Great HN parody(linkedlistnyc.org)
linkedlistnyc.org
Great HN parody
http://www.linkedlistnyc.org/archive/issue_081.html
58 comments
I loved the genuinely parodic headlines ("How I remapped my caps lock key to be both ESC and Ctrl" was my favourite), but the metaheadlines like "A long rant about a YC company falling short in some regard" are simply done to death and IMO have not been funny in years.
"RMS hates something."
"Woz disagrees with something Apple does."
"Why this wildly successful and profitable company is doomed. Someday."
"Commonly-used technology is obsolete."
"You are not cool enough to succeed, especially if you are in any way successful. Please develop impostor syndrome."
"Woz disagrees with something Apple does."
"Why this wildly successful and profitable company is doomed. Someday."
"Commonly-used technology is obsolete."
"You are not cool enough to succeed, especially if you are in any way successful. Please develop impostor syndrome."
You forgot the unlimited "Why I...and you should too" headlines.
There should be one on there talking about not talking about karma. I think I saw a "how I got so much karma on HN" story peak at #4 earlier this week.
No.22
That's the one that got me. Now pardon me while I write a post about duplicating comic timing graphically, as a constraint.
That's the one that got me. Now pardon me while I write a post about duplicating comic timing graphically, as a constraint.
It's missing "How I solved the travelling salesman problem using pure CSS and Clojure on my coffee break"
How about a brogrammer or brogrammer-backlash story? Or an "I hate MBAs" one?
Congratulations on your neat website. I think you really should consider making you're page center aligned - i hurt my head looking left in my bigass screen. I am very much a fan of wearing the same shoe every 3 days, but i admit youre article about sexism has changed my life. Unfortunately, since you don't support openID, i refuse to join your site.
To complete the picture, i would really like to respond here with a very long-form comment of at least 8 paragraphs, in which i address one by one a number of points that irritated me in a boastful way that makes my arguments sound authoritative and deep, while in reality it's just my brain-fart of the moment. I should also add a couple of references in square brackets, because that's what scientists do[1] and people seem to believe scientists (what's more, the most respected scientific journals use the vancouver reference style, which makes me look even more knowledgable). Because of the outrageousness of my long-form comment (and because it takes up a large portion of the screen real estate), people will upvote me and respond with equally half-cooked comments , some of them applying Godwin's law, and others merely acknowledging this application of the law.
Unfortunately, i barely made it to 3 paragraphs and i 've more or less run out of stupid things to say.
Looking forward to the new version of your website that will be implemented in a single var javascript statement, because that's my favorite programming paradigm this afternoon.
[1] they really do
To complete the picture, i would really like to respond here with a very long-form comment of at least 8 paragraphs, in which i address one by one a number of points that irritated me in a boastful way that makes my arguments sound authoritative and deep, while in reality it's just my brain-fart of the moment. I should also add a couple of references in square brackets, because that's what scientists do[1] and people seem to believe scientists (what's more, the most respected scientific journals use the vancouver reference style, which makes me look even more knowledgable). Because of the outrageousness of my long-form comment (and because it takes up a large portion of the screen real estate), people will upvote me and respond with equally half-cooked comments , some of them applying Godwin's law, and others merely acknowledging this application of the law.
Unfortunately, i barely made it to 3 paragraphs and i 've more or less run out of stupid things to say.
Looking forward to the new version of your website that will be implemented in a single var javascript statement, because that's my favorite programming paradigm this afternoon.
[1] they really do
This one's old.
Somewhat fittingly, though.
Old, but still valid, which shows how true it actually is.
does it ever get old?
No it isn't.
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I've seen it before, maybe two months ago.
"A Story About Sexism in Tech Filled With Sexist Comments Denying Sexism in Tech" :-)
It's like any time Anita Sarkeesian is mentioned on reddit, and people take 7000 rageful comments to convince themselves a problem does not exist.
People (reddit and elsewhere, internet and elsewhere) have a crippling mental condition where if they haven't experienced a problem on a personal level, it must not exist. It's a glaring logical problem that should be as obvious as the word "NO" on a 500 foot tall, illuminated billboard.
Yet it keeps happening.
Yet it keeps happening.
Another logical fallacy I've seen is kind of the contrapositive (if I remember ethics class correctly): If people hear an anecdote of a problem affecting someone in a group, the problem exists throughout the entire group.
