4 ms·

You are already greyed out, someone is keeping an eye on posts like this, clearly.

by 1457389 12y ago

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
mbrubeck 12y ago
"Text" posts on HN are always displayed in gray. pg said this was to discourage making long text posts directly to HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=468231 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=468231 For example, the text in this post by pg is also gray: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7484304 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7484304
- krapp 12y ago
  Hacker News is one of the best online communities i've come across so far. But some of the passive-aggressive and condescending 'features' baked into to the forum to discourage participation on the premise that engagement === entropy are really getting kind of annoying. He could have simply added a character limit, or a word limit, if he wanted text posts to remain brief. Or just told you as you posted to keep it simple. But nope - he chose instead to make every text post difficult to read as a form of operant conditioning, because the only way the plebs will learn is through pain.
  - tptacek 12y ago
    The site has worked this way for many many years; you aren't arguing about something the moderators are doing so much as trying to litigate the basic functions of the site. That's unlikely to be productive.
    - krapp 12y ago
      Probably not, although the devs are currently working on some tweaks here and there, and so might consider adding "not making text posts illegible by default" to the list.
      - tptacek 12y ago
        There's a reason for that too: text posts aren't meant to create privileged, sticky comments. You can see that here: the poster didn't just ask a question, but tried to answer it (proposed answer: "it's just wrong that these weren't on the front page, and here's evidence"). If the poster wanted most of that content to be prominent in the thread, they could have added a comment to their question.
        krapp 12y ago
        But clearly the legibility penalty didn't help them to realize this subtle distinction before posting. Any number of alternatives (limiting the post length, auto-commenting after a certain length, limiting the number of links in a post, giving posters the chance to revise if a post is too long, reducing legibility as a factor of length, or just letting people downvote the posts, etc) might well have resulted in better behavior. But all the current solution seems to accomplish is penalizing everyone else.
        tptacek 12y ago
        What distinction would prevent someone from abusing "Ask HN"? The poster penalized their own content, by hoisting what should have been a comment --- were this post appropriate for "Ask HN" at all, which it isn't --- into the text of their question. Anyways: it's not worth the argument to keep pushing this thread. I just think it's interesting how many aspects of HN that annoy some users turn out to have an important role in how the community regulates itself. Note for instance how the site isn't flooded with bogus text submissions, the way sites with sticky comments get.
- 1457389 12y ago
  I stand corrected, my mistake.

You are already greyed out, someone is keeping an eye on posts like this, clearly.

by 1457389 12y ago

You are already greyed out, someone is keeping an eye on posts like this, clearly.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

mbrubeck 12y ago

"Text" posts on HN are always displayed in gray. pg said this was to discourage making long text posts directly to HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=468231 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=468231 For example, the text in this post by pg is also gray: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7484304 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7484304

krapp 12y ago
Hacker News is one of the best online communities i've come across so far. But some of the passive-aggressive and condescending 'features' baked into to the forum to discourage participation on the premise that engagement === entropy are really getting kind of annoying. He could have simply added a character limit, or a word limit, if he wanted text posts to remain brief. Or just told you as you posted to keep it simple. But nope - he chose instead to make every text post difficult to read as a form of operant conditioning, because the only way the plebs will learn is through pain.
- tptacek 12y ago
  The site has worked this way for many many years; you aren't arguing about something the moderators are doing so much as trying to litigate the basic functions of the site. That's unlikely to be productive.
  - krapp 12y ago
    Probably not, although the devs are currently working on some tweaks here and there, and so might consider adding "not making text posts illegible by default" to the list.
    - tptacek 12y ago
      There's a reason for that too: text posts aren't meant to create privileged, sticky comments. You can see that here: the poster didn't just ask a question, but tried to answer it (proposed answer: "it's just wrong that these weren't on the front page, and here's evidence"). If the poster wanted most of that content to be prominent in the thread, they could have added a comment to their question.
      - krapp 12y ago
        But clearly the legibility penalty didn't help them to realize this subtle distinction before posting. Any number of alternatives (limiting the post length, auto-commenting after a certain length, limiting the number of links in a post, giving posters the chance to revise if a post is too long, reducing legibility as a factor of length, or just letting people downvote the posts, etc) might well have resulted in better behavior. But all the current solution seems to accomplish is penalizing everyone else.
        tptacek 12y ago
        What distinction would prevent someone from abusing "Ask HN"? The poster penalized their own content, by hoisting what should have been a comment --- were this post appropriate for "Ask HN" at all, which it isn't --- into the text of their question. Anyways: it's not worth the argument to keep pushing this thread. I just think it's interesting how many aspects of HN that annoy some users turn out to have an important role in how the community regulates itself. Note for instance how the site isn't flooded with bogus text submissions, the way sites with sticky comments get.
1457389 12y ago
I stand corrected, my mistake.