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Personally, I've been astounded at the frequency of personal attacks and snotty responses. The signal to noise on HN is something like 1:100. It's sad. I don

by nirvana 14y ago

Personally, I've been astounded at the frequency of personal attacks and snotty responses. The signal to noise on HN is something like 1:100. It's sad. I don't comment here anymore simply because there is no point when you never get comments from people who even bothered to read what you wrote or will honestly disagree. Worse there are people who go out on personal vendettas, engage in nothing more than harassment and a form of stalking, and those people are not punished, but dare to post scientific information that disagrees with global warming and you get hellbanned. That's the cause- the moderation is done by unaccountable people who moderate for political correctness at least as much for politeness. Certainly people who cant' muster anything more than personal attacks are allowed to get away with it, while those being attacked are often censored. The people who are the cause of the problem like the situation because their egos are getting stroked, so they see no need to change it. I've solved it for myself-- I just never bother to read the comments these days (for many months at a time.) If there's nothing intelligent said on hacker news comments, why bother with them?

chris_wot 14y ago
There's plenty of comments that are enlightening... Is it possible that some of your own comments were a little too blunt or were taken the wrong way because of how they were phrased? I'm disappointed though, I found myself disagreeing with you more than I agree, but you do have an interesting perspective on things. I'd just ignore those who are trolling you.
- _Simon 14y ago
  Long time reader, second time poster here. I'd agree that that the previous poster is quite blunt, however his biggest crime seems to be being pro Apple, with a negative view of Google, which is no good reason to lambast the chap. To be honest, a lot of the pettiness here is as a result of percieved allegiances to a brand or an ideology. Some of the faux moral outrage exhibited here is amusing and distressing in equal measure.
- DanBC 14y ago
  nirvana has some opinions around Apple which are seen by some as pure trolling. (Not saying they actually are trolling or should be downvoted or anything else.) nirvana mentions global warming. While it'd be nice if HN could have calm discussions about science it's obvious that HN cannot have calm discussions about a variety of hot-button topics. This is even mentioned in the guidelines which urge against topics which are shallowly but intensely interesting. These are topics where people have already decided their position and they're not going to go into the discussion with an open mind. They're also topics where people tend to want to teach others the "Truth" that is being suppressed. This unfortunate combination means that nirvana gets heavily downvoted on some comments. It is a shame - dissenting opinions (if correctly formed) can be very useful.
  - iamtherockstar 14y ago
    > it's obvious that HN cannot have calm discussions about a variety of hot-button topics I have a need for my personal conversations with people to be enriching and helpful, and so this makes me super sad. It's a large reason why I don't often comment on things in Hacker News.
hazov 14y ago
Some days ago a guy pointed right to you why you have so much problems in HN, emotionally loaded text (the "political correctness" is here, you still use the same method apparently), according to him he did the same a year before, but you still insist the problem is with others. Apparently by labeling the mods someone who moderate you, you again chose to ignore him. If you authorize I'll find the post and put the thread link here, if not, I'll not be the one stalking you. EDIT: wrote in a hurry including some lacking words.

by nirvana 14y ago

chris_wot 14y ago

There's plenty of comments that are enlightening... Is it possible that some of your own comments were a little too blunt or were taken the wrong way because of how they were phrased? I'm disappointed though, I found myself disagreeing with you more than I agree, but you do have an interesting perspective on things. I'd just ignore those who are trolling you.

_Simon 14y ago
Long time reader, second time poster here. I'd agree that that the previous poster is quite blunt, however his biggest crime seems to be being pro Apple, with a negative view of Google, which is no good reason to lambast the chap. To be honest, a lot of the pettiness here is as a result of percieved allegiances to a brand or an ideology. Some of the faux moral outrage exhibited here is amusing and distressing in equal measure.
DanBC 14y ago
nirvana has some opinions around Apple which are seen by some as pure trolling. (Not saying they actually are trolling or should be downvoted or anything else.) nirvana mentions global warming. While it'd be nice if HN could have calm discussions about science it's obvious that HN cannot have calm discussions about a variety of hot-button topics. This is even mentioned in the guidelines which urge against topics which are shallowly but intensely interesting. These are topics where people have already decided their position and they're not going to go into the discussion with an open mind. They're also topics where people tend to want to teach others the "Truth" that is being suppressed. This unfortunate combination means that nirvana gets heavily downvoted on some comments. It is a shame - dissenting opinions (if correctly formed) can be very useful.
- iamtherockstar 14y ago
  > it's obvious that HN cannot have calm discussions about a variety of hot-button topics I have a need for my personal conversations with people to be enriching and helpful, and so this makes me super sad. It's a large reason why I don't often comment on things in Hacker News.

hazov 14y ago

Some days ago a guy pointed right to you why you have so much problems in HN, emotionally loaded text (the "political correctness" is here, you still use the same method apparently), according to him he did the same a year before, but you still insist the problem is with others. Apparently by labeling the mods someone who moderate you, you again chose to ignore him. If you authorize I'll find the post and put the thread link here, if not, I'll not be the one stalking you. EDIT: wrote in a hurry including some lacking words.