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Comment by DrNuke | Hacker News Reader

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DrNuke

The very glue within the majority of HNers' effort here is money. Jobs represented $$$$$, Ian's Debian is free.

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lots of money has been made on top of debian.

The development community still respects FOSS.

Therefore, HN does not really represent the development community. More like javascript hipsters.

Please hang out here for a bit longer and get to know the place before deciding what community does HN represent.

I had been a lurker for ~2 years and a registered user for ~3 years, so about ~5 years in total. I don't believe that HN adequately represents either independent developers, non-corporate FOSS community or web developers ("JS hipsters").

My only problem with representation here is that if you have differing opinions than one of the other groups, you get downvoted into oblivion. Hell, saying anything that goes remotely against the tide gets you downvoted.

I can understand what he means though, because most people that downvote me are "JS hipsters." Since these people comment the most, they have the ability to control the conversation, and thus leave a larger visible proportion of representation.

Everyone has this policing tone, too, and it's obnoxious.

Nah, one has to learn to stop caring about downvotes that much. You can very well express contrarian views on HN, and yes, you sometimes have to pay the price in blood^H^H^H^H^Hkarma. Like with all worthy causes. What matters is that people will engage your argument constructively, if you write it in a substantial and civil way.

Case in point: only yesterday 'miguelrochefort had the guts to post advocating a completely contrarian view on privacy[0]. That particular comment, predictably, got downvoted, but it didn't stop a thoughtful discussion from spawning. As long as this happens, HN serves its purpose.

Also, how do you know that people who downvote you are "JS hipsters" and not someone else? :).

[0] - https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=miguelrochefort

My ultimate paranoia is that they are part Lua hipster like me. My own kind downvoting me.

I can imagine. Getting into a disagreement about programming with another Lisper is something that would break my heart.

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