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How is this even remotely related to Hacker News? I guess if I really wanted to discuss this, I will rather go to /r/worldnews.

anigbrowl 13y ago
Agreed. Historically interesting but not really realevant.
acuozzo 13y ago
A HackerNews user submitted it and other HackerNews users up-voted it. It's that simple.
- davidw 13y ago
  So if a bunch of people vote for, say: http://inrng.com/2013/08/on-forecasting/ http://inrng.com/2013/08/on-forecasting/ That's cool? How about Justin Bieber articles, if, say, a bunch of teenage girls sign up? To the downvoters: there is absolutely nothing preventing this from happening outside of the moderators. Anyone can sign up for an account here.
  - Karunamon 13y ago
    Well, except the fact that your hypothetical scenario isn't going to happen. The existing userbase of the site will flag such crap down. On top of that, the 'shadow' moderation behind the scenes that makes posts go dead, nary any feedback or tranparency. I must grudgingly admit it would help in such a case. Try again with a less reductio-ad-absudum scenario?
    - davidw 13y ago
      The first link is not crap at all, it's very interesting. > Try again with a less reductio-ad-absudum scenario? How about Chomsky material, and various articles about geopolitics ala reddit?
      - Karunamon 13y ago
        I was more referring to the Bieber nonsense. Geopolitics as they relate to technology, though, would seem to be welcome here.
  - acuozzo 13y ago
    > That's cool? Yes. > How about Justin Bieber articles, if, say, a bunch of teenage girls sign up? Yes.
    - davidw 13y ago
      Actually it's not, like Karunamon says, stuff that is that off-topic will be ruthlessly killed by the moderators, thankfully.
gruseom 13y ago
It's very related! From the HN guidelines: On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. The release of major new documents about a major historical event that still has major side effects today easily clears that bar. What's not related are comments like "how is this even remotely related": Please don't submit comments complaining that a submission is inappropriate for the site. If you think something is spam or offtopic, flag it by going to its page and clicking on the "flag" link. http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- uwotm8920 13y ago
  So by that logic, if you got enough people from reddit to come here and upvote political stories and conspiracy theories, it would de facto be Hacker News. Well good thing that's not happening.
  - sophacles 13y ago
    You're account is not even a day old. You should read the guidelines about how when you're new here you probably shouldn't be saying this site is turning into reddit. Also its relevant because it contextualizes the whole us intelligence apparatus -a topic very relevant given the impact on internet business and traffic.
    - uwotm8920 13y ago
      This is a throw away. My main account is about 2 years younger than yours. How can you not see that the rhetoric here has declined drastically over the past year? Do you disagree that there are significantly more political/non-technical stories reaching the front page? Even if you agree with the gist arguments being made, disregard your personal politics and beliefs in coming to an assessment.
      - sophacles 13y ago
yread 13y ago
If you don't have anything to say, don't comment, don't upvote and flag (when you get enough karma...)
tome 13y ago
Wow, you're getting downvoted for this? Hacker News really has changed. Goodbye Hacker News. I learned a lot from you, but it's time to go our separate ways.
- davidw 13y ago
  The problem is where to go. There are still a lot of good stories here, so I'm not ready to just take my toys and leave, so to speak, but I'm actively looking for alternatives.
  - uwotm8920 13y ago
    Lobsters seems like the best alternative but it doesn't appear to be very active. I'm in the same boat as you.
- iaskwhy 13y ago
  C'mon, it's on the guidelines: "Please don't submit comments complaining that a submission is inappropriate for the site. If you think something is spam or offtopic, flag it by going to its page and clicking on the "flag" link. (Not all users will see this; there is a karma threshold.) If you flag something, please don't also comment that you did." Yes, comments like that one will be downvoted.
ferdo 13y ago
Lots of geeks with jobs funded by the public sector have no idea of the history of some of the agencies they work for. The history of misdeeds by American intel agencies is a topic that is relevant to hackers, imo.
WasimBhai 13y ago
Haha, so many down-votes. Still love Hackernews though.

