I've imposed my own ban on TechCrunch, with the BlockSite extension for Firefox (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3145). I actually installed it specifically to prevent getting lured to TechCrunch articles from sites like HN where I'm just looking at headlines. It's the only site I have listed, and the links show up as visited and unclickable, saving me wasting precious minutes everyday.
I use LeechBlock for FF, It's more comprehensive than BlockSite.
I use LeechBlock too, but It doesn't work perfectly in firefox+ubuntu, if I close the browser it loose all the previous setting. I have to import it again.
kind bit pain, but it works for me
Re:Is Apple Building A Search Engine?
by kirubakaran on Thursday November 13, 2008 @06:21PM
(#363739)
are you really advocating a ban?
Hacker News has banned other URLs before, from what I know, largely based around the theme of "stories here are irrelevant/infactual/not hacker news." Valleywag was. TinyURL is. I think TechCrunch is similarly useless as a news source.
i dont really understand the point of a blanket ban on articles from a website.
assuming the system isn't getting "played",aren't the articles that members deem interesting supposed rise to the top? So why a ban ?
(if this discussion has already been had elsewhere,please point me to it)
Maybe if there were a downward vote, people who dislike Techcrunch submissions could send them further down the page.
Re:Is Apple Building A Search Engine?
by allenbrunson on Thursday November 13, 2008 @07:36PM
(#363788)
pg and the editors hold the reins pretty tight around here. they have much more influence than the average reader. if a site tends to run nothing but articles that run counter to what's expected around here, it gets banned.
that sounds critical, but it's not. i agree completely with his decision. if this site were run as a democracy, it would eventually devolve into uselessness, as has every other site before it.
Yeah. HN is the first "social news" site I've been on with a strong editorial staff and with restrictions on users below certain levels of Karma. And I'd suspect that that's one of the things that keeps it at the level it's at.
The problem with democracy is that it is incredibly open to the possibility of quality and focus loss. Hacker News fixes those problems. And I'd argue that losing TechCrunch might be a good move.
I'm still surprised HN hasn't banned TechCrunch stories. When they do have a good story, usually somebody else has the story as well. And TechCrunch attracts a lot of spam.