E.g. the other day Reddit had a story about an atheist who dropped out of West Point because he felt there was too much religion, which somehow mutated on some of the subreddits to how all atheists in all of the military branches are continuously being oppressed (which is far and away untrue).
E.g. the other day Reddit had a story about an atheist who dropped out of West Point because he felt there was too much religion, which somehow mutated on some of the subreddits to how all atheists in all of the military branches are continuously being oppressed (which is far and away untrue).
Even more astoundingly, even people who've run headlong into this attitude from others still don't realise when they're doing it themselves. For instance, a lot of feminists have trouble grasping that racism does actually exist, anti-racism activists can't understand why sexism is a big deal, etc...
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My favourite: "How I remapped my capslock key to be both ESC and Ctrl" -- maybe should have had VI in there too ;)
If a community can't laugh at itself, then it's surely doomed :D
If a community can't laugh at itself, then it's surely doomed :D
I agree. It's important to be able to laugh at ourselves. One of the dangers of the startup world is people taking things way too seriously.
I think that's why my 'double stealth' parody was such a hit a while back: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4166183
I think that's why my 'double stealth' parody was such a hit a while back: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4166183
"double stealth mode" is a classic. Very funny. I'm stealing that one.
Loved re-reading that.
You should write a book ... although too many people would probably take it as serious advice and start following it :/
You should write a book ... although too many people would probably take it as serious advice and start following it :/
awww you changed "15 minutes of uninterrupted eye contact" to "One on One time". The eye contact thing was my favorite part :(
The funny thing is that I know a few people who do this. (Holding Caps Lock = CTRL, tapping Caps Lock = ESC)
How could we not think about this? It's genius!
How is it done? Does your buddy use X, mac or where in the stack is the hack?
How is it done? Does your buddy use X, mac or where in the stack is the hack?
I'm slightly embarassed to admit that I remapped them after reading this:
http://stevelosh.com/blog/2012/10/a-modern-space-cadet/#cont...
On OS X, you can use KeyRemap4Macbook (http://pqrs.org/macosx/keyremap4macbook/) to turn on the feature with a bit of hackery.
I have not figured out how to do it on Windows, but I imagine that it might be possible with AutoHotKey.
I have not figured out how to do it on Windows, but I imagine that it might be possible with AutoHotKey.
I got this working on my system (running X) with the help of a daemon (https://github.com/alols/xcape).
$ setxkbmap -option ctrl:nocaps
$ xcape
I read about it in one of Steve Yegge's Emacs posts. Now I use it everywhere!
What an excellent idea! If I didn’t use CapsLock for choosing keyboard layout, I would have done this...
I really thought he'd include something about vim: "Controlling VIM 2x fast with toes and my Fingers on two keyboards"
I'm swooning just from Elon Musk's being parodically referenced.
I kept trying to click the upvote button but it didn't work
I could tell it was fake because the Elon Musk link wasn't in the top 3. ;)
Made me smile.
It's funny because it's true
It's missing the "Why I'm leaving HN (This time for good)"
and "A front page HN story about how being on the front page of HN changed my business"
and "A rambling article about how voting is broken on HN"
and "How I lived out of a shoebox and traveled the world on a bicycle while creating my startup"
Anybody interested in more, I refer you to my javascript parody of two years ago, "Roll Your Own Linkbait Tech Headline": http://www.whattofix.com/blog/archives/2011/01/roll-your-own...
and "A front page HN story about how being on the front page of HN changed my business"
and "A rambling article about how voting is broken on HN"
and "How I lived out of a shoebox and traveled the world on a bicycle while creating my startup"
Anybody interested in more, I refer you to my javascript parody of two years ago, "Roll Your Own Linkbait Tech Headline": http://www.whattofix.com/blog/archives/2011/01/roll-your-own...
30. A Legitimately Interesting Technical Blog Post
Don't forget "10% of a UNIX manpage typed out in hipster compatible phraseology and intimated like it's forbidden knowledge."
more like 'hipster' knowledge.
they have fixed gear bikes, we have custom compiled FreeBSD kernels because we don't know what we are doing.
they have fixed gear bikes, we have custom compiled FreeBSD kernels because we don't know what we are doing.
"Show HN: Bluestrap, a Twitter Bootstrap theme with more blue"
You are missing the "How I lived out of a shoebox and traveled the world on a bicycle while creating my startup that teaches people how to live out of a shoebox and traveled the world on a bicycle while..."
