5 ms·
Thanks Colin, really helpful and thoughtful response.
by mkrecny 13y ago
Thanks Colin, really helpful and thoughtful response.
- ColinWright 13y agoWell, yes and no. It was a little snarky in places, and I apologize for that. But it's given me pause for thought ... There are lots of things about how HN works that some people just don't know. The flame war penalty is one of them (and comparatively new), and the way flagging by ordinary people is another. There are more, many more. And the regular sort of FAQ just won't help. Even if people do read it the bit they want, and the bit that's relevant, could be buried among huge amounts of information that isn't relevant and they don't need. How can we surface such information in a useful way?
- mkrecny 13y agoNo problem - I didn't detect any snark, at least nowhere near what I'm used to getting on HN. "How can we surface such information in a useful way?" An unofficial HN FAQ or HN Wiki?
- ColinWright 13y agoThere's already an unofficial FAQ: http://www.jacquesmattheij.com/The+Unofficial+HN+FAQ http://www.jacquesmattheij.com/The+Unofficial+HN+FAQ Submitted and discussed here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1755533 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1755533 as well as in other places. Problem is, it's a "FAQ" and so it's a long list of specific questions that may or may not match the one you have in mind. It would be nice to have some kind of "soup" of information, and let the user home in on the bit required. I have an idea, but have neither the time to create it, nor the time to explain clearly, even assuming it's well-defined, workable, or even possible. FAQs need to move on. I can't see a wiki doing the trick either, it still has the information buried somewhere, with no obvious way to discover it.