3 ms·

It had to happen- there's relatively fewer pg, patio11, raganwald, wheels, tptacek, swombat, etc., and more of this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=903880

It had to happen- there's relatively fewer pg, patio11, raganwald, wheels, tptacek, swombat, etc., and more of this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=903880 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=903880

tptacek 17y ago
Crap. I just upvoted edw519 for his pithy comment!
- crystalis 17y ago
  Would it be petty to edit you out of my original comment? :) To be honest, I'm not entirely sure how his asserted graph deserves the points it has now.
  - pchristensen 17y ago
    He made an ASCII art graph that was worth 1000 words. Worth an upvote.
    - crystalis 17y ago
      A sentence a piece for 3 peaks and 3 troughs could cover 100, and the unspoken explanation of the hot air graph generation technique for the other 900? Without those useful 900 words, the post is just "Yeah, I think there are some roughly seasonal peaks and troughs and it peaked in summer '08. btw it's winter '09, rough times lol."
      - pchristensen 17y ago
        I think I know why you've gotten negative reactions on HN. You seem to crave the exactness of a compiler yet you dislike nitpicking your statements. Have you seriously never heard the phrase "A picture is worth a thousand words"? It's a very common saying. The point is that an image can convey a lot, not that you need a certain number of significant figures in your image:word ratio. Lighten up.
        crystalis 17y ago
        Would you elaborate on what words the picture had? It is a saying, but that graph doesn't say anything. It twiddles the 'OOH ASCII' bit and pretends to answer the question, but that's all. Honestly, what worth did it convey?
        Radix 17y ago
        I really liked your first comment. It appears you have a good point about the medical comment, that is, that comment would have been better with a more complete commentary. Now, this graph says more to me than the short paragraph you wrote, it also suggests that hn's comment quality is cyclical and it's just tmporarily in a downturn. There's an implication that the average quality is trending down, but it hasn't been long enough to know, so it isn't worth worrying about. It's just how it is. Come christmas break some of the college kids will drop some ineresting academic stuff and things will look up.
  - crystalis 17y ago
    Well, I guess maybe an explanation would help, too. When I see a post about education, I expect tokenadult to have a well sourced and reasonable comment on the topic. When I see a post about security, I expect some intelligent and experienced discourse from you, cperciva, or dfranke. patio11 is consistently arguing from experience about things he knows, like uISV, Rails, and A/B testing, with real-world examples to back it up. These are really valuable posts. Something like http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=924045 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=924045 isn't entirely valuable, but it's not a bad thing. However, something like http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=876726 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=876726 misses the point entirely and becomes harmful in its Ludditism. To go straw: Do we really need a "product" like plumbing to replace our evolved mutually beneficial practice of shitting wherever we happen to be? Do we really need any of this so-called "medicine" to "hack" nature without consequences? It's a shy step from vaccine frenzy and represents a titanic reputational blow that- in the absence of proven, public results or credentials- limits the ability to take people seriously. When the quack-science spouting is utterly indistinguishable from what might actually be an experienced person talking from an educated viewpoint, the whole signal is poisoned. No one ever wants to ask the random oracle more than one question.
    - tptacek 17y ago
      edw519 is a pretty reasonable guy. You could just mail him that comment, and he'd probably give you a thoughtful response. I've never tried doing that with him, but I have with other people and other people mail me.
- swombat 17y ago
  Me too. Great graph, would have taken a lot of words to convey otherwise. Effective communication at its best. I'm thoroughly disappointed though... from crystalis' later post, it appears you guys all have areas of expertise, but I'm just some kind of generalist or something... cries
  - crystalis 17y ago
    Maybe I'm the problem with edw... I don't see any value in the graph/post itself when it lacks the standard hallmarks of quality- reason, background, explanation... Maybe I just missed the seasonal swings when I was doing my own thing, so I didn't "get" the graph like you did. I'm sorry to have left you out of the direct accolades- I figured you'd be happy in the company of pg, of so much merit that it need not be mentioned. Your posts are consistently thoughtful, reasoned, and insightful, with an incredible signal/noise ratio. You're just smart, and you write/do/make awesome things.

