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What's the hacker angle on this story? It seems like a common human-interest story about someone donating their time to help others. Is it supposed to be intel
by stephengillie 11y ago
What's the hacker angle on this story? It seems like a common human-interest story about someone donating their time to help others.
Is it supposed to be intellectually fascinating because it happens on an internet forum? Is that all it takes to get upvotes on HN?
- revscat 11y agoThe answer to your question now is the same whenever it has come up before: it is on the front page because HN readers voted it up and are discussing it.
- stephengillie 11y agoHow do we know that HN readers upvoted it, and not an upvote-bot-ring or other upvoting group? This really doesn't seem like the kind of article that should be on HN.
- cwyers 11y agoReddit isn't just "an Internet forum," it's a company that's received investment from Y Combinator (or at least people like sama who are heavily involved in Y Combinator). This site is hosted at news.ycombinator.com. Shockingly, people here are interested in articles about such things. In addition, technology does not exist in a vacuum. It's very, very possible to be interested in how people are actually using that technology, and the effect that the technology is having on people, both individually and in the larger context of community and society. This article definitely talks about those issues.
- stephengillie 11y agoRight, reddit is an internet forum with massive funding and leadership backing from some of the most connected people in existence. And so anything related to reddit is automatically interesting? Technology doesn't exist in a vacuum, and apparently anything even remotely tangentially connected to anything technological is HN front-page material.
- jasonmp85 11y agoIt's a person who, through technology, has done something risky and enterprising to change peoples' lives. And it has interesting policy and societal facets as well. Why doesn't it "belong here", again?
- stephengillie 11y agoIs it supposed to be intellectually fascinating because it happens on an internet forum? Is that all it takes to get upvotes on HN?
- vonklaus 11y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- stephengillie 11y agoOn-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. What part of this story gratifies your intellectual curiosity?
- vonklaus 11y agoCommunities working on safe solutions to societies problems. I shouldnt have to justify why I find something interesting, nor should you have to justify why it isn't. There are many stories on the front page and the gravity algo wil make sure they turn over if they aren't useful to the community.
- thedufer 11y agoIf we're quoting the guidelines: > Please don't submit comments complaining that a submission is inappropriate for the site. If you think a story is spam or off-topic, flag it by clicking on its "flag" link. (Not all users will see this; there is a karma threshold.)
- npizzolato 11y agoIt's certainly more intellectually fascinating than this tired criticism. Its being upvoted people find it interesting. There are many stories on the front page. If this doesn't interest you, read the next one.
- dang 11y agoWe've detached this subthread and marked it off-topic.