Tried adding the in half part, but the title length exceeded the limit.
6,267 karma · joined December 31, 2010
As mkrecny stated, choosing to observe and predict the micro aspects of our universe is a lost cause. However, finding patterns in higher levels of systems is what makes science works. While micro systems are usually the areas left for theorists, macro systems have real life applications for scientists. We predict things every day and some things are simply easier to predict than others.
Some people believe that our universe could be a type of cellular automata itself.
There are some interesting connections between our universe and the type of cellular automata like Conway's Game of Life. It is possible to predict events in the future by looking at the big picture. Various levels and hierarchies of structures are formed in Conway's Game of Life (e.g. gliders and glider guns) that seem to obey their own rules. However, these macro rules are nowhere close to the original micro rules of the simulation. While we can look at these macro rules to make certain predictions, the only way we can determine every cell's state in the future is by letting the simulation play out one generation at a time.
I think you're right that we have to accept the change in communities' interests over time, but don't forget that one of these interests hackers have is to improve their own community.
Excluding our own profiles, what are the advantages of seeing other's karma?
If we're going to remove the presence of karma from comments, why not with the user profiles as well?
However, the other type includes articles that provoke people and cause discussion. It doesn't just include contributing comments, but rather it contains debates and opposing opinions. These types of articles need a balance between a low and high ratio. However, the religious arguments you speak of are usually easy to find. These arguments are usually found in a deeply nested comment thread. Once you discard of fourth level comments and all the noise below, you should find that the ratio of comments is a pretty good signifier of the quality of the article.
Didn't get in YC S11? How are you going to charge forwards?
The problem occurs when you start reading into a nested thread of comments. Users will sometimes argue 4 or 5 times back and forth, often becoming mean and uncivil. What results is a somewhat personal discussion among a few people that doesn't fit in with the rest of the thread. While the quality may actually increase the deeper you go into a thread, the relevancy to the original thread decreases (which matters most).
I think that this behavior is what is hurting HN's overall quality. Uncivil and deeply nested threads like these are hard to keep track of and deeply get out of control.
The solution:
- hide deeply nested threads (greater than 3 or 4 comments deep) and
let the users choose to show them
- promote commenting in higher threads (this will come as a result
of hiding deeply nested threads)
- hide or lessen the visibility of threads consisting of comments
from only 2 or 3 peopleThis just goes to show the value of putting in time and quality into a comment (unlike the ones at the bottom of this main thread).
If there is some unique perspective on HN that can apply to everybody then, sure, go ahead and post it to HN as a blog post. However, any generic I'm-leaving-HN messages could maybe go into a category of "Leaving HN: ..." posts (instead of a link). These could still hit the front page, but there would be a clear distinction between this community news and other news.
Posts like these are bad for HN for a few reasons:
- they appear often and usually repeat the same message
- they support the minority of elitists who already dominate HN
- their content is only news-worthy to users who've been on HN
for a while and not the new ones
What results is a thread in which the OP, upvoters, and commenters that are supporting news that only apply to them.
HN shouldn't have threads like these - threads should apply to as many people as they can. I'm not saying that life has to be fair, but I think the end of these posts would help make HN feel like a more inclusive place.
From Wikipedia's article on Functionalism:
"Since mental states are identified by a functional role, they are said to be realized on multiple levels; in other words, they are able to be manifested in various systems, even perhaps computers, so long as the system performs the appropriate functions. While computers are physical devices with electronic substrate that perform computations on inputs to give outputs, so brains are physical devices with neural substrate that perform computations on inputs which produce behaviors."
Just something interesting to think about...
Once I realized what was happening, I added some code to my webpage so that removes itself from the frame it's embedded in. It's essential the same as finding it on a web search, but it's page rank is a lot higher on the image search due to the iPhone image.