tptacek 17y ago

Crap. I just upvoted edw519 for his pithy comment!

crystalis 17y ago
Would it be petty to edit you out of my original comment? :) To be honest, I'm not entirely sure how his asserted graph deserves the points it has now.
- pchristensen 17y ago
  He made an ASCII art graph that was worth 1000 words. Worth an upvote.
  - crystalis 17y ago
    A sentence a piece for 3 peaks and 3 troughs could cover 100, and the unspoken explanation of the hot air graph generation technique for the other 900? Without those useful 900 words, the post is just "Yeah, I think there are some roughly seasonal peaks and troughs and it peaked in summer '08. btw it's winter '09, rough times lol."
    - pchristensen 17y ago
      I think I know why you've gotten negative reactions on HN. You seem to crave the exactness of a compiler yet you dislike nitpicking your statements. Have you seriously never heard the phrase "A picture is worth a thousand words"? It's a very common saying. The point is that an image can convey a lot, not that you need a certain number of significant figures in your image:word ratio. Lighten up.
      - crystalis 17y ago
        Would you elaborate on what words the picture had? It is a saying, but that graph doesn't say anything. It twiddles the 'OOH ASCII' bit and pretends to answer the question, but that's all. Honestly, what worth did it convey?
        Radix 17y ago
        I really liked your first comment. It appears you have a good point about the medical comment, that is, that comment would have been better with a more complete commentary. Now, this graph says more to me than the short paragraph you wrote, it also suggests that hn's comment quality is cyclical and it's just tmporarily in a downturn. There's an implication that the average quality is trending down, but it hasn't been long enough to know, so it isn't worth worrying about. It's just how it is. Come christmas break some of the college kids will drop some ineresting academic stuff and things will look up.
- crystalis 17y ago
  Well, I guess maybe an explanation would help, too. When I see a post about education, I expect tokenadult to have a well sourced and reasonable comment on the topic. When I see a post about security, I expect some intelligent and experienced discourse from you, cperciva, or dfranke. patio11 is consistently arguing from experience about things he knows, like uISV, Rails, and A/B testing, with real-world examples to back it up. These are really valuable posts. Something like http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=924045 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=924045 isn't entirely valuable, but it's not a bad thing. However, something like http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=876726 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=876726 misses the point entirely and becomes harmful in its Ludditism. To go straw: Do we really need a "product" like plumbing to replace our evolved mutually beneficial practice of shitting wherever we happen to be? Do we really need any of this so-called "medicine" to "hack" nature without consequences? It's a shy step from vaccine frenzy and represents a titanic reputational blow that- in the absence of proven, public results or credentials- limits the ability to take people seriously. When the quack-science spouting is utterly indistinguishable from what might actually be an experienced person talking from an educated viewpoint, the whole signal is poisoned. No one ever wants to ask the random oracle more than one question.
  - tptacek 17y ago
    edw519 is a pretty reasonable guy. You could just mail him that comment, and he'd probably give you a thoughtful response. I've never tried doing that with him, but I have with other people and other people mail me.
swombat 17y ago
Me too. Great graph, would have taken a lot of words to convey otherwise. Effective communication at its best. I'm thoroughly disappointed though... from crystalis' later post, it appears you guys all have areas of expertise, but I'm just some kind of generalist or something... cries
- crystalis 17y ago
  Maybe I'm the problem with edw... I don't see any value in the graph/post itself when it lacks the standard hallmarks of quality- reason, background, explanation... Maybe I just missed the seasonal swings when I was doing my own thing, so I didn't "get" the graph like you did. I'm sorry to have left you out of the direct accolades- I figured you'd be happy in the company of pg, of so much merit that it need not be mentioned. Your posts are consistently thoughtful, reasoned, and insightful, with an incredible signal/noise ratio. You're just smart, and you write/do/make awesome things.