It also needs "Apologist piece on why copyright infringement is good (torrentfreak.com)" with "94 polarized comments".
Polarized comments? Usually it's all the apologists and me in there. I didn't know there was anyone else who wasn't an apologist for copyright infringement. Nice to meet you
It also needs clever comments that tell the article what it is missing.
"A long personal essay with a moving anecdote on why surviving cancer is more important than building a startup"
"Why you should always validate your first $100M in sales with a mockup, before writing a single line of code"
"How we can implement Ayn Rand's ideas on success to solve world hunger with crowdsourced electronics"
"What is success, anyway?"
"Why you should always validate your first $100M in sales with a mockup, before writing a single line of code"
"How we can implement Ayn Rand's ideas on success to solve world hunger with crowdsourced electronics"
"What is success, anyway?"
"HN is great but the design is terrible! So here is my innovative version(filled with just eye candies)"
"How I learn to program in 30 minutes and bootstrapped my first startup"
"Show HN: My new social network that will change the world", from the author of the previous article
"How I learn to program in 30 minutes and bootstrapped my first startup"
"Show HN: My new social network that will change the world", from the author of the previous article
Later that day: "That social network from earlier today has a gaping security hole (uses default Rails scaffolding)"
Also: "I made something awesome in a functional language"
Do you honestly need a shoebox and a bicycle?
"How I finally ditched my shoebox and found the successful startup I always wanted"
And then the post mortem / lessons learned and how next time I'll use Lean Startup (shit, do I need to pay Eric Rice a licensing fee for mentioning the generic term that existed since he was in diapers, but trademarked somehow?).
I'm surprised nobody has included this:
Unknown or expired link. http://news.ycombinator.com/x?fnid=ZVizUZJ5Ar
Unknown or expired link. http://news.ycombinator.com/x?fnid=ZVizUZJ5Ar
"How I managed to get VIM to work just like Eclipse. With dotfiles."
Every online community needs a good flounce every now and again. Extra points for the 'I just wanted to see if you all loved me really' reverse flounce shortly afterwards!
"What I learned from Steve Jobs?"
"How iPad kills PCs"
"My iCruft and Me"
"How iPad kills PCs"
"My iCruft and Me"
And it's missing a post pointing out things missing on another post about things missing out on another post about...umm...uhhh
It's also missing "Summer LL(2013)"
"Apple makes the only developer laptop"
I laughed at "How I bootstrapped my company in 6 hours (with breaks)" :) I always wondered why this was a thing on HN, it doesn't matter if something took one weekend, one month or one year to finish - it's the result that matters, and saying "I build it in 24h" is the same as saying "it has a lot of bugs, but I want to launch it anyway".
Because that's not a company, it's a website. It takes 6 hours just to file all the paperwork to get a company started.
It's all about the timing ;)
"Why C++ Is Not 'Back'."
12 hours later...
"Why C++ Is Back."
12 hours later...
"Why C++ Is Back."
They should update the list so that when this gets posted for the third time in 2013, the top item is: "Great HN parody (2012) (linkedlistnyc.org)"
"How I remapped my capslock key to be both ESC and Ctrl"
That really got me thinking. Then I realized I was reading a parody. I am still thinking.
That really got me thinking. Then I realized I was reading a parody. I am still thinking.
The Emacs Wiki has an item about remapping the space bar to be both space when pressed alone and Ctrl when pressed with another key. With implementations for OS X, X11 and Windows. Might be suitable for adaption.
http://emacswiki.org/emacs/MovingTheCtrlKey#toc24
http://emacswiki.org/emacs/MovingTheCtrlKey#toc24
If computer keyboards were velocity sensitive like music keyboards, maybe you could do it through discriminating touch velocity (force). I imagine it could be tricky to get used to though! Idea, maybe key down duration could be used as proxy for velocity, as in, more forceful key press last less?
someone has to make this happen. imagine - no need for shift/caps_lock keys - just BASH HARDER your fingers to get uppercase.
I was thinking something simpler. Holding down caps lock produces the same effect as holding down either esc or ctrl, but after you release it the mode for the next time toggles to the other.
I love HN but this made me laugh :P, nailed it pretty much.
I would just add "Why X sucks because now I'm learning a trendy hipster new Y that no one knows of"
My favourite HN piece ever:
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/216352/guys_youre_not_helping.png
So, guys, should I or should I not learn to code? :D.
So, guys, should I or should I not learn to code? :D.
