Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ...
by davidw on Friday August 06, 2010 @10:11AM
(#1581056)
I can submit 100 stories that'll get people riled up about politics / amazing pics / funny-hah-hah! in the time you can write one article about monads.
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Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ...
by jrockway on Friday August 06, 2010 @10:16AM
(#1581073)
How many politics-related stories can you submit in the time it takes "island in a lake in an island in a lake in an island" to become the #1 story?
The point is simple: off-topic content is far easier to submit than good content. There's way more of it, and it's of interest to far more people. It would be very simple, were there no controls, to crowd out "good" content with politics/pics/etc... Which means that doing the opposite: crowding out bad content with good content, is very difficult. It would require a significant amount of work to go find and promote good articles, as compared to "bad" ones.
If anyone actually thinks this isn't so, think about the mental effort and learning required to write a good article about monads vs the effort required to rant about Bush or Obama or post a cool/funny pic.
("good" and "bad" are simplistic. I actually thought this article was kind of interesting; I just don't think it belongs here)
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ...
by Charuru on Friday August 06, 2010 @01:21PM
(#1581645)
I find it dubious that bad content is actually 'crowding' out good content. Which good real entry is this one higher than? The off-topic is just filling in the dead time between seriousness.
Re:Islands in lakes in islands in lakes ...
by davidw on Saturday August 07, 2010 @02:22AM
(#1583164)
I don't think it is happening right now; it's just something that could happen easily, and is something of a counter-argument to the idea that instead of just complaining, you should try and 'crowd out' the silly articles with good ones: it's not so easy.