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Comment by shanebellone | Hacker News Reader

I would argue that HN is a collective not a social network.

You're being social right now, on Hacker News.

HN is social media, but it's not a social network. A network puts the emphasis on individual nodes (users) and the connections between them (following/friendship).

Correct. I love that the focus of HN is on discussing topics, not discussing individuals. Of course a topic could be an individual, like Elmo, but that's not the focus of the site itself. I don't follow any individuals on HN, I just respond to whomever I'm discussing a topic with and I don't care who that is.

You can even argue here!

I don’t know man. There are times when I genuinely want an argument to clarify my thoughts. There is zero argument- it just gets downvoted minus three. So then I sadly delete my comment. I usually assume since I’m not an American (wasn’t born here), am not able to get the nuances right, or maybe there’s some deep underlying social dynamics I’m unaware of. So better to just delete my comment and move on. These days I use HN primarily as mathoverflow - if I know how to work a problem I post. Otherwise best to shut my trap. HN isn’t the place for arguing- atleast not for me.

Downvotes attract other downvotes - which doesn't say much for the quality of our, much trumpeted, gregariousness. A downvote is when someone doesn't like your opinion but they can't be bothered to discuss the issue. So a downvote is often a sign of disrespect and can be safely ignored.

Surely not everyone here is American - me for instance. If you don't get the nuance right then they can tell you - that way both parties learn something.

The following phrases are contradictory btw, thus:

"I genuinely want an argument to clarify my thoughts"

"HN isn’t the place for arguing- at least not for me"

What do you like to argue about?

Personally I'm a big fan of the ChangeMyView forum on Reddit. Pretty much anything goes there, as long as you're civil and interested in productive discussion that aims toward clarifying your views. Which is a refreshing change from the ideological echo chambers of most of the rest of the site, where if you say the wrong thing you'll be banned.

No, you can't!

I'm pretty sure I can!

Where does the network come in? I can't friend anybody, I can't tag anybody. There's no social graph, at least not one that users are aware of.

By that argument, email, text messaging and even phone calls are a part of social media.

Mods agree - if bot replies became high quality enough to meet human standards here, dang is ok with allowing them. This site’s managers value the content quality, with no value given to social qualities

You're fooling yourself. We're living in a dictatorship.

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