The "don't" has more points so.. it's obvious, majority can't be wrong :)
Even if the votes was approval of the thesis it would not necessarily make it the right thing to do. :)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argumentum_ad_populum
Votes of interest, not necessarily approval of the thesis. That's what's wrong with HN voting ;-)
Not a two-thirds majority though :)
Both have excellent points, read them and then make up your own mind.
Unfortunately it's too late for me - I decided years ago (in favour of learning). However you're right, both articles (and associated discussions) had excellent points and were well worth reading.
Well, I think anyone who has a desire to learn programming should do so. The original debate was about whether or not absolutely everyone should learn at least the basics of programming, regardless of their passion or career. It was a good debate but as always a lot of the titles of the various blog posts involved were very link-baity.
I thought the funniest was "Why Go can't scale past 2 billion users".
I love that it was submitted by "nodejs4eva"
Would have liked to have seen "Recruiters suck. AMIRITE?"
Don't forget, "Why all MBAs should be forcibly relocated to a deserted island with no food or water."
but what's wrong with that one?
"I learnt Haskell and just had to write about it"
"Surely I can spin this Tweet into an article"
"Why latest Apple product is the best thing you have ever seen" - Marco, Gruber or MG
"Surely I can spin this Tweet into an article"
"Why latest Apple product is the best thing you have ever seen" - Marco, Gruber or MG
Nothing about Ruby and scaling? :O
Everyone knows Ruby doesn't scale! ;)
Yeah, but apparently you can use Go for the backend and scale up to 2 Billion users
(And someone will use this fact as a reason to not use Go. Of course their website will melt after a couple of minutes on the front page of HN because they forgot to do any basic load testing on their servers and didn't catch something very simple)
(And someone will use this fact as a reason to not use Go. Of course their website will melt after a couple of minutes on the front page of HN because they forgot to do any basic load testing on their servers and didn't catch something very simple)
"How I bootstrapped my company in 6 hours (with breaks)" :D
Some of them have been thought out - "how I mapped caps lock" by yakshaver, "derailed by a pedantic comment" by wellactually(I suffer from this; working on it), "apple's downfall" by armchairceo; the comment puns(stylish, worn-out, nebolous) are pretty meh.
Despite this being a parody, I would still like to point out "a labor of love you can say mean things about". I have seen it happen here way too often. Someone posts something and the crowd goes wild - "this is a feature not a product", "as a designer I can tell you you suck", "another cool aid drinkers pretending node.js is cool" etc. Someone posts a "Show HN" doesn't mean you get the right to walk all over it. And the worse part is, you pretend you were doing him a favor - "I was only giving feedback which the poster asked for". The poster asked for feedback, not for insults. It doesn't matter if you are a programming god(most of the people doing it aren't, but still) - there is a difference between feedback and "look at this pathetic shit thinking he is worth anything".
I am sure I am not the only one who thinks people go overboard with their so-called feedback. pg especially made a post about the flood of launches coming in and being nice to them.
Please be nice to them. For you their launch may be "yet another YC startup," but for each individual startup this is their big moment.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2862067
Despite this being a parody, I would still like to point out "a labor of love you can say mean things about". I have seen it happen here way too often. Someone posts something and the crowd goes wild - "this is a feature not a product", "as a designer I can tell you you suck", "another cool aid drinkers pretending node.js is cool" etc. Someone posts a "Show HN" doesn't mean you get the right to walk all over it. And the worse part is, you pretend you were doing him a favor - "I was only giving feedback which the poster asked for". The poster asked for feedback, not for insults. It doesn't matter if you are a programming god(most of the people doing it aren't, but still) - there is a difference between feedback and "look at this pathetic shit thinking he is worth anything".
I am sure I am not the only one who thinks people go overboard with their so-called feedback. pg especially made a post about the flood of launches coming in and being nice to them.
Please be nice to them. For you their launch may be "yet another YC startup," but for each individual startup this is their big moment.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2862067
> Someone posts a "Show HN" doesn't mean you get the right to walk all over it.
the right definitely exists and should be cherished. I agree that being nice is a nice goal but I also love unfiltered honest feedback like you can easily get from this community.
the right definitely exists and should be cherished. I agree that being nice is a nice goal but I also love unfiltered honest feedback like you can easily get from this community.
> the right definitely exists
What right? If you are talking about free speech, that isn't applicable here. Owners of site can allow or disallow expressions on their discretion.
