Ask HN: What Is “Good” & “Bad” HN | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What Is “Good” & “Bad” HN

15 pointsbillme6 comments

First, like many, truly value HN, respect the mods, community, YC, etc.

Asking “what is good & bad HN?” - because I am guessing like many, I read dang’s comments, once in awhile glance through his recent comments, but I never gotten in habit of reading all his comments, or at least trying to follow his meta-HN comments.

Dang posted this comment to a submission made early today — and honestly curious what tips the community has on finding and/or writing good posts for HN; here’s dang’s comment:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23239567

View on HN

I'll speak to comments mores than posts.

Good HN is sourced, maturely explained viewpoints, that have "meat" to them. "Meat" being a thesis and supportive dialog. Or, at minimum, personal experiences that enhance the discussion at hand.

Bad HN is puns, harsh politics, humor, and dismissive language. Examples: "Nah, [my subjective viewpoint]", "correlation is not causation", "I feel attacked", etc. These comments clutter the comment section, add nothing to the discussion, and brings HN down ten pegs. It also invites those in who want to chat without understanding the topics and/or reading the articles. Reddit is a prime example of this.

>Bad HN is puns, harsh politics, humor, and dismissive language.

I think humor has a place on HN, so long as it's used sparingly while remaining highbrow and relevant to the discussion at hand.

As a budding HN comedian, it's taken years to learn how to play to such a tough crowd. Nowadays I just get weird looks whenever I explain that my dislike of tomatoes stems from the fact that they taste the same as downvotes.

Another Good one is respect. We can agree/disagree, discuss or rant, but if there's no respect for the others involved... HN falls apart.

Personally, I can be obnoxious at times. But respecting others' comments, helps create a welcoming and open place, which is what makes Hacker News a great place.

Bad HN is also cheap rhetorical tricks, pseudo-intellectual quotes and thought-terminating cliches. Too many people here seem to want to score points in an imaginary game against a straw opponent and show off their galaxy-brain wit rather than actually talk to people.

I'd rather have a hundred more lame attempts at humor than another comment referencing 1984, Brave New World or the American founding fathers (likely entirely out of context) as if it were profound.

Stating the obvious, there’s also these official HN pages on the topic.

Approach to Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html

Site Guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

FAQS:

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html

Be ready to learn. Many if not most HN discussions attract at least a few commenters who are really experts in that field - sometimes world experts. (Of course, they also attract a lot of people who obviously aren‘t, and most people will be somewhere in between.) You‘re welcome to put your reasonable opinion out there, but keep sufficient humility to accept that you may have been mistaken.

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