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They get tiresome very quickly. I recently sat and read a Reddit/r/History discussion on Pirate-ship Democracies, the continual (and all very similar) puns & jo

They get tiresome very quickly. I recently sat and read a Reddit/r/History discussion on Pirate-ship Democracies, the continual (and all very similar) puns & jokes about pirates littered between the interesting points got really, really annoying very fast. In person, if you're having a discussion and someone cracks a good pun it's fine, but when you're on the internet 100+ people make the same pun, then it's really not fine, it's boring.

1arity 11y ago
That might happen on HN, and then again, HN isn't reddit. I suppose I am also curious that, if the experiment of allowing humour has not been tried, where did the idea to disallow humour come from ?
- CatsoCatsoCatso 11y ago
  I haven't been here long enough to say when, where or why it came about. I imagine there's a fear that allowing humour will lead to this place being like Reddit (ie. swamped with more jokes than quality responses). The one-liners I've seen people deliver here (and get downvoted for) haven't ever really been worth the read. It might only be a single comment, but reading it wastes time, copy that by a few more & you'll get sick of jokes fast. This is personally why I try and avoid Reddit, trying to follow a conversation is frustrating when every 3rd post is a witty comment with no substance but the pun.
- gus_massa 11y ago
  This site was made after reddit, so I guess some of the design decisions were to copy the good things of reddit but not the bad things. Some design decisions are written in code, like no downvote for submissions. Some design decisions are distributed in the community, like no oneliners or jokes. (Unless they are really original and interesting.)
- brudgers 11y ago
  HN allows humor. It tends to be downvoted because it tends to be not very good, where "not very good" means that it fails to extend the content and ignores the reader. At the meta-level, downvoted humor is invariably followed by "why all the downvotes, lighten up" driving any hope of anyone learning anything about anything other than the way HN tends to work further into the weeds with a pitcher of hurt feelings. The idea to discourage humor comes from an understanding of how online communities work and how the mores of communities shape behavior.

1arity 11y ago

That might happen on HN, and then again, HN isn't reddit. I suppose I am also curious that, if the experiment of allowing humour has not been tried, where did the idea to disallow humour come from ?

CatsoCatsoCatso 11y ago
I haven't been here long enough to say when, where or why it came about. I imagine there's a fear that allowing humour will lead to this place being like Reddit (ie. swamped with more jokes than quality responses). The one-liners I've seen people deliver here (and get downvoted for) haven't ever really been worth the read. It might only be a single comment, but reading it wastes time, copy that by a few more & you'll get sick of jokes fast. This is personally why I try and avoid Reddit, trying to follow a conversation is frustrating when every 3rd post is a witty comment with no substance but the pun.
gus_massa 11y ago
This site was made after reddit, so I guess some of the design decisions were to copy the good things of reddit but not the bad things. Some design decisions are written in code, like no downvote for submissions. Some design decisions are distributed in the community, like no oneliners or jokes. (Unless they are really original and interesting.)
brudgers 11y ago
HN allows humor. It tends to be downvoted because it tends to be not very good, where "not very good" means that it fails to extend the content and ignores the reader. At the meta-level, downvoted humor is invariably followed by "why all the downvotes, lighten up" driving any hope of anyone learning anything about anything other than the way HN tends to work further into the weeds with a pitcher of hurt feelings. The idea to discourage humor comes from an understanding of how online communities work and how the mores of communities shape behavior.