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Of course take everything with a grain of salt. The Hacker News community's comments are actually more intellectual than the writer's click-bait propaganda, an

Of course take everything with a grain of salt. The Hacker News community's comments are actually more intellectual than the writer's click-bait propaganda, and leaves room for debate on the author's one-sided views. Edit: grammar

deleted 12y ago
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- pXMzR2A 12y ago
  > The HN community is also enabled to take action against bad comments and the users that make them. Though I do like masturbating at how great and perfect our community is, it is not so. Most of the taking "action against bad comments" occurs on unpopular views and comments, just like in any other community, and gets buried. The sole reason why HN is not as bad at this as Reddit, Slashdot, and other similar sites is that it is not popular enough.
rodgerd 12y ago
HN is as much an echo chamber as any other moderated community; the fact you find it a more agreeable echo chamber doesn't mean much.
- AnkhMorporkian 12y ago
  Absolutely. Hell, it's much more of an echo chamber than most communities as it's so tightly moderated. Moderation begets echoes.
  - rtpg 12y ago
    My gut feeling is that community voting is more than enough to make HN an echo chamber. Think about it, if you see a slightly greyed-out comment, that becomes a data-point in interpreting the comment. Though compared to other places with such strong voting mechanisms, the echo chamber seems to be less in effect. Only topic I can think about where it really comes out is articles on Uber, bizarrely.
    - AnkhMorporkian 12y ago
      I'm not sure if that's true. While voting does definitely encourage an echo chamber, it requires moderation so that the true majority doesn't gain a foothold. If it weren't for the moderation on this site, it would be much like reddit.
      - SquareWheel 12y ago
        Which means nothing, because nearly every reddit community is different. Moderation plays a small role in the HN community. Any "community bubble" is due to shared interests and a core set of guidelines. This seems like an excuse for making a libertarian rant and nothing more.
        AnkhMorporkian 12y ago
        I'm far from a libertarian. I think moderation is a good thing, I just think we need to recognize that it creates bubbles in and of itself. If you want a more concrete reddit example, /r/lgbt and /r/ainbow would provide a concrete example. Moderation provides the tone for a community unless it remains totally unmoderated.
        SquareWheel 12y ago
        I don't disagree that moderation can set the tone for a community. I'm just arguing that's not the case on Hacker News. This site has a very strong focus on technology and startups. Any specific niche will create a bubble. It's also worth keeping in mind that /r/ainbow was created as an alternative after the mess that /r/lgbt became. /r/games from /r/gaming is a similar example. As much as a change in moderation was a focus, it was also a different audience that moved over to the new subs.
        AnkhMorporkian 12y ago
        I think HN is less bubbly than most enclosed communities, but it's definitely a bubble whenever it comes to feminism or social justice issues. Check out any post on those issues, check the comments, and refresh. It's intense how many comments are removed.
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ZanyProgrammer 12y ago
The Guardian is Fox News for Anglo-American progressives (or at least a certain set of them).
parfe 12y ago
Users are not permitted to comment freely on HN. Step too far out of line and your comment becomes invisible and you risk a shadow ban. This site offers the most vanilla, white bread, predictable discussion of any forum I frequent. No real surprise about what this user base wants.
- defineclean 12y ago
  Your spot-on comment is already getting grayed out. Oh the irony. If the truth hurts... downvote it so it can be hidden! Yeah, that'll show you!
jerf 12y ago
I would submit there's a significant difference between comment sites on the original site, and secondary comment sites like Slashdot, Reddit, and HN. The article is clearly about the former. I am not personally aware of a site that at scale (i.e., not a blog with a couple hundred commenters, tops) is worth reading the comments. Sure, you can write complaints about Slashdot, Reddit, and HN (see siblings of this post competing to see who can slag on them the hardest), but at least there's a chance of some semblance of discussion. That is not a chance that big sites have.

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pXMzR2A 12y ago
> The HN community is also enabled to take action against bad comments and the users that make them. Though I do like masturbating at how great and perfect our community is, it is not so. Most of the taking "action against bad comments" occurs on unpopular views and comments, just like in any other community, and gets buried. The sole reason why HN is not as bad at this as Reddit, Slashdot, and other similar sites is that it is not popular enough.

rodgerd 12y ago

HN is as much an echo chamber as any other moderated community; the fact you find it a more agreeable echo chamber doesn't mean much.

AnkhMorporkian 12y ago
Absolutely. Hell, it's much more of an echo chamber than most communities as it's so tightly moderated. Moderation begets echoes.
- rtpg 12y ago
  My gut feeling is that community voting is more than enough to make HN an echo chamber. Think about it, if you see a slightly greyed-out comment, that becomes a data-point in interpreting the comment. Though compared to other places with such strong voting mechanisms, the echo chamber seems to be less in effect. Only topic I can think about where it really comes out is articles on Uber, bizarrely.
  - AnkhMorporkian 12y ago
    I'm not sure if that's true. While voting does definitely encourage an echo chamber, it requires moderation so that the true majority doesn't gain a foothold. If it weren't for the moderation on this site, it would be much like reddit.
    - SquareWheel 12y ago
      Which means nothing, because nearly every reddit community is different. Moderation plays a small role in the HN community. Any "community bubble" is due to shared interests and a core set of guidelines. This seems like an excuse for making a libertarian rant and nothing more.
      - AnkhMorporkian 12y ago
        I'm far from a libertarian. I think moderation is a good thing, I just think we need to recognize that it creates bubbles in and of itself. If you want a more concrete reddit example, /r/lgbt and /r/ainbow would provide a concrete example. Moderation provides the tone for a community unless it remains totally unmoderated.
        SquareWheel 12y ago
        I don't disagree that moderation can set the tone for a community. I'm just arguing that's not the case on Hacker News. This site has a very strong focus on technology and startups. Any specific niche will create a bubble. It's also worth keeping in mind that /r/ainbow was created as an alternative after the mess that /r/lgbt became. /r/games from /r/gaming is a similar example. As much as a change in moderation was a focus, it was also a different audience that moved over to the new subs.
        AnkhMorporkian 12y ago
        I think HN is less bubbly than most enclosed communities, but it's definitely a bubble whenever it comes to feminism or social justice issues. Check out any post on those issues, check the comments, and refresh. It's intense how many comments are removed.

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ZanyProgrammer 12y ago

The Guardian is Fox News for Anglo-American progressives (or at least a certain set of them).

parfe 12y ago

Users are not permitted to comment freely on HN. Step too far out of line and your comment becomes invisible and you risk a shadow ban. This site offers the most vanilla, white bread, predictable discussion of any forum I frequent. No real surprise about what this user base wants.

defineclean 12y ago
Your spot-on comment is already getting grayed out. Oh the irony. If the truth hurts... downvote it so it can be hidden! Yeah, that'll show you!

jerf 12y ago

I would submit there's a significant difference between comment sites on the original site, and secondary comment sites like Slashdot, Reddit, and HN. The article is clearly about the former. I am not personally aware of a site that at scale (i.e., not a blog with a couple hundred commenters, tops) is worth reading the comments. Sure, you can write complaints about Slashdot, Reddit, and HN (see siblings of this post competing to see who can slag on them the hardest), but at least there's a chance of some semblance of discussion. That is not a chance that big sites have.