I'm sorry. I know this is going to sound harsh, but I'll be the one saying it - again - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=182193 .
Talking about ideas was never taboo. It's just that your ideas are consistently inane and not worth talking about.
Talking about ideas was never taboo. It's just that your ideas are consistently inane and not worth talking about.
Also, his argument is that the city lost lots of "colorful characters". People that were not exactly dangerous but were not exactly postal card-worthy. The city is just not the same without those weirdos, he said.
Perhaps that is the also the reason that my friend likes (Cambridge's) Central Square so much. Not a day goes by without some freaky (and usually funny) event close to the T.
The point is: amichail is a colorful character, yes, and the place wouldn't be the same without him. But does it necessarily mean that it would be worse?
Also, would you encourage "more amichails", or one is all we need?
Of course, you can have mechanisms in place to give everyone a chance to express their ideas. For example, you could make people pay for submissions using karma points.
And please, this is not saying that I want to conform to the majority. What I want is for you to stop transferring the burden of testing and validation of your ideas (especially ones at such an early phase) to others.
You say "maybe something that sounds silly at first might develop into something more interesting with some discussion". Honest question: has it happened before?
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As an example, I'm going to take your last paragraph and show exactly what kind of "filters" I'm talking about, the kind of filters that you should be using:
Of course, you can have mechanisms in place to give everyone a chance to express their ideas. For example, you could make people pay for submissions using karma points.
Before typing the question, you should've recognized that:
1. There already are mechanisms in place to "give everyone a chance for people to express their ideas". It's called comment box.
2. Not everyone is here to "express their ideas". I am here to find good content. Some are here just because of the community. Some are here just because of YC.
3. There are other ways to express your ideas. For instance, you could easily start a blog or stick to twitter.
It does not take much to see that what you want is not "mechanisms in place to give everyone a chance to express their ideas", but actually what you are trying is to devise a solution for a problem that exists only in your head, i.e, "How can we turn this simple forum into some sort of discussion game?"
What bothers me is not the fact that you want to think on problems with little practical utility. What bothers me is that you expect others to join you without showing no glimpse of a solution!
Case in point: HN and reddit's source code is free. If you really think that either website would be better with your proposals, show us the code!
Inspiration can come from the most unexpected sources and we have the vote button in order to express what we think is good stuff and what isn't.
As of this writing amichail has 5x the karma that you have, and you are both members of the sites for roughly equal duration. I think I'll let that speak for itself.
As for the quality of amichails content, it would not be the first time that a 'wrong' idea with a bit of tweaking made someone a fortune.
@amichail, please keep them coming, worst case you will make us laugh, best case you will make us proud by scoring one day with one of your 'odd' ideas.
I'm sure whoever dreamed up the hula hoop must have been ridiculed, but I am fairly sure he/she laughed last.
- I do ignore his posts. In almost three years of HN, this is the second time that I've tried to make my point, and it was not out of nowhere.
- Argumentum ad populum.
- As for the content: I think that a website for the discussion of ideas is where amichail will thrive. If he moves his usual posts to the new website I would have absolutely nothing to say about it. I'd probably participate, precisely because I know that is the website's purpose.
- I'd be (even) less vocal about his posts if he showed he is working on his ideas. If you read what I wrote carefully, you'll see that my criticism is not for the ideas, but rather the fact that he throws millions of them without any follow-up work. Whoever dreamed up the hula-hoop built the damn thing, he/she did not make it big by sending mail to people with "Why don't we make a object that is simple, cheap and fun? That would certainly be a successful toy."
Let me give you one simple example of why I think this kind of contribution is useful, maybe even very useful.
I've seen in practice several times that people that shoot off their wild-ass ideas for literally years on end suddenly hit one right out of the ballbpark. Having ideas is like having to paint, or blog or anything other that is creative that is a drive outside of yourself. You literally can't control it.
And if in all those ideas there is ONE golden one and it is recognized as such amichail will be the one to reap the benefits from that.
HN is a great place to get criticism for your 'stupid' ideas, and it isn't always the smart ideas that end up making you money.
If I look at my own history it is the stupid ideas that made be lots of $ and the intricate and lots of work stuff is what gave me great intellectual satisfaction but ended up losing literally buckets of money.
Give the guy a break, there is room enough for everyone here.
One of the reasons these 'niche' HNs seem to fail is simply because of the lack of volume and requiring the potential audience to monitor yet another website.
If amichail were to take his 'idea fountain' elsewhere I for one would miss him, and I would consider it a loss to all of us.
A couple of years ago I guy I knew was bugging everybody about his idea for 'foldable storage boxes'. He eventually made a cardboard model, and couldn't stop talking about it. The follow-up was dreadful, it never went anywhere. Fast forward 10 years, he's back at it, only now he's gotten this idea that maybe he can make them larger, so that trucks that drive south with flowers can use these boxes on the way there, and fold them up on the way back so they can carry payload both ways, instead of driving back with empty flower racks. Oh, and of course everybody was telling him he's nuts.
Same basic idea, took well upwards of 10 years for the coin to drop. I would not be surprised at all if amichail is like that guy. He takes a shower, comes back out and can literally fill 10 pages of his 'notebook' with ideas.
99% of them are crap, and everybody keeps telling him.
I wished I had his banking problems though...
I'm beginning to see a pattern here. Do you have a problem with Amichail? If you keep on repeated attacking, causing distress and others join in this is technically bullying. The beaut thing is all it takes to stop even a hint of bullying is for bystanders to stand up for the attacked.
So what's your call? Are you going to continue this vein of argument? Do you feel the need to continuously dominate others? Because bullies should not be tolerated and I'll stand up for Amichail.
Parody? No. Having just done some work on identification and analysis of bullies in social systems by mapping behaviour using network science techniques a couple of weeks ago - identifying & neutralising bullies is quite fresh in my mind. No failure on my part.
I don't think Amichail is inane. Inane is defined as "empty", "vain" or "lacking of meaning". I recognise the behaviour Amichail is displaying, "continuously asking lots of questions". As a kid I did this. I asked so many questions I distinctly remember my old man telling me to shut-up. So I did. Then had the problem of teachers asking me why I never bothered asking for help. In the real world continuously asking questions and being curious seems stupid, pointless and suppressed.
HN isn't a slice of the regular world. Tolerance of eccentric and unusual behaviour strengthens HN not weakens it. So let Amichail ask as many questions as possible, don't suppress the questioning, it's a sign of youthful curiosity.
Harnessing Amichail as a sounding board for ideas and pointing out any weakness in ideas seems more reasonable than scolding.
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Whenever I'm around a child that keeps asking me questions, my standard response is "I don't know. How can we figure that out?". It usually works. If it's genuine curiosity, then they will be really excited to be able to take part in the discovery. If they were just trying to be annoying or looking for an easy answer, then they just forget about it and move on.
Also, I don't "discourage weird behavior". I do discourage "weird behavior who relies on my acceptance of the terms", and that's what bugs me about amichail constant polls and 'ASK YC' posts.
To make an analogy, I don't mind reading about people who are into body modification, even to the point of sewing off their twin brother's arm, and reattaching to their own body (http://www.bme.com/news/people/A10101/addsub/). That is weird as fuck, but their experimentation does not rely on me participating in any way. You can bet that I would mind a lot if said twins start going around telling people how cool it is to have your brother's arm attached to your arm pit and that is "rather unfortunate" that nobody else listens to them.