Re:Poll: Should we ban TechCrunch?
by ahoyhere on Monday May 25, 2009 @10:36AM
(#625488)
Oh, no, I'm not offended. I was just refuting what you said because I disagree. No worries at all.
You're right, the language stuff is almost exactly the same thing, except (in theory) HN people know a lot about programming languages.
The education stuff, and the economic stuff, and (god forbid) the design stuff, people know practically nothing about, and rarely bother to educate themselves. People just want a forum for venting their personal opinions and promulgating their pre-existing worldviews.
(In my opinion, true hackers -- the technical type, and every other type -- have fluid worldviews and don't invest much in defending their own egos in the face of conflict.)
HN does not promote moderation or rationality (e.g. "everyone should use the tools that make them most effective and not argue about it"). No popularity contest can.
It devolves into a place where people come to be reassured that they are, in fact, great, and the things that they are weak at are unimportant, and the things they are strong at are the most important things in the world. Metacognition disappears.
Cycle:
Founders: This place sucks! Let's start a new place with only the best.
First Wave: This place is so much better! I can breathe free with like minds! Yay! Let's tell people about it.
Second Wave: Dude this is like better than that other place. My Ruby linkbait isn't so lost in the news.
Third Wave: RON PAUL!!
All communities like this decay this way without very, very careful tending... and to do that careful tending, one must have an excellent understanding of social dynamics, human nature, and social skills in general.
Thus all developer-centric news sites are doomed! ;)
You're right, the language stuff is almost exactly the same thing, except (in theory) HN people know a lot about programming languages.
The education stuff, and the economic stuff, and (god forbid) the design stuff, people know practically nothing about, and rarely bother to educate themselves. People just want a forum for venting their personal opinions and promulgating their pre-existing worldviews.
(In my opinion, true hackers -- the technical type, and every other type -- have fluid worldviews and don't invest much in defending their own egos in the face of conflict.)
HN does not promote moderation or rationality (e.g. "everyone should use the tools that make them most effective and not argue about it"). No popularity contest can.
It devolves into a place where people come to be reassured that they are, in fact, great, and the things that they are weak at are unimportant, and the things they are strong at are the most important things in the world. Metacognition disappears.
Cycle:
Founders: This place sucks! Let's start a new place with only the best.
First Wave: This place is so much better! I can breathe free with like minds! Yay! Let's tell people about it.
Second Wave: Dude this is like better than that other place. My Ruby linkbait isn't so lost in the news.
Third Wave: RON PAUL!!
All communities like this decay this way without very, very careful tending... and to do that careful tending, one must have an excellent understanding of social dynamics, human nature, and social skills in general.
Thus all developer-centric news sites are doomed! ;)