When I said right, I meant the typical defense - "They posted it here. They asked for it.". I am saying just because someone posts a "Show HN" doesn't imply you can be a jerk and hide behind "but they wanted feedback".
> unfiltered honest
The problem with "unfiltered and honest" is it doesn't have a agreed-on definition.
You must be blind to not notice the crime against humanity that "white on yellow" text is.
The white on yellow text is unreadable.
To some people, 1 might look honest and unfiltered; to me it looks like some asshole trying to be tough guy on the web.
2 isn't filtering anything and is honest. "Not being an asshole" and "being honest and straight forward" aren't mutually exclusive.
What right? If you are talking about free speech, that isn't applicable here. Owners of site can allow or disallow expressions on their discretion.
When I said right, I meant the typical defense - "They posted it here. They asked for it.". I am saying just because someone posts a "Show HN" doesn't imply you can be a jerk and hide behind "but they wanted feedback".
> unfiltered honest
The problem with "unfiltered and honest" is it doesn't have a agreed-on definition.
You must be blind to not notice the crime against humanity that "white on yellow" text is.
The white on yellow text is unreadable.
To some people, 1 might look honest and unfiltered; to me it looks like some asshole trying to be tough guy on the web.
2 isn't filtering anything and is honest. "Not being an asshole" and "being honest and straight forward" aren't mutually exclusive.
Hyperbole isn't the same thing as dishonesty or malice. If you believe a poster sincerely thinks white on yellow text is a crime against humanity in a world of child soldiers, oppressive regimes, systemic corruption and walled garden app ecosystems, then why would you consider their opinion relevant in the first place?
> If you believe a poster sincerely thinks white on yellow text is a crime against humanity in a world of child soldiers, oppressive regimes, systemic corruption and walled garden app ecosystems, then why would you consider their opinion relevant in the first place?
Inserting 10000 records, each in their own transaction, is a crime against humanity.
Posting comments with get requests and without csrf tokens is a crime against humanity
I can sincerely believe these are crimes against humanity, and still be right. What I believe to be crimes against humanity is not going to affect xss in any way.
By your analogy, if Hitler says exercising is good, you will respond "why would you consider his opinion in the first place".
Hitler had some good qualities? Yes. Do you have to be Hitler to have those? No. Does being Hitler help? No.
Inserting 10000 records, each in their own transaction, is a crime against humanity.
Posting comments with get requests and without csrf tokens is a crime against humanity
I can sincerely believe these are crimes against humanity, and still be right. What I believe to be crimes against humanity is not going to affect xss in any way.
By your analogy, if Hitler says exercising is good, you will respond "why would you consider his opinion in the first place".
Hitler had some good qualities? Yes. Do you have to be Hitler to have those? No. Does being Hitler help? No.
The point is simply that you can ignore someone telling you that your font kerning is giving babies cancer. It doesn't mean your font kerning is good, but, for most applications of font kerning, you don't have to worry about the cancer.
Honesty and respect are not mutually exclusive.
You can give great, thoughtful feedback that accurately describes your feelings without being unprofessional or disrespectful.
You can give great, thoughtful feedback that accurately describes your feelings without being unprofessional or disrespectful.
Sure, and people should.
But saying that people don't have the right to do otherwise is a much stronger statement than what you just stated. In fact, people in general have the right to do many things which are immoral or even unethical, e.g. the Westboro Baptist protests at funerals.
But saying that people don't have the right to do otherwise is a much stronger statement than what you just stated. In fact, people in general have the right to do many things which are immoral or even unethical, e.g. the Westboro Baptist protests at funerals.
> But saying that people don't have the right to do otherwise
I should have worded it differently - I didn't mean right as in legal definition of rights(which isn't applicable here anyway) Let's just rephrase it as someone asking for feedback doesn't mean you can walk over it.
As for what rights people have, HN is private property and what speech is acceptable and what is not is totally up to the owners.
I should have worded it differently - I didn't mean right as in legal definition of rights(which isn't applicable here anyway) Let's just rephrase it as someone asking for feedback doesn't mean you can walk over it.
As for what rights people have, HN is private property and what speech is acceptable and what is not is totally up to the owners.
I wish more people had a sense of humor online. A real one. As it is, sometimes I feel like all my comments have to be bland. You never know how someone will interpret something.
