Disagree strongly. And HN is proof that this isn't (entirely) true.
In fact HN is a lot nicer than a number of verified name forums.
In fact HN is a lot nicer than a number of verified name forums.
HN is relatively niche, it's not mainstream. Even if a troll posts e.g. sexist or Nazi crap here, it will get no attention due to a lack of fellow Nazis to upvote and engage like on Twitter/FB/Reddit, and in addition both the userbase and the mods are quick in removing trolling, thus further reducing the "profit" that a troll can have from trolling.
Also, HN lacks notifications. No matter if upvotes, downvotes, replys, flags - you have to look yourself in your own thread history. This prevents the rapid heating up of discussions - and the lack of a character limit allows users to properly express what they're thinking, unlike Twitter, thus preventing misunderstandings.
Of course there is karma whoring, I won't deny that - but there's no way you get thousands of karma points/likes/rts/claps/whatever for a simple Fuck Trump/Fuck Clinton. For gobbling up karma on HN one has to write either high quality content or be the lucky one who first submits a link to a SpaceX success or a critical security issue.
edit: Oh, there is one other thing which explains "nicer" for me. HN definitely leans towards the leftie-libertarian side. Usually, hate speech, offensive insults, derogatory vocabulary, discrimination, pointless trolling and other aspects associated with "unpleasant environments" are found on the right-wing/authoritarian/alt-right/gamergate/masculist spectrum.
Reducing credibility of right minded folks by categorizing them all as authoritarian You can be right wing And an upstanding citizen
The user's age on HN is in the ballpark of 25-40 years old, as it's a tech website.
The website in OP is a meme generator, and I'm sure the ballpack would be 12-18 years.
Now considering this, I agree with alkonaut.
Oh no, I'm aging out, I'm 41.
I'm curious why you put 40 as the top end there. If I were going to guess at an age range for this site I go lower and much higher.
I imagine he meant in the normal distribution sense, where 25-40 comprises ~70% of the userbase; entirely anecdotal but I get the feeling that's a reasonable assessment.
Honestly, though, there are some corners of real life (especially in those early teen years as you allude to, but even among full grown adults that should know better) where you will find people with this sort of personality. These type of reactions are not surprising in that context. Social media does seem to do something to amplify raw vulgarity and classless behavior though.
Exactly the target audience when we are discussing <topic> in tech, isn't it?
Edit: I misread / didn't read. My broader point is there is a lot of talk about how bad tech is, and yet here we are on a very technical and at the same time reasonably civil forum.
HN has users well outside that range though, it is probably under-represented on the lower end and I would suspect over-represented on the higher end based on my IRL interactions with a fairly large number of HN'ers.
The people who shape this forum are mostly not anonymous. Most of the people at the top of the leaderboard use their real name or some portion of it. In many cases, you can find articles about them or profiles on an employer's website or other third party verification of their identity that is far stronger than Facebook insisting I go by Doreen.
Furthermore, you have to have a handle here to apply for YC, the incubator that owns this site and has fostered companies that include Reddit and AirBnB. So being an asshole on HN can be a great means to guarantee you will never have a shot at a successful startup.
The stakes for participating here in good faith can run into the millions of dollars. Anyone with any sense at all will make some attempt to restrain themselves, plus the most influential community leaders will set a better example than you are going to see on most forums that lack such table stakes.
There are plenty of people that don't realize any of that. I seem to be the only person who ever points that out. But the fact that it seems to go largely unrecognized in conversation here doesn't mean the effect isn't there. People who would never state that money is a big part of why they behave here will, nonetheless, behave here because of the serious consequences that can occur if they don't.
Paul Graham has written articles about the YC "don't be an asshole" rule. They are quite open about the fact that they don't want to work with such people. So anyone who has any aspirations whatsoever of applying to YC and 2 functioning brain cells is going to try to not be asshole here.
That has more power than what your public handle is. And I am completely fine with it.