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This is pretty subjective, but I honestly enjoy a certain amount of negative comments. When I click a link on hacker news and end up on a project page, it’s ge

This is pretty subjective, but I honestly enjoy a certain amount of negative comments. When I click a link on hacker news and end up on a project page, it’s generally all positive. You go to some new kickstarter and you don’t see “This product I want to build is alright.” You see “This new thing I’ve got is AMAZING!”. Every startup landing page tells you, at length, why it’s the best thing since sliced bread. Most github project list off all the things they’re good for. When I click on an HN project link, I generally get a page telling me how awesome that project is. So when I go back to the comments afterwards, I want a counterpoint. I’d like a list of things wrong with the glowing self-review I just read. I handful of “Gee, that’s nifty!” comments might be nice, but they don’t really help me evaluate the thing I just read about, and they’re not terribly useful for fostering interesting discussion. This isn’t as critical for some software products where I can reasonably evaluate their merit on my own, but there are a lot of areas where I’m not an expert. If some post comes along with a tool that it claims will revolutionize farming, I’d love to have someone with a strong agriculture background come by and explain why it’s not nearly as good as advertised. Of course, there’s a long ways between “this is shit!” and “This is neat, but here are some flaws.” I’m all for criticism being constructive, rather than destructive, but let’s not throw out useful negativity. When people put up sites telling me how awesome something is, it’s quite valuable to have reasonably well informed people arguing the other side.

amalcon 12y ago
Likewise, one reason that there are so many negative comments on (for example) HN is that the article probably already said most of the positive things. There's no need to simply repeat what the article already says, unless it's to explain things that might be unclear. Again, this isn't an endorsement for pointless or mean-spirited criticism.
- sanderjd 12y ago
  Yeah, if you agree entirely with someone's point, then a comment saying so is not typically very worthwhile. That's what the upvote is for! (And yes, I'm aware of the irony in making a comment agreeing with someone that just agreeing with someone is typically not worth a comment.)
  - kazagistar 12y ago
    You are using the valid use of a positive comment: Not just agreeing, but also expanding on the idea.
    - noobermin 12y ago
      Interesting, so could one say being negative is easier, but expanding/adding to an idea is harder? I personally find that somewhat true. The issue is people look at upvotes but read comments. An upvote doesn't say as much as a comment does (quite literally).
      - jimkri 12y ago
        I agree that adding to an idea or expanding on one is harder. The first thing I think of is a college class, when none of the students will explain an answer or add to discussion.
    - sanderjd 12y ago
      Sure, and negative comments that also expand on the original idea are just as good (or perhaps even better). That is, "I disagree, and here is more information necessary to inform that disagreement". I personally think you see a lot of those on this site, and that they shouldn't be lumped in with the general disdain people have for negativity.
- andyidsinga 12y ago
  hmm good point. its always seemed to me that there needs to be more dialog and questioning vs "hers's by the op was wrong". hacker news also needs more humor. maybe the best argument I've heard is that there are other places to get humor on the net and people come to HN to get the non-humor part. For me though ... I like joking with like minded folks ..and I don't often find them on the funny sites.
ThomPete 12y ago
I honestly don't think that is the point of the article. It goes deeper than that. I think most people who are worth their salt like honest critique. The problem in my mind is that a whole generation of primarily academics have learned critical thinking but not how to create but they treat critical thinking as if it's creating. This goes way beyond comments on hacker news, this goes all the way into corporate culture where there is often a race to be the one who point out the flaw in some proposal which is counterproductive to then creating. If you have the time spend some time reading Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmul from Pixar. He goes to great length to show the difference between having an environment where proposing is regarded higher than shooting down what's proposed.
kacperp 12y ago
I agree. What I would like to add is that the author seems to neglect, that it's actually the negative comments through which you are able to learn new things about a specific topic - for the exact reasons that you mention.

amalcon 12y ago

Likewise, one reason that there are so many negative comments on (for example) HN is that the article probably already said most of the positive things. There's no need to simply repeat what the article already says, unless it's to explain things that might be unclear. Again, this isn't an endorsement for pointless or mean-spirited criticism.

sanderjd 12y ago
Yeah, if you agree entirely with someone's point, then a comment saying so is not typically very worthwhile. That's what the upvote is for! (And yes, I'm aware of the irony in making a comment agreeing with someone that just agreeing with someone is typically not worth a comment.)
- kazagistar 12y ago
  You are using the valid use of a positive comment: Not just agreeing, but also expanding on the idea.
  - noobermin 12y ago
    Interesting, so could one say being negative is easier, but expanding/adding to an idea is harder? I personally find that somewhat true. The issue is people look at upvotes but read comments. An upvote doesn't say as much as a comment does (quite literally).
    - jimkri 12y ago
      I agree that adding to an idea or expanding on one is harder. The first thing I think of is a college class, when none of the students will explain an answer or add to discussion.
  - sanderjd 12y ago
    Sure, and negative comments that also expand on the original idea are just as good (or perhaps even better). That is, "I disagree, and here is more information necessary to inform that disagreement". I personally think you see a lot of those on this site, and that they shouldn't be lumped in with the general disdain people have for negativity.
andyidsinga 12y ago
hmm good point. its always seemed to me that there needs to be more dialog and questioning vs "hers's by the op was wrong". hacker news also needs more humor. maybe the best argument I've heard is that there are other places to get humor on the net and people come to HN to get the non-humor part. For me though ... I like joking with like minded folks ..and I don't often find them on the funny sites.

ThomPete 12y ago

I honestly don't think that is the point of the article. It goes deeper than that. I think most people who are worth their salt like honest critique. The problem in my mind is that a whole generation of primarily academics have learned critical thinking but not how to create but they treat critical thinking as if it's creating. This goes way beyond comments on hacker news, this goes all the way into corporate culture where there is often a race to be the one who point out the flaw in some proposal which is counterproductive to then creating. If you have the time spend some time reading Creativity Inc. by Ed Catmul from Pixar. He goes to great length to show the difference between having an environment where proposing is regarded higher than shooting down what's proposed.

kacperp 12y ago

I agree. What I would like to add is that the author seems to neglect, that it's actually the negative comments through which you are able to learn new things about a specific topic - for the exact reasons that you mention.