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People are passionate. If a subject comes up which ignites the passion and touches them, they will get worked up about it. It’s not a unique feature of HN. Its

by rb2e 13y ago

People are passionate. If a subject comes up which ignites the passion and touches them, they will get worked up about it. It’s not a unique feature of HN. Its everywhere from Reddit to Facebook and YouTube comments. I’ve come to believe there is a lot of group think when it comes to the nature of comments. It’s a consensus of opinion and if you write something which goes against the tide of the consensus, you will be down voted especially when its around subjects people are passionate about it. I don’t have a problem with this per se but it can be annoying when you just wish to give an opposing view point. The fire, anger just touches some and the quiet ones shy away from posting for fear of down votes and those who just wish to give an opposing viewpoint, end up being censored by down votes and negative comments. To be honest, its seems Reddit has influenced a style of voting behavior. It’s a “hive mind” mentality. I personally believe if you stopped displaying the total Karma for each comment and on your profile, it would stop it being a point scoring mentality. Quality content and discussion, not gaining karma points should be the focus. Keep the number internal. Sometimes people say something popular just to get points of Karma but there is no benefit of having a Karma total displayed, it just turns into a phallus measuring completion ultimately. With the total Hidden from profiles and comments, you will see in time a different dynamic.

DanBC 13y ago
> If a subject comes up which ignites the passion and touches them, they will get worked up about it. It’s not a unique feature of HN. The unique feature of HN is that those topics are explicitly mentioned as things that should not be posted here. (http://ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html http://ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html) > A crap link is one that's only superficially interesting. Stories on HN don't have to be about hacking, because good hackers aren't only interested in hacking, but they do have to be deeply interesting. > What does "deeply interesting" mean? It means stuff that teaches you about the world. A story about a robbery, for example, would probably not be deeply interesting. But if this robbery was a sign of some bigger, underlying trend, then perhaps it could be. > The worst thing to post or upvote is something that's intensely but shallowly interesting. Gossip about famous people, funny or cute pictures or videos, partisan political articles, etc. If you let that sort of thing onto a news site, it will push aside the deeply interesting stuff, which tends to be quieter.

by rb2e 13y ago

DanBC 13y ago

> If a subject comes up which ignites the passion and touches them, they will get worked up about it. It’s not a unique feature of HN. The unique feature of HN is that those topics are explicitly mentioned as things that should not be posted here. (http://ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html http://ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html) > A crap link is one that's only superficially interesting. Stories on HN don't have to be about hacking, because good hackers aren't only interested in hacking, but they do have to be deeply interesting. > What does "deeply interesting" mean? It means stuff that teaches you about the world. A story about a robbery, for example, would probably not be deeply interesting. But if this robbery was a sign of some bigger, underlying trend, then perhaps it could be. > The worst thing to post or upvote is something that's intensely but shallowly interesting. Gossip about famous people, funny or cute pictures or videos, partisan political articles, etc. If you let that sort of thing onto a news site, it will push aside the deeply interesting stuff, which tends to be quieter.