Ask HN: Does anyone else feel like staying off HN for a bit? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Does anyone else feel like staying off HN for a bit?

49 pointsst1x741 comments

The topics and quality of discussion have really changed over the past week and I'm not that interested in more free speech flame wars or questions like "Would decentralised distributed git-blockchain replace twitter and save us from tyranny if Trump pushed one block to it?"

Anyone else feel in a similar way? How are you dealing with this?

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No. There are always a lot of discussions on HN I don't much care about - so I ignore them. Meanwhile, a historical event took place in the United Sates this past week. "Big Tech" has reacted to that event. That reaction is being discussed. Seems like an appropriate topic for HN to discuss. If you don't want to discuss that issue there are still posts such as how the new MacBook Air is the best computer I've ever used. So I suggest ignore what you don't want to read more about and click through the things you do.

The last few weeks feel different from the usual mixed bag of HN submissions. Lots of submissions seem close to / over the line of the HN guideline, "If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic". I know that rule gets bent sometimes when a topic is particularly notable, but the deluge of submissions about current events lately seems excessive. My RSS reader shows 6 of 8 front-page stories in a row that would likely have been buried as off-topic maybe 5+ years ago.

It's also not clear to me that HN has a compelling value-add on the "<so and so> deplatformed <so and so>" or "social media is amplifying <fringe faction>" developments vs the many other outlets covering these current events. While the current events submissions involve technology companies, they're not really stories about technology. We're discussing general-interest stories about media/service company policy that happen to involve revoking software access or broadcasting someone's message. The relevance to HN feels about the same as if e.g., a major TV outlet had been giving equal airtime to offensive parties and has now ceased doing that. HN isn't all-tech, but HN normally focuses on topics the average layman may not appreciate, and recent submissions feel much more general-interest than that spirit.

I've seen a lot of flagged/dead front-page submissions come across my RSS feed in the last week+, suggesting the HN community is pretty polarized on whether or not it wants to see some of this stuff, if something makes it to the front page and then gets killed.

Seems you always hated this place: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25044791

If always is 2 months, you comment only confirms the curtness that has increased.

I agree with OP that the quality on HN has decreased recently, both stories and comments. This has been a progression over several years from my perspective.

OP’s account is 3 months old.

yes, and i think the first post is criticizing HN content.

I do enjoy hn's discussions even if my opinions are rarely shared.

In general I don't mind reading opinions which are different from mine and I enjoy a window on people in tech and startup on issues that space from technology to politics.

I felt in the past it may be a bit to addictive (I don't do any other social media) and ended up restricting its usage (first fully, then by time, then by device).

Your profile settings have a “noprocrast” option, you could try switching it on and see how that’s goes. By default you get 20mins of viewing time then you’re banned for 3 hours.

It might be worth it until all the politics blow over.

When some group, or citizens of a country, or people in a large "class" goes through culturally-significant events, it is perfectly reasonable for conversation to be pulled in that directly for some amount of time. My experience is that this place will always adjust itself back to it's core topic.

Side note: I've noticed these topics tend to burn out quickly because the post and the posters are getting tons of down votes and, due to the "algorithm" (dang), being slowly pushed away from the top. Speaking of: Moderating is often a thankless job, so thank you.

I don't care for the topic at all, so all of everyday life in the US is getting tiresome. If anything, HN is my break from it as people here tend to be a little more objective and rational than elsewhere online.

Block the site for a while and go make a pizza from scratch, go skiing, or do something outside. The arguments don't change from one deplatforming thread to another, you won't miss anything.

If anyone did, you probably won't be able to reach them this way. They wouldn't be here.

Not necessarily, I frequently feel like quitting soda, yet come lunch time the fridge door opens and the Coke goes into my stomach.

Ok, I guess I should have clarified I was only referring to the ones that were serious about it.

I find it really sad how politics has slowly invaded HN over the past year. And also how anyone with a dissenting opinion has to post with throwaway accounts that will inevitably turn light grey.

Unfortunately, I only see things getting worse from here. It seems inevitable when observing other internet communities that gradually devolved into being pervaded by partisanship and identity politics.

Hopefully a new site comes along at which point the cycle will start over...

I'd prefer to see a politics tag added to hn.