I've noticed a drop in meanness since it was brought to the attention of the community. It still happens, but many people appear to be making a conscious effort to avoid it in their comments and combat it editorially in the comments of others.
The thing of it is, I'm of two minds on this: yes, it seems that HN (and the Internet in general) can be overly harsh, especially considering that many of the harshest critics will probably never do anything substantialy close to a lot of what gets submitted. OTOH, it's sort of like boot camp: if someone can't handle mean things said about their idea, then they probably won't survive the slings and arrows of the market (and yes, I know not all of the "Show HNs" are business related). Also, many people, when they see something that seems obvious, already done, or simply wrong, tend to have a bad reaction (see http://xkcd.com/386/). Still, criticisms could be phrased better; OTOH again, but many of the originators of "Show HNs" that seemed like the most likely to suceed were the ones who show up, acknowledge valid criticism, and fix faults with their projects. Some of the best even thank polite critics for input.
Some comments are mean because the poster is a jerk. But some of the most valuable comments you will get are angry diatribes from people who probably saw potential in your idea but were disappointed for some reason. These are well worth tuning into. The worst type of comment is the one that wasn't made because no one gave a damn one way or the other.
> These are well worth tuning into.
If I do a "Show HN", I will read each and every comment and think about it. But that's not the point of contention here. The point is you can be honest, unfiltered, upset and can still not be an asshole.
If I do a "Show HN", I will read each and every comment and think about it. But that's not the point of contention here. The point is you can be honest, unfiltered, upset and can still not be an asshole.
My point is that even assholes can have valid insights (and aren't shy of expressing them).
And yet "try not to be an asshole" is still good advice.
> Someone posts a "Show HN" doesn't mean you get the right to walk all over it
I didn't realize that signing up to HN entitled me to negativity free advertising for my pet project.
Wouldn't you expect people posting Show HN posts to know what happens in the comment threads of all of them?
I agree that the community should try to discourage plain insults, but I want to see well reasoned thoughts and critiques of other projects from the community. If that critique is harsh then it's harsh. Welcome to going public with your idea. I agree with you about the insults, but you are also drifting towards encouraging protecting egos that are tied to their product. That's not a helpful community norm. Be supportive of people working hard and ruthlessly honest about their ideas and products.
Also, we're coming up on a decade of digg/reddit/HN style social news sites. Is it time to stop being surprised that the behaviour that this medium incentivises is the behaviour we keep seeing?
I didn't realize that signing up to HN entitled me to negativity free advertising for my pet project.
Wouldn't you expect people posting Show HN posts to know what happens in the comment threads of all of them?
I agree that the community should try to discourage plain insults, but I want to see well reasoned thoughts and critiques of other projects from the community. If that critique is harsh then it's harsh. Welcome to going public with your idea. I agree with you about the insults, but you are also drifting towards encouraging protecting egos that are tied to their product. That's not a helpful community norm. Be supportive of people working hard and ruthlessly honest about their ideas and products.
Also, we're coming up on a decade of digg/reddit/HN style social news sites. Is it time to stop being surprised that the behaviour that this medium incentivises is the behaviour we keep seeing?
> Wouldn't you expect people posting Show HN posts to know what happens in the comment threads of all of them?
It happens all the time and posters are well aware of the behavior. Neither of these mean it's desirable to put down everyone who does a "Show HN". If anything, it happens all the time is the reason behind the concern.
> I want to see well reasoned thoughts and critiques of other projects from the community.
> Be supportive of people working hard and ruthlessly honest about their ideas and products.
I am not advocating heaps of praise for anyone who does a "Show HN". Honesty and not being an asshole aren't mutually exclusive.
> Is it time to stop being surprised that the behaviour that this medium incentivises is the behaviour we keep seeing?
I am not too sure if HN incentivises being a jerk to "Show HN" or posts in general. But if it does, it should stop. Just because it happens doesn't make it desirable.
It happens all the time and posters are well aware of the behavior. Neither of these mean it's desirable to put down everyone who does a "Show HN". If anything, it happens all the time is the reason behind the concern.
> I want to see well reasoned thoughts and critiques of other projects from the community.
> Be supportive of people working hard and ruthlessly honest about their ideas and products.
I am not advocating heaps of praise for anyone who does a "Show HN". Honesty and not being an asshole aren't mutually exclusive.
> Is it time to stop being surprised that the behaviour that this medium incentivises is the behaviour we keep seeing?