anigbrowl 13y ago

Agreed. Historically interesting but not really realevant.

acuozzo 13y ago

A HackerNews user submitted it and other HackerNews users up-voted it. It's that simple.

davidw 13y ago
So if a bunch of people vote for, say: http://inrng.com/2013/08/on-forecasting/ http://inrng.com/2013/08/on-forecasting/ That's cool? How about Justin Bieber articles, if, say, a bunch of teenage girls sign up? To the downvoters: there is absolutely nothing preventing this from happening outside of the moderators. Anyone can sign up for an account here.
- Karunamon 13y ago
  Well, except the fact that your hypothetical scenario isn't going to happen. The existing userbase of the site will flag such crap down. On top of that, the 'shadow' moderation behind the scenes that makes posts go dead, nary any feedback or tranparency. I must grudgingly admit it would help in such a case. Try again with a less reductio-ad-absudum scenario?
  - davidw 13y ago
    The first link is not crap at all, it's very interesting. > Try again with a less reductio-ad-absudum scenario? How about Chomsky material, and various articles about geopolitics ala reddit?
    - Karunamon 13y ago
      I was more referring to the Bieber nonsense. Geopolitics as they relate to technology, though, would seem to be welcome here.
- acuozzo 13y ago
  > That's cool? Yes. > How about Justin Bieber articles, if, say, a bunch of teenage girls sign up? Yes.
  - davidw 13y ago
    Actually it's not, like Karunamon says, stuff that is that off-topic will be ruthlessly killed by the moderators, thankfully.

gruseom 13y ago

It's very related! From the HN guidelines: On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. The release of major new documents about a major historical event that still has major side effects today easily clears that bar. What's not related are comments like "how is this even remotely related": Please don't submit comments complaining that a submission is inappropriate for the site. If you think something is spam or offtopic, flag it by going to its page and clicking on the "flag" link. http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

uwotm8920 13y ago
So by that logic, if you got enough people from reddit to come here and upvote political stories and conspiracy theories, it would de facto be Hacker News. Well good thing that's not happening.
- sophacles 13y ago
  You're account is not even a day old. You should read the guidelines about how when you're new here you probably shouldn't be saying this site is turning into reddit. Also its relevant because it contextualizes the whole us intelligence apparatus -a topic very relevant given the impact on internet business and traffic.
  - uwotm8920 13y ago
    This is a throw away. My main account is about 2 years younger than yours. How can you not see that the rhetoric here has declined drastically over the past year? Do you disagree that there are significantly more political/non-technical stories reaching the front page? Even if you agree with the gist arguments being made, disregard your personal politics and beliefs in coming to an assessment.
    - sophacles 13y ago

yread 13y ago

If you don't have anything to say, don't comment, don't upvote and flag (when you get enough karma...)

tome 13y ago

Wow, you're getting downvoted for this? Hacker News really has changed. Goodbye Hacker News. I learned a lot from you, but it's time to go our separate ways.

davidw 13y ago
The problem is where to go. There are still a lot of good stories here, so I'm not ready to just take my toys and leave, so to speak, but I'm actively looking for alternatives.
- uwotm8920 13y ago
  Lobsters seems like the best alternative but it doesn't appear to be very active. I'm in the same boat as you.
iaskwhy 13y ago
C'mon, it's on the guidelines: "Please don't submit comments complaining that a submission is inappropriate for the site. If you think something is spam or offtopic, flag it by going to its page and clicking on the "flag" link. (Not all users will see this; there is a karma threshold.) If you flag something, please don't also comment that you did." Yes, comments like that one will be downvoted.

ferdo 13y ago

Lots of geeks with jobs funded by the public sector have no idea of the history of some of the agencies they work for. The history of misdeeds by American intel agencies is a topic that is relevant to hackers, imo.

WasimBhai 13y ago

Haha, so many down-votes. Still love Hackernews though.