Agreed. It would be great to have tags in the titles so it's easier to filter out stuff.

Frankly, the only politics I want to see on HN are the politics of technology itself. I.e., laws about data and data freedom, IP, open source, etc. I really don't want US or World politics in general here.

But I can ignore them when they get posted.

I do, but like most social media sites, I simply cannot quit.

Yes. I'm dealing with it by checking in less often. It's not just the past couple of weeks - the last few months have felt weird.

I'm reading books and listening to long-form podcasts on the consumption side. Writing more is actually helping the most.

No, illegitimi non carborundum.

HN has always had rather poor quality of discussion around politics (though of course it's still way better than Facebook or Twitter, not to mention Parler!). It's not really about Trump or about what has transpired during the past week; that's just the symptom.

Agreed, but it just seems like more and more politics. I used to be able to find interesting threads randomly by browsing comments, but it seems like a large amount of what I see there now is low effort bickering. Additionally, I can't seem to get engagement or discussion on any of my "on topic" comments. Now this might be my fault, but some of the threads I make that seem more interesting, tend to get maybe an upvote or two and little to no comments.

I've come and gone over the past several years, but tend to come back because its still the site that curates the most interesting tech content, but most of my good tech discussions happen on various discord servers now.

OP, join #lobsters on Freenode and request an invite. Mention my username (same as here) and I'll see if I can extend an invite.

You can hide those threads. When the Covid thing took off I seemed to be blocking every other thread.

There's a moderator curated version of HN if you wanted that.

Check out hckrnews.com

I find it easier to read and skip over stories.

Only 5/30 issues on the front page are Trump/free speech. They're easy enough to avoid

I don't know about you, but I get kind of tired about politics. I feel like we have enough smart people in this country to make things better.

This whole thing reminds of the 4 stages of change:

- denial: our capitalistic democratic ways work: we're not China!

- resistance: oh no, FAANG control our lives, we must fight back!

- exploration: what if mastodon blockchain webRTC could save us?

- acceptance: something must be done, X is something, therefore it must be done!

We're currently on the third step. I'd love for there to be a rational, coherent solution for the last step, but I don't have much faith that the for-karma collective in HN is going to agree to stop nitpicking, let alone come up with a remotely workable solution.

Expect to see technology startups claiming to solve the problem without understanding its human aspect, big tech growing more powerful on the back of cacophonous social media "engagement", and China's dominance in the world increasing as the rest of the world becomes less and less able to manufacture anything. That's what the fourth stage is going to be, if things keep going the way they have been.

> - acceptance: something must be done, X is something, therefore it must be done!

That's not acceptance. That's the politician's syllogism, and it's a logical fallacy. Acceptance is "This is the way it is, and I/we can't change it."

within the 4 stages of change, "acceptance" is a bit of a misnomer. Sometimes, it's labeled "commitment". The basic tenet is that some sort of conclusion happens in this stage (which may or may not be based on a consensus)

One of the saddest things on here in my opinion is how vehemently people hate China. No critical thinking ability at all.

> how vehemently people hate China

In my case (and others, I've observed), I don't hate China's citizens. Instead I loathe China's leadership. It's corrupt, evil to its own citizens, quick to violently oppress any form of protest, and it's racial slavery.

And I offer equal loathing towards any other leaders who look at China and go "You know what? We should try that here."

Many of the claims you hear about in western media haven't been verified from outside sources. Obviously the US wants its citizens to believe that life here is sooo much better.

What part of “violation of human rights” or “concentration camps” or “disappearing business people” requires more critical thinking? Nazi Germany did amazing things in many fields (just skipped to the end here).

I'd love it if we held our businessmen and bankers to the same standards as in China.

Have you heard of Tiananmen square? That government is getting rich while the western world is collapsing on itself.

China has 600mln people living with under 140$ per month and 1% controlling 70% of the wealth.

It is certainly a cause of concern, it's the closest thing as a Star Wars' Galactic Empire I can think of.

Have you heard of healthcare as a human right? It's something that China believes. Meanwhile the US is perfectly fine with "caring" for someone while in the hospital, then stabbing them in the back with a huge bill later.

Your comment history is full of comments like this, but you never seem to elaborate. What's so good about China? Are you talking about their culture or their government?

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