However, if I see off topic rants and arguments, then I tend to dismiss the article as an opinion or puff piece.
Generally like that the comments on here tend to stay on topic and thoughtful, although I am disappointed that some of my posts on here lately, which have merely been questions about aspects of the article, have been downvoted. Hope HN doesn't turn into another StackOverflow imitating over-moderated "that doesn't belong here" type site.
Hacker News is neither entertainment nor education. It's just other people having conversations about a common topic of interest.
Edit: Good to know the system works?
HN users will definitely downvote challenges to their deeply-held convictions, but so will any other community, and almost always more vigorously. I say this as the proud recipient of many such downvotes. :)
I have noticed a sociological trend in Silicon Valley that equates meritocracy with "I outrank you so this discussion is a waste of time".
Your comment is maybe kinda whiny (i wants my leet downvotez), but nowhere near the level of trolling I would reserve for a downvote.
Also, you make a good point. For me, -1 means "this comment is in bad faith and should be censored", and I have noticed it being overused on my journey to l33t status.
For what it is worth, you too almost have the downvote button, and if I see too many upvotes without some gray flickering at first, I feel like I am pandering.
Anyway, keep fighting the good fight and enjoy my upvote. Also, remember this when you get the down vote button.
Absolute power, and all that. ;-)
The comments on the Ask HN, Show HN are usually very informative, and have helped me a lot in my own side projects and entrepreneurial pursuits.
The comments on stories (for me) act as a curation tool, and based on what I read, I actually decide to either read the posted story, or pass on it.
W.r.t. stories posted, 9 /10 times, the comments are more insightful and offer unbiased commentary that the original stories -- many of which (on the internets, not HN) are click-baity / shock'n'awe type posts -- often lack.
I somewhat agree. For example I try to avoid discussion with more than 100 comments. Usually the small discussions are more technical and have a better signal to noise ratio.
Incivility is a social problem, and that requires community involvement and reinforcement of accepted norms, not attempts at operant conditioning through the UI.
This is going straight to my quote archive.
Often when I'm looking to upvote a link I just clicked on HN I will scan through all the links but miss the one I'm looking for. Is it the contrast and boldness of the titles that makes reddit better in this regard?
Every other link on reddit has a slightly darker background, which helps separate the links. HN doesn't have this, preferring to simply number the links as its way of differentiating
.itemlist .subtext {display: none;}Also if we're going to make a snazzy one-liner, let's cut out the unused arguments:
Array.from(document.querySelectorAll("td.subtext")).forEach(currentValue => { currentValue.hidden = true; });Also if you want to avoid comments in general on the internet or on a per-site basis, install something like the ShutUp extension (which I use to remove comments on some areas of the web, such as YouTube)
http://tomspeak.co.uk/posts/quiet-hacker-news
The point appears to be not to have the comments.
It succeeds in being 'quiet' (less noisy) in design.
