4 ms·

As opposed to wonderful old HN, where about 95% of the front page is now AI, AI-related, or AI-generated.

matheusmoreira 3mo ago
There's significant overlap between the front pages of HN and Lobsters. Almost every time I try to submit the interesting articles I see on Lobsters here, I just get redirected to the existing discussion thread. The massive 1000+ comments/upvotes AI model release threads only show up on HN. Lobsters doesn't accept "business" articles like that. You're quite likely to find reactionary articles that are critical of AI on the front page though. There are several on the front page right now, in addition to the ones derisively tagged vibecoding.
- mmastrac 3mo ago
  There's a bot user that seems to crosspost every lobsters story here if it isn't already.
dang 3mo ago
That's a high exaggeration of course, but in the wonderful old HN tradition of perceiving the site as dominated by $badness, where everyone has their own perception of $badness. I'm not picking on you - it's practically a universal response, so much so that it must be driven by human hard-wiring. I've written about this so many times that for once I don't even know what to link to. Perhaps https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23308098 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23308098. Or maybe https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48427800 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48427800
- mh- 3mo ago
  (Apologies if you've commented on the following already, but I've not seen it.) The most concerning growing trend I see is comments that don't violate any guidelines, but are flagged to dead. I'm not talking about posters that are shadowbanned, but about comments that engaged thoughtfully on a topic but the rest of the thread disagreed emphatically with. I also don't even mean controversial takes on hot-button issues like vaccines. Just plain old bucking the trend in a thread about AI, transit, housing, layoffs, etc. I've been browsing with showdead on for as long as I can remember, and I'm seeing this accelerate. Comments from folks both you and I respect as high quality contributors here. I don't know what the solution is, but it discourages me (and I'm sure others) from having the kind of thought-provoking dialog I've gotten used to reading here for the last 15 years.
  - defrost 3mo ago
    > comments that don't violate any guidelines, but are flagged to dead. Vouch them and/or email to hn@ycombinator.com and say why you think they deserve to be [undead]. I see that a lot, some have been erroneously caught by the real time AI detect filter (which actually isn't too bad at slicing out the actual AI gen comments) others have gone hard against the zeitgeist. I've had the mods reinstate comments that I've thoroughly disagreed with but were making their best case for an opposing view - the threads are better with the best arguments forward for all sides of the elephant.
    - mh- 3mo ago
      I always vouch them but have never bothered to email. I figure the mods are seeing the same HN I am. But maybe I spend too much time here some evenings.. But yes, it's the "going against the zeitgeist" ones I have in mind. It feels very damaging to the community.
      - defrost 3mo ago
        > I figure the mods are seeing the same HN I am. It's a rare individual that reads all the comments .. my impression is they appreciate on point heads up emails about accidentally auto-binned comments and are happy to reverse flagging on good comments, even those that try and make the dark side of a case. Probably best not to try and flood the zone with anti/pro pet subject matter karen emails though. FWiW I semi frequently pick apart comments supporting cases I'm in favour of .. because I want to see better arguments being made and to discourage weak easily dismissed shallow support.
        mh- 3mo ago
        I agree with that, the ones I see flagged are frequently espousing viewpoints I disagree with. But they should be debated then, and flagging them denies everyone that opportunity.
        wizzwizz4 3mo ago
- archagon 3mo ago
  Fine. Looking at today's /active, it's more than half just based on the titles. (Likely 2/3 or more in practice, but I did not delve into each post.) And this does not feel particularly unusual.
grahamburger 3mo ago
And the remainder is people complaining about all the AI
IsTom 3mo ago
My memory is pretty spotty, but wasn't it similar with other hype-cycle topics like cryptocurrencies?
Cthulhu_ 3mo ago
This happens all the time, depending on the trend of the time. It was Rust for a while, then cryptocurrencies, machine learning, starups / unicorns / enormous funding rounds, etc. It'll pass when the next cool tech comes around.
ed_elliott_asc 3mo ago
It is understandable why so much content is ai-related, so many people are using it

