I get wanting to "filter bots and/or corporate shills" but a tool like this encourages all kinds of behaviors outside that scope.
I do not understand the idolization of HN as some bastion of spirited debate and nuance. It is objectively no better than Reddit and subject to the same hivemind mentality. If you want legitimate spirited debate and can learn to ignore trolls removing the voting system would bring HN closer to the fantasy it's readers seem to believe it is. Unfortunately taking away internet points from the terminally online is akin to making an addict go cold turkey. It wouldn't end well.
HN is the closest thing there is to a news aggregator with civil, open discussions. If there’s one closer, I’d love to know.
On HN you can expect at least median technical competence when the subject is web development, but beyond that (and definitely with non-tech related subjects) people tend to be "aggressively ignorant" to the point that you can tell who the few actually knowledgeable people are by how angry they are at everyone else.
I'm talking about overall, by average, not subreddit
You're free to turn on the "showdead" setting to read comments that have been heavily downvoted or flagged. I had it turned on for a while, and then turned it off after confirming to myself "yep, didn't miss a thing".
I find it funny that regularly you hear people specifically avoid calling this place a "social network" or "reddit-like". It's a wonderful ode to the dunning-kruger no-coder. There's an implication of pseudo-intellectual superiority in this community that can only be described as the merger of terminally online redditors and big tech. A meta-criticism of the fundamental scoring behavior of this website is met with downvotes and out of the 5 I've received I've gotten 2 comments. Neither explicitly countering my point, and none of them providing the "spirited debate" OP suggests exists here. The website is a hivemind. Period.
Absolutely hilarious. Sometimes points demonstrate themselves. At least slashdot required you to have modpoints. Power tripping terminally online crybullies dominate every website scored by points.
You've certainly gotten more than 5.
I think you're mistaking ideology for culture. Lots of people here are aligned with you ideologically. But the culture here is to discourage people from being rude and insulting through the use of downvotes and flags.
I often downvote people I agree with who similarly oversimplify. Interestingly this can sometimes lead to fights as any response is often taken as opposition. But I similarly often upvote points I disagree with, when I find the arguments are good and bring up points I was missing. These actually tend to turn into the best conversations and are a main part of what keeps me coming to this website.
People vote for many different reasons. A vote is an aggregate of many different metrics. It's likely unsurprising that this leads to misinterpretation of the metric.
Do you then also downvote all the insipid claims of HN superiority that, at best, have similar oversimplification?
But yeah, when I see them, I do just downvote and move on. Sometimes comment. Depends on my mood ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I found the insinuation that the HN community are overly-online and addicted to upvotes to be pretty insulting yeah.
Could HN survive a comment like this? Certainly. Could HN survive if comments like this were left unchecked? Something would probably survive, but it wouldn't be the HN I'm willing to be a part of. I've been in my share of communities like that, and I'm done with them.
HN certainly isn't perfect and criticism is warranted. Sometimes I email dang to complain about eg comments not being deletable. But I don't think this criticism is on the mark; they're making a bunch of provocative and insulting comments and also stating that they don't see thoughtful conversation here, and my personal opinion is that these things are related.