- fauigerzigerk 18y ago
  I agree that the Gaza events are very serious and deserve to spill out, but this article isn't particularly good. It's a rather low quality mainstream media article, quoting very biased sources without any mention about who these people are. It's not something that any specialist would read under normal circumstances.
chaostheory 18y ago
Well this story does touch upon a potential chemical being used and its effects - if you're looking for a yc news slant
- swombat 18y ago
  Sweet, let's start discussing whether white phosphorous could be a good basis for an online start-up. Or not.
  - chaostheory 18y ago
    not everything on yc is just startup/business centric; that ended a while back. That's why its named changed from startup news into hacker news (I still remember complaining to pg about the name change - though now I've changed my mind) What's wrong with discussing a chemical? We've been doing that a long time already on hacker news one more edit: another thing that hacker news brings is a dif perspective on an issue (as opposed to just flame wars like on other sites - I guess I am an idealist at heart) have you ever seen war/military geekery? http://exiledonline.com/the-day-americas-empire-died/ http://exiledonline.com/the-day-americas-empire-died/ (I'd post the Gaza article but it has some graphic images - though the content is very balanced / impartial - imo)

pg 18y ago

Sometimes stories become big enough that they spill out of their ordinary stream. For example, there is a stream of news about Ebola fever that under normal circumstances is read mainly by infectious disease specialists. But if there is a really big Ebola outbreak somewhere, that starts to be relevant to everyone. What's happening in Gaza now seems pretty serious.

davidw 18y ago
> What's happening in Gaza now seems pretty serious. Serious things have been happening in that part of the world for more than 2000 years, and will continue to happen long after we're all dead. I think they are given ample coverage on other sites, and there are plenty of other forums to discuss them on the internet. Or, put another way, say this site had some hawkish Israeli users and some Hamas-oriented Palistinians. Wouldn't it be nice if here, they could just stick to peacefully discussing the things this site is about, rather than getting sucked into an endless, fruitless discussion, which is what 99% of discussions about that area are?
- azharcs 18y ago
  Serious things have been happening in that part of the world for more than 2000 years, and will continue to happen long after we're all dead. Your argument seems like "This is not my problem, Why do i care" kind of thing. It is very important for smart people to bring out a solution to this serious conflict which has continued for almost 60 years. We can clearly write it off as an conflict which cannot be solved and it will continue forever. I am pretty much sure there is a solution to this conflict and it has to come from a bunch of smart people who want to change world in a good way, HN community looks like that group. I think they are given ample coverage on other sites, and there are plenty of other forums to discuss them on the internet. There are tons of sites to discuss Ruby, Python, Erlang etc and there are bunch of other sites to discuss Google, Yahoo or the current Economic Situation. Why should that news even be discussed here? The answer is in HN, we get a different and rational perspective to certain news stories unlike other places. I would pretty much like to say, any news which is serious and impacts lot of people or a region should be discussed here for finding peaceful solutions. 'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing' - Edmund Burke
  - palish 18y ago
    Okay guys, listen up. I think azharcs is on to something. SwellJoe, you're in charge of making contact with the Palestinian leadership. unalone, you'll be writing excellent-yet-slightly-sensational articles that will shake the belief system of the zealots perpetuating this conflict. stcredzero's job is to apply Buddhist techniques to invoke a general aura of well-being and connectedness. pg, you're going to set up an Arc-powered community for Israelis and Palestinians to have constructive dialogs about the pros and cons of calling a truce. And if you rename Arc to Ark then we can use the tag line "drowning hate, one comment at a time". By our powers combined, we can end this conflict once and for all! Let's do it, people!
    - azharcs 18y ago
      ouch!!! When i said we can bring a solution, I certainly didn't keep in mind Power Rangers or Captain Planet. It was more like, why be a pessimist, when you can be optimist about things around which are not right.
      - davidw 18y ago
        Yes, but you didn't say "be an optimist" - you argued that I don't care, because I don't want to discuss it on this site, which is a bad argument. There are plenty of issues that I care deeply about for which this site is not an appropriate forum. > 'All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing' - Edmund Burke Discussing the issue on internet forums is so close to "doing nothing" as to be virtually indistinguishable.
        pg 18y ago
        Discussing the issue on internet forums is so close to "doing nothing" as to be virtually indistinguishable. I don't think that's true. People are very much influenced by things other people say, and there is nothing magic about the web that makes this stop working online. I've often been influenced by things I read in forums. And in this specific case, you're particularly mistaken, because the situation is so much influenced by public opinion. If everyone in the world was talking now about what's happening in Gaza, the Israelis would have to stop.
- aswanson 18y ago
  I share your fears on the flame war types this can attract, but we weathered a few hundred submissions on economics, libertarianism, etc ok, so maybe this area can be explored with rational, cogent dialogue.
fauigerzigerk 18y ago
I agree that the Gaza events are very serious and deserve to spill out, but this article isn't particularly good. It's a rather low quality mainstream media article, quoting very biased sources without any mention about who these people are. It's not something that any specialist would read under normal circumstances.

chaostheory 18y ago

Well this story does touch upon a potential chemical being used and its effects - if you're looking for a yc news slant

swombat 18y ago
Sweet, let's start discussing whether white phosphorous could be a good basis for an online start-up. Or not.
- chaostheory 18y ago
  not everything on yc is just startup/business centric; that ended a while back. That's why its named changed from startup news into hacker news (I still remember complaining to pg about the name change - though now I've changed my mind) What's wrong with discussing a chemical? We've been doing that a long time already on hacker news one more edit: another thing that hacker news brings is a dif perspective on an issue (as opposed to just flame wars like on other sites - I guess I am an idealist at heart) have you ever seen war/military geekery? http://exiledonline.com/the-day-americas-empire-died/ http://exiledonline.com/the-day-americas-empire-died/ (I'd post the Gaza article but it has some graphic images - though the content is very balanced / impartial - imo)