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I second this, if not this specific solution then at least the goal of being proactive about the problem. There are so many talented people that want to make co

by pvnick 13y ago

I second this, if not this specific solution then at least the goal of being proactive about the problem. There are so many talented people that want to make cool stuff and improve the world around them in their own way, but the overall negativity here has become so overwhelming it's crazy. Especially in Show HN threads (the myth.io thread the other day was embarassing). It teaches creators and innovators that they're not welcome here. That we reject them and their hard work. Sooner or later there won't be any of them left. It'll just be a bunch of idiots clamoring over each other to determine who's the smartest. It's like the old expression, Those who can, do. Those who can't just sit around and bitch about those who can Edit: Great, flagged off the front page. Way to go guys!

bushido 13y ago
> Edit: Great, flagged off the front page. Way to go guys! Not so much flagged off the front page, as HN voting against the idea, or voting to discuss other news at this relative point of time. Most likely the latter.
sparkie 13y ago
Aside from obvious trolls, I can't see where this alleged negativity is on HN. People are critical, but criticism is necessary for debate, improvement, and freethought. Everybody should be free to express their thoughts, as long as they're well meant and not obvious, unreasonable attacks. When we start considering censoring people who disagree with us, we're only inflicting cognitive biases upon ourselves. We resort to groupthink, people thinking one thing but expressing another in order to prevent discord. And I don't see how this environment is unfriendly to creators. If anything, people giving honest opinions about something without fear of reprisal from their peers gives the creator the tools to reflect upon their own judgements. Without it, they could be digging themselves into deeper holes with confirmation bias. If anything, it presents a creator with a good opportunity to retort misconceptions about their creation by replying to those critical comments. There are of course, creators who use HN for marketing their products, and marketing is often dishonest or not completely honest. It should be expected that when pitching a product to a technically competent crowd, you should cut the bullshit and let the product speak for itself. It's my hope that marketers should only be welcome here if they're honest, and having freedom of expression in comments gives us the opportunity to make judgements without investigating everything ourselves. It's "Hacker News", not "Startup News". I'm glad it's not Techcrunch. The main reason I visit and comment on here is because it's nice to see variety of opinion from mostly open-minded and intelligent people. I can ignore the comments I dislike or disagree with. I don't care whether or not people agree with what I say either, because they can make their own judgements. I'm sure creators can learn to do the same. Sieve through the bullshit, but don't succumb to reactance when their ideas are judged.

by pvnick 13y ago

bushido 13y ago

> Edit: Great, flagged off the front page. Way to go guys! Not so much flagged off the front page, as HN voting against the idea, or voting to discuss other news at this relative point of time. Most likely the latter.

sparkie 13y ago

Aside from obvious trolls, I can't see where this alleged negativity is on HN. People are critical, but criticism is necessary for debate, improvement, and freethought. Everybody should be free to express their thoughts, as long as they're well meant and not obvious, unreasonable attacks. When we start considering censoring people who disagree with us, we're only inflicting cognitive biases upon ourselves. We resort to groupthink, people thinking one thing but expressing another in order to prevent discord. And I don't see how this environment is unfriendly to creators. If anything, people giving honest opinions about something without fear of reprisal from their peers gives the creator the tools to reflect upon their own judgements. Without it, they could be digging themselves into deeper holes with confirmation bias. If anything, it presents a creator with a good opportunity to retort misconceptions about their creation by replying to those critical comments. There are of course, creators who use HN for marketing their products, and marketing is often dishonest or not completely honest. It should be expected that when pitching a product to a technically competent crowd, you should cut the bullshit and let the product speak for itself. It's my hope that marketers should only be welcome here if they're honest, and having freedom of expression in comments gives us the opportunity to make judgements without investigating everything ourselves. It's "Hacker News", not "Startup News". I'm glad it's not Techcrunch. The main reason I visit and comment on here is because it's nice to see variety of opinion from mostly open-minded and intelligent people. I can ignore the comments I dislike or disagree with. I don't care whether or not people agree with what I say either, because they can make their own judgements. I'm sure creators can learn to do the same. Sieve through the bullshit, but don't succumb to reactance when their ideas are judged.