Hacker News Reader

Comment by cprncus | Hacker News Reader

I don't see how general celebrity deaths are hacker news. I would like to read about tech and computer news and ideas; if I wanted this, I would read general news sites.

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I agree. This submission has taken up about an entire half an inch of screen real estate, and seeing as how Apple hasn't yet offered a Macbook Air with a larger display, I can't really give up that much space. What's worse is the js script HN seems to be running that forces your mouse cursor to gravitate towards links of celebrity news.

It's not that my time and reading effort is so valuable (it isn't). It's that news forums are as valuable as they are curated to be on topic. With your argument, everyone could just post anything, such as what Justin B had for lunch, and I could just scroll down, right?

Absolutely. People can post news about what the Biebster had for lunch, and if stories of Lunchables pizza with a glass of chocolate milk resonated with the hackers here to the point where it ended up on the front page, I'd have no problem with it.

Loosen up. People here are human with shared interests that go beyond interpreters and cloud computing. To have one story about a celebrity death hit the front page every so often isn't a big deal. And saying that, the entire front page was covered in stories about Job's death for a couple of days, but we survived. We're here, stronger, more alive than ever.

Or you can understand that a community will vote as they see fit, and some news items that are not to your liking may make it to the front page. If you disagree with the community, then I am sure you can find a more appropriate one elsewhere that might be able to meet every need you have, as opposed to one that might occasionally have something that does not interest you. With your 48 days on the site, I am sure it won't be hard to make the decision on where you want to get your news from.

This has been discussed many times, but as you've just joined, here's a PSA:

On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. [1]

Lou Reed was an amazing musician, and someone that promoted intellectual curiosity [2], hence the 20+ points. (too bad one of the mods seems to disagree, hence it was flagged to now show up at the front page anymore).

[1] http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html [2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFy4kRLCJBU&t=20

If you're going to quote something, make sure that it doesn't directly contradict your position:

"If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic."

So we probably shouldn’t discuss NSA surveillance ever again here on HN, right?

Lou Reed spoke on technology at SXSW. He was an audio purist. He made a video mocking the GOP. I think he qualified as an influential geek and deserves a black band on the title bar of HN.

> So we probably shouldn’t discuss NSA surveillance ever again here on HN, right?

I CAN ONLY DREAM.

Sure, keep working on point 4 of your S:N Improvement Program.

http://imgur.com/ab50rmB

Upvoted. (As if you needed more of those.)

> (too bad one of the mods seems to disagree...)

This is back on the front page - and at the #1 - so my last mention doesn't make sense anymore.

As far as I can tell, the only things considered off topic on HN are (1) submissions whose title don't match the headline of the linked page, and (2) puns.

> puns

Did you hear about the latest research that shows adding a delayed version of a signal to itself [1] enhances the security of many existing encryption and anonymity protocols by adding an additional layer? Some people are considering adding it to the next version of popular Internet privacy software [2]. I don't understand how it works, though, so maybe I should:

Ask HN: Why comb in a Tor?

(Obviously I made this up just to set up the punch line. Or should I say, PUNch line?)

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comb_filter

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(anonymity_network)

It's hacker news because hackers upvoted it.

Wrong. The guidelines aren't that clear on what hacker news is, but they're quite clear on what hacker news isn't. Just because people upvote something, that doesn't automatically make it hacker news. Having said that, rest in peace Lou Reed. Your music was a big part of my life.

> Wrong. The guidelines aren't that clear on what hacker news is, but they're quite clear on what hacker news isn't.

The guidelines are not defining "hacker news" (or "not hacker news") at all. There is only a section which is called "What to submit" and both definitions (On-topic and off-topic) leave a lot space for interpretation. At the end it is really determined by the votes what is interesting to hackers (or the readers of HN) and what not. If something is breaking the rules, the mods would jump in - especially when an article is on top of the frontpage.

Actually I find those pointless "why is this on HN" comments a lot more off-topic than upvoted links (= interesting to more readers than the other options) that are not strictly computer- or startup-related.

People who want to dictate others what to post or upvote on HN and what not, should probably become mod or pg.

I came to this comment thread just to find this comment and downvote it, because I KNEW it would be here.

Happy to oblige. I look forward to the Perez Hiltification of the forum...

You dismissed an entirely relevant link because you are allowing your biases to blind you, and are actively missing an opportunity to learn about someone who actually embodied the hacker mindset, because you do not have it.

The absolute best thing about HN is that if you're a Hacker, it's a semi-complete resource of what's relevant. Not every celebrity death belongs on HN, but this one absolutely does. It's hard to explain why it does, which is why HN's rules are vague, but there's no doubt that it does. It may mean nothing to you, as many of the things mean nothing to you on the site (do you read every link on the front page? No way) but to a lot of the community, as hackers this was important to us.

Agreed. It's not just celebrity deaths it's more and more obviously not technology-related topics. It's a shame because the interesting technology topics are buried in an increasing amount of noise.

The endless bickering over whether or not it's HN material is a lot more annoying than a single entry on the front page. And much harder to scroll past. It took three whacks of Page Down to reach the bottom.

Lou Reed fits the hacker zeitgeist. Sad loss.

I'd say Lou Reed is a hacker. A hacker of music. His Metal Machine Music was one of the first and perhaps most famous examples of noise music (after Merzbow) which completely challenged all conventions of what music truly is.

There were plenty of others before him, but he had his place, as well.

Even though his later years were not up to par.

Come on, you have to admit Lulu was a brilliant practical joke.

There was a long tradition of noise and electronic music before Metal Machine Music going back to the turn of the 20th century, with figures like Luigi Russolo, Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, Iannis Xenakis, Jean-Claude Risset, Max Matthews, Morton Subotnick, and many others. Not much of it was made by famous pop musicians (as opposed to people thought of more so as composers), so Reed definitely deserves credit for introducing a lot of people to sounds and styles they'd never heard before, and perhaps paving the way for groups like Sonic Youth.

This isn't a celebrity death. It's Lou Reed. Music Hacker.

This is absolutely ridiculous. It doesn't take much effort to make anyone sound like a hacker.

Eg. Paris Hilton is a "Media Hacker" because she's managed to create a successful brand for herself despite not having traits commonly seen in successful celebrities (a talent in acting or a talent in music).

This might be an accurate description, but I don't want to see Paris Hilton news on Hacker News.

I dunno, Paris h. as media hacker could actually be an interesting discussion.

Music appreciation and hacking go hand-in-hand. When I have a ten hour project to do, I put on my Quiet Comforts, queue up some good tunes, and get to coding.

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