I am not too sure if HN incentivises being a jerk to "Show HN" or posts in general. But if it does, it should stop. Just because it happens doesn't make it desirable.
> But if it does, it should stop. Just because it happens doesn't make it desirable.
Never said it was desirable. I'm just fairly convinced that this is the type of interaction that humans do when they communicate in this medium. Like I said, we have 7 or 8 years of experiments and people acting pretty much the same throughout. Some combination of anonymity, fake points to score every contribution with voting and emphasis on many short nuggets of information rather than long form maybe? who knows.
> it should stop
"why can't everyone just get along". I think it's safe to assume by now that this behaviour is human nature + this communication medium. You can tell people to "stop it" or you can change the system that encourages/causes/incentivises that behaviour. Only one of those approaches has ever worked.
Never said it was desirable. I'm just fairly convinced that this is the type of interaction that humans do when they communicate in this medium. Like I said, we have 7 or 8 years of experiments and people acting pretty much the same throughout. Some combination of anonymity, fake points to score every contribution with voting and emphasis on many short nuggets of information rather than long form maybe? who knows.
> it should stop
"why can't everyone just get along". I think it's safe to assume by now that this behaviour is human nature + this communication medium. You can tell people to "stop it" or you can change the system that encourages/causes/incentivises that behaviour. Only one of those approaches has ever worked.
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Comment on some small technical detail that I think is interesting, but that no-one else cares about.
Sudden realization that HN or Zerohedge or /r/programming/ are just a mass-media?)) This is a premature enlightenment.)
The next level is a realization that it isn't any different form /b/ - just a flow of a community-generated content about some buzzwords.))
Well, we must admit that a distribution of our interests is a little bit broader, but it is a substitution-based activity nevertheless.)
The next level is a realization that it isn't any different form /b/ - just a flow of a community-generated content about some buzzwords.))
Well, we must admit that a distribution of our interests is a little bit broader, but it is a substitution-based activity nevertheless.)
I know HN is full of LISP hackers, but there's no need to add random closing brackets, surely?
For some reason, using closing parens instead of proper smileys with colons caught on in Russia and some Eastern Europe countries (never seen one from anyone living in Western Europe).
Not to offend dschiptsov, but (ab)using them is an awful habit to have.
Not to offend dschiptsov, but (ab)using them is an awful habit to have.
I have always heard that it was because Russian/Eastern Europe keyboards doesn't have a colon in their layout, but looking at the layout[0] that doesn't seem to be true.
But the colon combination is a bit awkward for adding quick smileys (SHIFT+6) which makes it understandable that one would use )) instead.
A bit unrelated, but I once had a guy trying to scam me on Steam using some neat chat request trick using a friends name. Disregarding all the other scamming signs I easily spotted this being another user because of the )) overuse. I know it is silly, but I can't help but chuckle a little bit when I see )) or similar.
[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KB_Russian.svg
But the colon combination is a bit awkward for adding quick smileys (SHIFT+6) which makes it understandable that one would use )) instead.
A bit unrelated, but I once had a guy trying to scam me on Steam using some neat chat request trick using a friends name. Disregarding all the other scamming signs I easily spotted this being another user because of the )) overuse. I know it is silly, but I can't help but chuckle a little bit when I see )) or similar.
[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:KB_Russian.svg
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It is the case in a lot of chat programs that you will get
Tipzntrix: hi Tipzntrix: )
The closing paren is supposed to be attached to the colon to make a super quick happy face.
or sad face.
Tipzntrix: (
Tipzntrix: hi Tipzntrix: )
The closing paren is supposed to be attached to the colon to make a super quick happy face.
or sad face.
Tipzntrix: (
I've also only seen it from some EE girls I've dated. It's really odd isn't. It drove me insane initially. I guess they'd argue it reduces typing time by 50%!
Interesting
(at least where I came from, EE girls are very rare)
But they do type smiles properly.
I would assume EE types would have other problems with typyjng, or maybe not;
(at least where I came from, EE girls are very rare)
But they do type smiles properly.
I would assume EE types would have other problems with typyjng, or maybe not;
Thanks!
...and somebody would complain why this thing is in the front page, and other person questioning why HN becoming like Reddit, and someone will downvote the comment.
..but then some other guy would defend it by saying "but it is hacker-y, etc"
..but then some other guy would defend it by saying "but it is hacker-y, etc"
It's this sort of thing that originally drove me away from /r/programming and which I continue to find hilarious about HN (and to found a parodic subreddit, see if you can find it).
