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There's nothing wrong with voicing concern about the state of a community that you care about.

shangxiao 13y ago
No there isn't, but the tactic was questionable (imho)
Confusion 13y ago
There is definitely something wrong with doing that with a top-level comment. It distracts from the actual topic. You should only do that if you have a very good reason, such as noting the same behavior multiple times on multiple topics. You should certainly not do it within two hours after the article was posted, to allow time for selfcorrection. That is the point of the voting system. There is also something wrong with doing it in an appeal-to-emotion fashion, threatening how this is 'almost making you leave'. You should clearly address the problem at hand, citing examples and explaining the problem, instead of hiding the actual problem that the fuss is about in the third paragraph. Too little content, too much drama.
- MartinCron 13y ago
  You should only do that if you have a very good reason, such as noting the same behavior multiple times on multiple topics A top level comment seems to be the only appropriate place to discuss the overall tone or tenor of a conversation. Responding to each dismissive/negative/unconstructive comment seems redundant and annoying.
  - Karunamon 13y ago
    How about you don't respond to tone or tenor at all? It's a bad argument on the best of days (PG's hierarchy has that near the bottom, one step above straight up ad hominem.) It's a diversion at best. If you feel someone is being unpleasant, deal with it. You needn't be pleasant to be right. If they're being unpleasant and wrong, reply with why they're wrong, or alternatively downvote and move on. No need for meta noise in any case.
    - MartinCron 13y ago
      I respectfully disagree with the idea that we should simply ignore unpleasantness in the community. A healthy ecosystem is determined by a lot more than mere factual correctness.
      - Karunamon 13y ago
        But it's also determined by a lot more than a veneer of politically-correct pleasantness. I suggest that the best way to deal with such people is use the downvote button. Complaining about tone is just so much noise... it adds nothing to any discussion.
        burntsushi 13y ago
        There is a very large gap between not being a jackass and being politically correct. The OP of this thread suggested the former.
        Karunamon 13y ago
        I see very little jackassery in this thread. Certainly nothing worth the amount of attention it's garnered. I do, however, see a lot of useless, time-wasting, off topic tone arguments.
Crito 13y ago
A 'collapse thread' function would go a long way to eliminating the damage meta-threads and troll/flame-threads do to discussions. Yeah, I know there are extensions/userscripts that do it. And yeah, I get the concern PG has about community fragmentation, but when I see a comment "leave HN" that has half a dozen replies under it, I really don't think I need to go down that thread of discussion any further.
- 14113 13y ago
  If you install Hacker News Enhancement suite, it gives you the ability to collapse threads, as well a browse HN using keyboard shortcuts. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-enhancement-s/bappiabcodbpphnojdiaddhnilfnjmpm https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-enhanc...

No there isn't, but the tactic was questionable (imho)

There is definitely something wrong with doing that with a top-level comment. It distracts from the actual topic. You should only do that if you have a very good reason, such as noting the same behavior multiple times on multiple topics. You should certainly not do it within two hours after the article was posted, to allow time for selfcorrection. That is the point of the voting system. There is also something wrong with doing it in an appeal-to-emotion fashion, threatening how this is 'almost making you leave'. You should clearly address the problem at hand, citing examples and explaining the problem, instead of hiding the actual problem that the fuss is about in the third paragraph. Too little content, too much drama.

MartinCron 13y ago
You should only do that if you have a very good reason, such as noting the same behavior multiple times on multiple topics A top level comment seems to be the only appropriate place to discuss the overall tone or tenor of a conversation. Responding to each dismissive/negative/unconstructive comment seems redundant and annoying.
- Karunamon 13y ago
  How about you don't respond to tone or tenor at all? It's a bad argument on the best of days (PG's hierarchy has that near the bottom, one step above straight up ad hominem.) It's a diversion at best. If you feel someone is being unpleasant, deal with it. You needn't be pleasant to be right. If they're being unpleasant and wrong, reply with why they're wrong, or alternatively downvote and move on. No need for meta noise in any case.
  - MartinCron 13y ago
    I respectfully disagree with the idea that we should simply ignore unpleasantness in the community. A healthy ecosystem is determined by a lot more than mere factual correctness.
    - Karunamon 13y ago
      But it's also determined by a lot more than a veneer of politically-correct pleasantness. I suggest that the best way to deal with such people is use the downvote button. Complaining about tone is just so much noise... it adds nothing to any discussion.
      - burntsushi 13y ago
        There is a very large gap between not being a jackass and being politically correct. The OP of this thread suggested the former.
        Karunamon 13y ago
        I see very little jackassery in this thread. Certainly nothing worth the amount of attention it's garnered. I do, however, see a lot of useless, time-wasting, off topic tone arguments.

Crito 13y ago

A 'collapse thread' function would go a long way to eliminating the damage meta-threads and troll/flame-threads do to discussions. Yeah, I know there are extensions/userscripts that do it. And yeah, I get the concern PG has about community fragmentation, but when I see a comment "leave HN" that has half a dozen replies under it, I really don't think I need to go down that thread of discussion any further.

14113 13y ago
If you install Hacker News Enhancement suite, it gives you the ability to collapse threads, as well a browse HN using keyboard shortcuts. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-enhancement-s/bappiabcodbpphnojdiaddhnilfnjmpm https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-enhanc...