Kevin Rose is a parasite (according to protesters) | Hacker News Reader

Kevin Rose is a parasite (according to protesters)

instagram.com

Items like this are making it less and less likely that I read HN. Is it of "deep intellectual interest"? No doubt it is to some, and I'm content to believe it has an affect beyond the microcosm that is SV, but I'm tired of reading this sort of thing.

I haven't flagged it, because it would seem that the wider HN community wants this sort of item here, but I don't want to read it, so I will be reading less. There was a time I would watch the "newest" page to upvote good stuff and flag the inappropriate. Of late it's making me feel grubby, so I won't be doing that much now.

I found it uninteresting and flagged it.

This might be the first of many:

* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7542301

    My house was protested today by anti-tech folks
    (twitter.com)

* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7542362

    Anti-Tech Protesters Are Telling Kevin Rose’s Neighbors
    That He’s A “Parasite”
    (techcrunch.com)

* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7542522

    Anti-Tech Protesters Are Telling Kevin Rose’s
    Neighbors That He’s A “Parasite”
    (techcrunch.com)

I lost flagging privileges after I did it to 20 or so stories. All were more off-topic than this, one literally on the Chinese silk road from about 200 BC.

But I agree with you, that instagram posts like these are low-content, even though this issue itself is interesting.

I think HN needs a downvote button.

The Chinese silk road from 200 BC is perfectly on-topic for HN! We want more, not fewer, interesting pieces from off the beaten track.

Good historical posts are particularly welcome because they counteract the relentless addiction to novelty, which breeds shallowness.

I lost my flagging privileges after the New Storis page was filled with Aaron Schwartz stories. One story, maybe, but not 20.

Colin, you're absolutely right, and we are going to do several things about this. Some involve software, and some involve rallying the community. We'll know we've succeeded when users like you start noticing changes for the better instead of the worse.

I don't believe the wider community wants this sort of item here. It is antimatter to the things HN calls for: intellectual substance and calm reflection.

The only thing you said that I'd push back against is the "I haven't flagged it" part. This is what flagging is for!

Also, you've posted so many high-quality gems over the years that your intuition for what's on-topic deserves high respect, and it certainly has ours.

Thanks - it's nice to know. However, it's worth noticing that there are many who disagree with me. My comments about this have been down-voted - clearly in this regard I'm not in tune with the community as a whole.

That's why I'm reluctant to flag some things. While I may find and submit things that are interesting, I'm not convinced that I have the right to flag some of the things that I feel are not of "deep interest," nor of interest to hackers as opposed to general audiences. To that end I only flag what I think are blatantly inappropriate. I don't trust my judgement otherwise.

This is an example in point. Lots of HN members think it's relevant and appropriate, and while I'm willing to argue that I think it's out of place here, I'm unwilling to flag it.

There are people on HN who are happy to entertain themselves by forcefully disagreeing with anything. Two days ago, our tireless moderator corrected someone who suggested that a user had been hellbanned. Not only did other HN users "disagree" with him, they repeatedly harangued him.

I think you should be careful tailoring your approach to HN to what the community seems to appreciate.

(This is a super meta discussion and I'm happy to leave it at "you got a flag button, use it more.")

It's not my intent to tailor my approach to what I think the community seems to appreciate, but I recognize explicitly that my interests are not centrally aligned with the hacker/entrepreneur mindset. As such, while I will submit things that I think could be of interest, I find it less appropriate to flag things that resonate with a significant proportion of that community. There already being at least four submissions of this story, clearly there are those who do think it's directly relevant - why should I say otherwise?

I'm aware of the problem of the vocal minority - I've discussed this elsewhere. Because of those discussions, I'm even more reluctant to try to impose my sense of "on topic," although there are times I find it hard to resist. I don't always get it right.

And there's always the threat that if I flag too much then I'll lose the right to do so at all. There are so many items I'd like to flag, it's easier not to flag at all rather than either flag them all and then lose the privilege, or try to make nuanced decisions about them all the time.

Re: the wider community: I flagged this story too.

Anti-tech protesters have gathered around Kevin Rose's house (presumably in San Francisco) with a large banner. Kevin tweeted that he acknowledges the problems with housing here.

"Greetings Your neighbor at [redacted] a man named Kevin Rose, is a parasite. Perhaps not of you, but of us. This is why we are here: to reveal him for what he is.

As a partner venture capitalist at Google Ventures, Kevin directs the flow of capital from Google into the tech startup bubble that is destroying San Francisco. The start-ups that he funds bring the swarms of young entrepreneurs that have ravaged the landscapes of San Francisco and Oakland.

With each new tech corporation comes a wave of fresh techies, who on average earn four times more than a normal service worker. We are the ones who serve them coffee, deliver them food, suck their cocks, watch their kids, and mop their floors. Nearly all of them are just like Kevin Rose and we are tired of this miserable and untenable situation."

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