Can't look at the listing in the same way after seeing that haha
It's probably best to wear alternate pairs of shoes, so that they get a chance to dry out and air between outings.
I was a little disappointed some of them didn't link to actual articles.
You forgot to add woman-centric posts, like "How I hacked my daughter's brain into learning Python," or "How I taught 3 girls between the ages of 13 and 55 to love Linux command line."
But this is pretty funny. No MS hate?
But this is pretty funny. No MS hate?
The MS hate comes in waves, just like everything else on HN! This is why HN can become especially addictive to me when the topic du jour appeals to my interests.
I guess I should write a blog about this, but first I need to get a blog. Perhaps I could blog about getting a blog so I can blog an analysis of how HN's topics are both cyclical and wave-like. Both, of course posted to HN at optimal hours for maximum effect!
I guess I should write a blog about this, but first I need to get a blog. Perhaps I could blog about getting a blog so I can blog an analysis of how HN's topics are both cyclical and wave-like. Both, of course posted to HN at optimal hours for maximum effect!
Great articles. Please add:
"How Jokes and Parodies are turning HN into Reddit" :)
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At least 5 entries should have been new .js libraries. Also no github posts.
Favorite: Vivek on immigration policies
Best HN post ever.
It's missing a post like:
"Tech Founder that Graduated from Stanford Says College Dead, Long Live Blog Learning"
This was posted 60 days ago: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4621731.
It also turns up as the first hit for "hacker news parody" or "hn parody" on Google.
It also turns up as the first hit for "hacker news parody" or "hn parody" on Google.
Oh dear, I actually said #28 when we started ours...
Brilliant, though it seemed to me to have one glaring omission:
I'm Quitting [Popular Nonessential Service] for 1 Month
What I Learned from Quitting [Popular Nonessential Service] for 1 Month"I got rejected from YC and here's my idea. It still sucks"
Haha. This is too funny. I love the twitter post that just happens to have 140 comments!
Linked List voting system is broken.
1 snarky comment
AFTER EDIT: This a duplicate submission, a repost of the previously submitted
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4621731
item from a different URL
http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=193b767bbb3b0eb0d949d592...
two months ago. (That is shown by the date on both submitted mock front pages of HN, and by their identical text.) It's funny, and memorable enough that I still recall the last time this was posted.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4621731
item from a different URL
http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=193b767bbb3b0eb0d949d592...
two months ago. (That is shown by the date on both submitted mock front pages of HN, and by their identical text.) It's funny, and memorable enough that I still recall the last time this was posted.
Yes?
Needs more Bitcoin stories.
How i WISH we could rid ourselves of the 'Contrarian blog post to recently popular blog post' cancer. It's a phenomenon i can't say i even see anywhere else online.
So, you've seen the hand-curated fake HN. Now see the randomly-generated fake HN I did for a laugh a couple of months ago.
http://rachelbythebay.com/fun/hrand/
Some of the examples look curiously close to actual news, but they're all random. Really.
http://rachelbythebay.com/fun/hrand/
Some of the examples look curiously close to actual news, but they're all random. Really.
"I bootstrapped my bitcoins while married".
That's just gold.
That's just gold.
"Facebook buys marriage in space", "Tim Cook wants jQuery on the freeway"... I cannot stop laughing!
Sorry HN, but I think I'm addicted to that other site now. goes there and keeps hitting f5
Sorry HN, but I think I'm addicted to that other site now. goes there and keeps hitting f5
beautifully done :) "Ten Ways to use SDK on Windows" was pure gold.
131 self-referential comments
"10 mistakes that I made during my unsuccessful YC interview, 9 of which PG probably didn't even notice"
"Show HN: My first (read: I'm younger than you) app I hacked up in less than 20 mins (read: I'm smarter than you), because I had nothing else to do (read: don't feel too cozy in your job, cuz I'm dropping out of college any day [if my parents agree, that is])"
"How I made big bucks with something so trivial that I'm surprised my cleaning lady did not think of it before me"
"Apple is no longer as innovative as they were 5 minutes ago"
Plenty of discussions that mix a lot of fancy Latin expressions and Scotsmen
Recruiter: a derogatory term for somebody that knows less about a specific field than than the experts in that field they hire
Fanboy: favoriteGadget.brand != other.favoriteGadget.brand
Fanboy of a Recruiter: greatest insult on HN