It's definitely one of the only places on the internet where you can ask a question or insult something, and have either the creator or most renown SME pop out of nowhere to explain everything. Never seen anything quite like it in any other field of interest I have.

SME = subject matter expert?

Please spell out your abbreviations for those of us who are not familiar :)

They're talking about the most renowned execs at Sony Music Entertainment obviously..

Exec at Sony Music Entertainment here. You are correct.

Or Small & Medium-sized Enterprises

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_and_medium-sized_enterpr...

I’d bet somewhere deep in the organization SME has a SME SME.

'smee!

edit: "it's me!"

Worse, at least in the government circles I work in, people pronounce "SME" as "smee." Almost like you're saying the first syllable of Smeagol. Good luck googling that.

You are not alone in this... The first time I heard "smee", I thought my ears had gone.

This is why one should watch our for TLAs ;)

Temporal logic of actions?

TLA is a TLA. Only slightly less popular are FLAs.

If by FLA you mean Macromedia Flash Files, then yes, they're less popular now!

Everyone else seems having fun with it, but yes - subject matter expert.

This is the only platform I frequent where I read more than I comment and I learn a lot from people, too. I always come here to find interesting takes on things and I'm very rarely disappointed. A lot of times I delete my comments instead of posting because I worry ot might not be a good enough contribution and that I might sound dumb. That's very humbling.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hackernews works. I respect the mods and appreciate their work keeping everything running. We're living in increasingly volatile times, and while a lot of us are stubborn and hard of hearing - myself included - and people like Jonathan Blow like to hate on that, I still think this forum is a bastion for real discussion and understanding on all kinds of topics.

It's bizarre how many times I've come across someone just randomly hating on Jon Blow. I don't know what this guy does to attract such attention considering his relatively niche space of work.

I'm not hating on him, I like him almost as much as John Carmack. I think he brings criticism on himself though because he's very negative on some topics, obviously not making friends. While he's doing his niche work he's shooting off strong opinions all the time.

Well, even if you're not in the industry it's still difficult not to have strong opinions on some fields of software developments; especially the shitshow that is the web.

That said, very few programmers today recognize or admit the atrocious quality of modern software. I think That's why people like Jonathan Blow or Casey Muratori are disliked by developers who see themselves as champions of "modern" software development.

Sorry for misunderstanding.

If you go against the status quo you get flagged. It's just as shit as any other forum.

If you post like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29342840 you certainly do! Do you really think you shouldn't?

Moderating even on Thanksgiving Day!

HN is a great place to learn new things. And new words! This is the first time I’ve ever heard the word “cantankerous” :)

Agreed. I can think of a few words off hand I learned here. Rejoinder has probably been my favorite.

Can often learn the most words from the magniloquence of cantankerous rejoinders.

I’m actually just as thankful for all the words I don’t have to learn here. This is often the first place I go to when I want to look for a distilled, “real” take on something by people capable of communicating with a lot of jargon but generally choose to speak simply and succinctly.

This resonates for me.

My proudest work-achievement of the year was getting to #1 spot of my favourite website with termsandconditions.game

I love HN. Happy thanksgiving!

Even the worst comments on HN are far better than the worst comments on Reddit or Twitter.

HN is quite enjoyable to read, the only exception I observed is any topic political or someway a topic is diverted into that trench.

>> Hackernews is simultaneously the most cantankerous and, imho, highest quality response

In other words, exactly what the internet was and (for people like me) hoped it would continue to be. I don't think it's entirely the moderation (though that certainly helps) but somehow the conceptual integrity has been maintained and has a powerful shaping force.

I never completely agree with the content and opinions, but we all seem really well aligned with the rules of the game.

Yup, you all on the whole teach me a ton and keep me honest. You call me out on my shit and also submit really cool things. Here's to more.

I agree on everything, but the moderation. Personally, I have seen very few times where their assistance is even needed.

I have seen them squash interesting debates.

I had one guy email me, and tell me at home to stop commenting so much. (Never forgot that one, and there are no TOS. I will probally pay for those last two sentences? Then again if HN is what it claims, maybe not?)

What makes this place special is there are a wide range of people here interested in many subjects. What I love most is cutting through the bull. I doubt there's a person here who doesn't know about The Scientific Method, or The Placebo Effect.

We don't automatically give credit to the wealthy boys unless they did something really spectacular in their lives, and we want to know exactly how much help the wealthy family had in the success. We don't let them pontificate ad nausium because they made money. We scrutinize and investigate everyone, and every idea. From the best in class PhDs to lost disenfranchised souls. Everyone has a chance to make their point.

Hacker News is by far the best site for technical discussion.

(I do spend too much time here. It's my fault though. I don't have much of a life, and I am lonely. I am looking for new sites besides Reddit. Reddit would be so much better if everyone wasen't trying out for a SNL contract.)

Didn’t really read you post but this jumped out at me, “Hacker News is by far the best site for technical discussion.”

Indubitably true.

Frankly, even if I’m forever shadowbanned, I can’t think of a better place on the net. It reminds me of the old net, the best parts. The current fashion and culture change a bit over the years but not too much. It’s hard to not mess up a good thing but they do well to do that here, even if there’s a strong pro-CCP bias evident at times in some of the moderation.

You’re not shadowbanned yet. Unless we both are together…

If you're lonely I can't be any more emphatic when I recommend real life groups.

Tech meet ups, gym classes, insert interest here groups and anything else you can think of.

Online connections just don't fully satisfy the human need for connecting.