Ask HN: Why are nasty comments more common on HN? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Why are nasty comments more common on HN?

13 pointsoznathan17 comments

I find that there are more nasty comments here than on other similar websites. I'm not talking about trolling. These comments are thought out criticism combined with pure meanness. Stuff like "This article gave my cancer" or "This is the dumbest article I ever read". Criticism is more common online that in real life, but there is something very decisive, mean and emotional about the comments here.

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I think HN is better than many other websites, but certainly worse than some. Obvious reasons:

1. Internet disinhibition effect enhanced by pseudonymity - anyone can create an account called 'internettoughguy3' and start talking shit to people; blatant sockpuppetry/nastiness is punished by the mods, but one can get away with it on an occasional basis.

2. Common interest in hacking-type stuff brings together people whose views diverge on other things, like religion and especially politics; conflict ensues.

3. Persistence; sort of the opposite of #1, many of us have been here for years and know how to 'push each others' buttons,' so lingering dislike or disagreement between individuals will occasionally boil over into a cutting remark.

4. Geeks tend to be introverted and so less good at social modeling. http://xkcd.com/610/ sums this up, though I think the dig at Ayn Rand fans is a bit unfair because such thinking is equally prevalent on the left.

None of the above apply to me, of course. I am perfect.

I agree.

Also, a lot of people with positive reaction just upvote an article. If you consider upvotes as positive comments, the ratio is way different.

> 2. Common interest in hacking-type stuff brings together people whose views diverge on other things, like religion and especially politics; conflict ensues.

Not just that, but we're also generally quite opinionated and thus argumentative on hacking-type stuff even though it's a common interest.

If you think HN has a large proportion of nasty comments, you clearly haven't visited any other website.

On other websites it's trolling. Here it's not.

Negative comments != trolling. Troll comments are comments that are deliberately against popular opinion in order to start arguments. Saying "this article sucks" isn't trolling. Saying "Python is better than Ruby because it's more pure." is trolling.

I don't really agree, at least not given your examples. "This article gave me cancer" seems like trolling to me, by your definition.

People here are blunt about stupidity, sure, and maybe it has a more cutting effect because it's more likely they're actually pointing out stupid mistakes, rather than just name calling or something.

Here you're derided in a more accurate, skilled fashion.

I think the author is questioning whether that is a good thing or not. Do we want to be in a culture of posturing and derision?

I for one do not think it is a good thing or something to be proud of. Criticism and derision are different and being toxic or caustic just brings the level of communication down. It does not reflect well on our industry either.

This comment was actually to an article I wrote. Here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6828726

I don't believe that it was trolling.

There are some people who simply look down at others because they are not as "smart" as they are. Experience has taught me that these type of people spend too much time writing comments on the internet rather than improving their skills (they are already "smart", they don't need it). I sometimes wonder why I even comment on HN, because somebody will get offended and do a crusade against me. Even to the point of emailing me saying how stupid I am (true story). In reality, I'm never ever the smartest guy in the room. But I do work hard to learn and do things correctly.

There is also the belief of the 1%. People seem to think that there are these magical programmers who are better than anybody out there. This makes a lot of those who have drinked the SV kool-aid look down on others. In reality, all programmers are smart. Just in different areas/aspects. There is no 1%. Just a bunch of people trying to write code and innovate.

I think part of it is a lack of social awareness. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6968526

When people feel justified with their behaviour, they may do or say unnecessary things.

Hacker News has also been called depressing:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5744224

I think it's generally a cool place but negative and nasty comments definitely seem to get traction. Watch for newer accounts that I'm assuming are harvesting karma. They always seem to start out with some negative comment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_projection

Idk that HN has more nasty comments. I'd say it has more negative comments, but not sure they're nasty. Nasty are the comments on YouTube.

Comments on HN are probably as good as comments get on the internet. I doubt that there are websites out there with a better community.

I can think of only one exception: LessWrong. Of course, this is quite subjective, and the two communities are definitely not disjunct.

Your post is so useless and boring. It gave me cancer, this might be the dumbest article I ever read.

(obviously it's a joke)

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