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Is this Hacker News? I mean, I understand why I saw the article on several other news aggregators yesterday, it's not really the kind of topic I expect to see

Is this Hacker News? I mean, I understand why I saw the article on several other news aggregators yesterday, it's not really the kind of topic I expect to see here.

gord 17y ago
I do find the article interesting. However I tend to agree with this comment - is this 'Hacker News'worthy? I especially object to the downvote on this post - I think downvoting shouldnt be used unless the post is clearly offensive. It think this is legitimate comment - HN needs to preserve Freedom of Speech and not become a self-serving myopic site where people are afraid to speak their mind for fear of losing karma brownie points.
- daeken 17y ago
  While I, as well, agree that this may well not be HN-worthy, your usage of "Freedom of Speech" is silly. First and foremost, the concept of "Freedom of Speech" has no application in a private forum. If HN allows free speech, it does so willingly, not because it needs to. In addition to that, freedom of speech does not mean that your words aren't allowed to be judged. People often forget that freedom of speech means the freedom to offend and be offended, and both sides are able to say what they want. In that way, voting is a form of 'speech' as well, it's just not textual.
  - gord 17y ago
    yes, I agree perversely. Im assuming HN users value freedom of speech, and I think less down-voting helps preserve the value of HN by encouraging open discussion. Im hoping that down votes happen less when people speak their mind.. and that downvotes are on average reserved for clearly offensive content. I think the issue needs some introspection, hence I risked being downvoted.
miles 17y ago
Flag it. I did. Past that, if members decide to vote this story up, it is clearly news of interest to them.
- davidw 17y ago
  The problem with that is that it makes anything where you can round up a few votes 'hacker news'. Say, next July, during the Tour de France, I get a few people and vote up cycling articles... does that make them hacker news?
  - raganwald 17y ago
    That depends. If it involves a wily way around the rules limiting bike engineering, for example, it might be HN :-) But I get what you're saying, and that's why we have moderators. Left to its own devices, a crowd is unable to self-moderate and keep something like HN from drifting into popularity cascades. This is especially true when people are given information about what other people think (the score, the position on the home page, comments) before voting themselves.
antipaganda 17y ago
Well, this is interesting because it shows how easily you can social-engineer your way into the media spotlight by being utterly without scruple. It also might provoke a discussion on how we might REALLY be able to tell what the poor bastard is "saying", instead of using his hand as a fucking keyboard wand.
jhickner 17y ago
"On-Topic: 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." From the guidelines

Is this Hacker News? I mean, I understand why I saw the article on several other news aggregators yesterday, it's not really the kind of topic I expect to see here.

gord 17y ago

I do find the article interesting. However I tend to agree with this comment - is this 'Hacker News'worthy? I especially object to the downvote on this post - I think downvoting shouldnt be used unless the post is clearly offensive. It think this is legitimate comment - HN needs to preserve Freedom of Speech and not become a self-serving myopic site where people are afraid to speak their mind for fear of losing karma brownie points.

daeken 17y ago
While I, as well, agree that this may well not be HN-worthy, your usage of "Freedom of Speech" is silly. First and foremost, the concept of "Freedom of Speech" has no application in a private forum. If HN allows free speech, it does so willingly, not because it needs to. In addition to that, freedom of speech does not mean that your words aren't allowed to be judged. People often forget that freedom of speech means the freedom to offend and be offended, and both sides are able to say what they want. In that way, voting is a form of 'speech' as well, it's just not textual.
- gord 17y ago
  yes, I agree perversely. Im assuming HN users value freedom of speech, and I think less down-voting helps preserve the value of HN by encouraging open discussion. Im hoping that down votes happen less when people speak their mind.. and that downvotes are on average reserved for clearly offensive content. I think the issue needs some introspection, hence I risked being downvoted.

miles 17y ago

Flag it. I did. Past that, if members decide to vote this story up, it is clearly news of interest to them.

davidw 17y ago
The problem with that is that it makes anything where you can round up a few votes 'hacker news'. Say, next July, during the Tour de France, I get a few people and vote up cycling articles... does that make them hacker news?
- raganwald 17y ago
  That depends. If it involves a wily way around the rules limiting bike engineering, for example, it might be HN :-) But I get what you're saying, and that's why we have moderators. Left to its own devices, a crowd is unable to self-moderate and keep something like HN from drifting into popularity cascades. This is especially true when people are given information about what other people think (the score, the position on the home page, comments) before voting themselves.

antipaganda 17y ago

Well, this is interesting because it shows how easily you can social-engineer your way into the media spotlight by being utterly without scruple. It also might provoke a discussion on how we might REALLY be able to tell what the poor bastard is "saying", instead of using his hand as a fucking keyboard wand.

jhickner 17y ago

"On-Topic: 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." From the guidelines