Ask HN: Do all the iPad articles really add something valuable? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Do all the iPad articles really add something valuable?

19 pointsohashi19 comments

I was wondering how much of the front page would be crowded with iPad today... most of it I guess is the answer. Do all these articles really add any value beyond perhaps the first or maybe second? I feel like there are huge diminishing returns on these types of articles. Am I missing something?

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You are asking a very self-referential question which you probably know the answer to. If a tsunami of iPad posts don't add much value, as you suggest, how much value do meta-iPad posts add, do you think?

Not much honestly. But then again, there wasn't anything interesting on the front page anyways. I would think some sort of flooding/filtering might help with these types of issues. I am all for the latest and greatest, but, I don't come here to get same information 15 times, it detracts from the experience and I think HN can do better.

They provide other people with the information that not everyone here wants to discuss the hype of the day. For me, this was valuable, since (coincidentally?) yesterday was the first day that I couldn't find any submission that I was even remotely interested in.

Meta posts have their place, if they are used in moderation.

This is the first time I've ever pulled up Hacker News and found nothing interesting on the homepage.

I'd appreciate a comment with the downvote. I was answering the question. Do you simply disagree that the most interesting stories are buried more deeply than usual?

I guess you're being downvoted because it's such a clichéed thing to say, and it adds nothing to the conversation beyond a "Yes" or "No" sound.

I haven't seen it mentioned before, so for me it isn't cliché, and I was sort of surprised to see the story was still running that strong.

A high-resolution iphone that can not make voice calls is not the earth shattering announcement that it was rumoured was coming.

The danger of having the hype machine out of control like this is that you can basically only under-deliver.

I'm sorry you feel that way, but looking at the comments and upvotes, a lot of HN users do find it interesting. I couldn't care less when there are a bunch of SEO or Clojure stories on the first page since that's not what I want to read about. But I don't whine about it since it is obviously of interest to other users.

It's a little frustrating seeing a full page of iPad posts but when I looked a little closer I could see that they're all (mostly) looking at different things. I was keen to know more about why it didn't have a camera and how this would affect web-apps - there's an article for that. :)

That said I think I'll take the next couple of days off from HN.

This is self-correcting.

When people are bored of talking about the iPad then they will stop voting the articles up. If more exciting things appear then they will be voted up.

Give it 24 hours, and the wheel will turn again.

This too shall pass. Also, people have been mature enough to avoid tossing an Erlang-bomb, which is a plus.

It's either 'mature enough' or 'topic is strikingly resilient to bringing up Erlang'. I like the idea as a self-imposed posting guideline though - 'before posting, have you considered how susceptible your post might be to Erlanging?'

It's sad that Erlang will be - at least on HN - forever associated with the stunt pulled by a very limited number of individuals.

Probably not forever. People will move on eventually, reach some clojure.

"Do all these articles really add any value beyond perhaps the first or maybe second?"

You must be new here!

Aside from the "value is in the eye of the beholder" answer, Apple has always had a bit of a cult like following even among some developers, and when an Apple product launches you can expect some links on the front page. And arguably it does have some impact on Hacker's lives and is worth some discussion, even if you think (as I do) the reactions (both pro and anti) to this specific product is overblown.

But yes, this will fade over the next few days. Just the "cost of doing business" on HN. Just wait a couple of days and things will be back to normal.

Only a small fraction of them do, and this is not one of them. One can understand the excitement, however. I would imagine this will tail off over the next day.

Don't forget the niche in a niche - at a quick glance the top 8 articles and 14 of the top page are iPad related, but only 5 of them attracted me and only 2 warranted upvotes. Only 3 got enough support to make it to the best page.

So it's not the same 87 people upvoting all the articles. They are discussing different facets, which will appeal to different HN members.

Having said that, I am looking forward to tomorrow ...

The rush of iPad news means there are a lot of lookers on HN and not enough makers. Makers care about tools and processes and generally stuff conductive of making, while lookers want to ogle. Lookers aren't bad people, but makers need to have their own place with high signal/noise ratio, while lookers tend to unwillingly destroy it when they show up in large numbers.

I believe it is a sign of how important this issue is to the community. I wouldn't underestimate it.

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