Ask HN: How does HN maintain high quality still?

Re:Ask HN: How does HN maintain high quality still? by mikewarot on Monday August 22, 2022 @03:49PM (#32556301)

I think that many times, many of us have a post all typed up...then we reconsider how well it adds value to the conversation, and close the tab, thus not posting something of lower value, that we would normally be just fine posting elsewhere.

That act of self-censorship (or just plain quality control) is a big part of it, in my opinion.

I only actually post less than half of the time these days. I'd nuke this one too, but then I do want to make the point, so here goes.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: How does HN maintain high quality still? by Jensson on Monday August 22, 2022 @04:00PM (#32556427)

I used to do that on a previous account, but after a while you stop caring about karma and just post stuff. Just need to get enough intuition to post things that on average gets upvotes, at that point downvotes no longer matters except as an indicator that someone didn't like what you posted.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: How does HN maintain high quality still? by yawnxyz on Monday August 22, 2022 @08:13PM (#32558979)

Is this culture of 'high quality posting' inspired from other high quality posts, instilled from the voting mechanism, from up/down voting or from the FAQ?

How come much smaller Facebook groups have a tendency to devolve into a mess, but something as large as HN doesn't?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: How does HN maintain high quality still? by eternityforest on Tuesday August 23, 2022 @02:54AM (#32561343)

People on HN constantly talk about the high quality. Nobody wants to be the one who started a shitposting trend that ruins it all.

Also, there are no other "subreddits" with close ties. It's similar to old forums from the 2000s.

Even when forums had useless drama, at least they still had community.

Facebook and reddit pick up the culture of the sites in general, so almost everything has clickbaits and dick jokes everywhere.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: How does HN maintain high quality still? by mikewarot on Monday August 22, 2022 @09:21PM (#32559442)

>How come much smaller Facebook groups have a tendency to devolve into a mess, but something as large as HN doesn't?

Facebook has an algorithm optimizing what you see for their purposes. It tends to preferentially show emotionally charged content, to try to increase "engagement". Needless to say, this is not conducive to calm, rational, discussions on that platform.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: How does HN maintain high quality still? by sleepymoose on Monday August 22, 2022 @04:55PM (#32557104)

I can look my Reddit comment history and know that this is truth.

Ditto on your last comment as well. If not for this conversation, I don't think I would even admit to having a Reddit account around these parts.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: How does HN maintain high quality still? by Jensson on Monday August 22, 2022 @04:59PM (#32557180)

Reddit seems to be mostly circle jerks to me, there is very little tolerance for two sided arguments. On HN two sides can exist in one thread since downvotes are restricted while upvotes are not, meaning that both sides can upvotes whatever they feel is good and therefore we get rich discussions.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: How does HN maintain high quality still? by funerr on Monday August 22, 2022 @05:43PM (#32557679)

Yes, but it still doesn't explain bad actors.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Ask HN: How does HN maintain high quality still? by mikewarot on Monday August 22, 2022 @06:03PM (#32557881)

If the signal to noise ratio is better, bad actors stick out more, and we're all not fatigued too much to deal with it.

[ Parent | on HN ]