There's significant overlap between the front pages of HN and Lobsters. Almost every time I try to submit the interesting articles I see on Lobsters here, I just get redirected to the existing discussion thread. The massive 1000+ comments/upvotes AI model release threads only show up on HN. Lobsters doesn't accept "business" articles like that. You're quite likely to find reactionary articles that are critical of AI on the front page though. There are several on the front page right now, in addition to the ones derisively tagged vibecoding.

mmastrac 3mo ago
There's a bot user that seems to crosspost every lobsters story here if it isn't already.

dang 3mo ago

That's a high exaggeration of course, but in the wonderful old HN tradition of perceiving the site as dominated by $badness, where everyone has their own perception of $badness. I'm not picking on you - it's practically a universal response, so much so that it must be driven by human hard-wiring. I've written about this so many times that for once I don't even know what to link to. Perhaps https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23308098 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23308098. Or maybe https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48427800 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48427800

mh- 3mo ago
(Apologies if you've commented on the following already, but I've not seen it.) The most concerning growing trend I see is comments that don't violate any guidelines, but are flagged to dead. I'm not talking about posters that are shadowbanned, but about comments that engaged thoughtfully on a topic but the rest of the thread disagreed emphatically with. I also don't even mean controversial takes on hot-button issues like vaccines. Just plain old bucking the trend in a thread about AI, transit, housing, layoffs, etc. I've been browsing with showdead on for as long as I can remember, and I'm seeing this accelerate. Comments from folks both you and I respect as high quality contributors here. I don't know what the solution is, but it discourages me (and I'm sure others) from having the kind of thought-provoking dialog I've gotten used to reading here for the last 15 years.
- defrost 3mo ago
  > comments that don't violate any guidelines, but are flagged to dead. Vouch them and/or email to hn@ycombinator.com and say why you think they deserve to be [undead]. I see that a lot, some have been erroneously caught by the real time AI detect filter (which actually isn't too bad at slicing out the actual AI gen comments) others have gone hard against the zeitgeist. I've had the mods reinstate comments that I've thoroughly disagreed with but were making their best case for an opposing view - the threads are better with the best arguments forward for all sides of the elephant.
  - mh- 3mo ago
    I always vouch them but have never bothered to email. I figure the mods are seeing the same HN I am. But maybe I spend too much time here some evenings.. But yes, it's the "going against the zeitgeist" ones I have in mind. It feels very damaging to the community.
    - defrost 3mo ago
      > I figure the mods are seeing the same HN I am. It's a rare individual that reads all the comments .. my impression is they appreciate on point heads up emails about accidentally auto-binned comments and are happy to reverse flagging on good comments, even those that try and make the dark side of a case. Probably best not to try and flood the zone with anti/pro pet subject matter karen emails though. FWiW I semi frequently pick apart comments supporting cases I'm in favour of .. because I want to see better arguments being made and to discourage weak easily dismissed shallow support.
      - mh- 3mo ago
        I agree with that, the ones I see flagged are frequently espousing viewpoints I disagree with. But they should be debated then, and flagging them denies everyone that opportunity.
        wizzwizz4 3mo ago
archagon 3mo ago
Fine. Looking at today's /active, it's more than half just based on the titles. (Likely 2/3 or more in practice, but I did not delve into each post.) And this does not feel particularly unusual.

grahamburger 3mo ago

And the remainder is people complaining about all the AI

IsTom 3mo ago

My memory is pretty spotty, but wasn't it similar with other hype-cycle topics like cryptocurrencies?

Cthulhu_ 3mo ago

This happens all the time, depending on the trend of the time. It was Rust for a while, then cryptocurrencies, machine learning, starups / unicorns / enormous funding rounds, etc. It'll pass when the next cool tech comes around.

ed_elliott_asc 3mo ago

It is understandable why so much content is ai-related, so many people are using it