3 ms·

What are we trying to accomplish, here? It's obvious that different people will see him in different lights. On a technically oriented site like this, I expec

What are we trying to accomplish, here? It's obvious that different people will see him in different lights. On a technically oriented site like this, I expect the "hero" option to tally higher, substantially so, but is there any point to this other than a bit of good ol' circular fun?

ZirconCode 13y ago
I think this is a response to the recent TED talk where the same question was asked: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVwAodrjZMY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVwAodrjZMY The host provides the theory that the vote is not biased based on left or right wing beliefs.
krelian 13y ago
The fact that this "poll" is at the top spot after only 15 minutes is quite a disappointment, and a testament to the deteriorating quality of the HN's voter base.
- chavesn 13y ago
  I see this complaint a lot. It seems highly correlated to the broadening of HN's voter base. If new users are not taught by existing users what the existing users like and think should be upvoted, then what is upvoted will naturally shift over time. Long-time members may consider that a deterioration in "quality". Quality is of course subjective, but I suspect in this case it actually means more like "not as close in alignment to the way things used to be, which I liked". I'm fairly new here, and as a newbie, I haven't ever been taught what the existing community thinks I should upvote, whether in submissions or comments. Beyond the guidelines, which state: > 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.[1] [1]: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
antoinec 13y ago
20 times more votes for "hero" than for "traitor". Wow, I wasn't expecting that at all on HN...what a useful poll, thank you.

ZirconCode 13y ago

I think this is a response to the recent TED talk where the same question was asked: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVwAodrjZMY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVwAodrjZMY The host provides the theory that the vote is not biased based on left or right wing beliefs.

krelian 13y ago

The fact that this "poll" is at the top spot after only 15 minutes is quite a disappointment, and a testament to the deteriorating quality of the HN's voter base.

chavesn 13y ago
I see this complaint a lot. It seems highly correlated to the broadening of HN's voter base. If new users are not taught by existing users what the existing users like and think should be upvoted, then what is upvoted will naturally shift over time. Long-time members may consider that a deterioration in "quality". Quality is of course subjective, but I suspect in this case it actually means more like "not as close in alignment to the way things used to be, which I liked". I'm fairly new here, and as a newbie, I haven't ever been taught what the existing community thinks I should upvote, whether in submissions or comments. Beyond the guidelines, which state: > 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.[1] [1]: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

antoinec 13y ago

20 times more votes for "hero" than for "traitor". Wow, I wasn't expecting that at all on HN...what a useful poll, thank you.