Anything I post critical of Android and Microsoft on Hacker news gets voted up. Most criticism I post about Apple gets voted deeply sub-zeroed or for submissions, flagged and removed. And it has gotten much, much worse the last 6 months.
Hacker News is definitely turning into the monoculture Paul Graham said (here on this site) that he wanted to prevent. At this point I feel the value of having a discussion about matters here has dropped sharply and is continuing to do so.
What's the point of commenting when it will get minus'ed, despite backing your comment with verifiable data? Meanwhile the ones saying something equivalent of "I disagree (but I have no argument)" gets top votes. What's the point of submitting stories when you know it will get flagged and censored?
A culture of censorship and self-affirmation. Do really I want to be a part of that?
What is interesting is that I observe the deepest abuse of the moderation system after morning has hit the US continent. During European working hours this place is usually quite civilized. At this point Hacker news seems to contain at least two widely different cultures. I sense a clash or divide of some sort coming in the near future.
Thinking about it, my feelings right now tells me that this place has turned into a smaller, but much worse mob-rule than reddit ever was. And I quit reddit because of the completely uncritical mob-rule found there.
Time to do some reflection around my online-habbits. I hear Google+ is a great place for reasonable hacker-type discussion these days.
It may be that everyone is tired of endless Apple-related discussions and speculations, based on virtually no 'official' information. Unfortunately, because Apple prefers to say nothing, everyone else on the internet thinks that their personal opinions are an adequate substitute. Although I don't bother to look at these stories myself, it may be that others have got tired of reading them.
I prefer to read positive and educational stories that appear on Hacker News, and stories that are unlikely to be noticed by many given their location - if people posted and commented on these more than on the latest speculation and gossip, or on stories from sites that already get more publicity than they deserve, Hacker News might be a more rewarding place for everyone...
> I realize the Sanfran wannebe hipster-crowd here like their shiny iGadgets and want to reaffirm their own worth by appraising the company which they have attached their identity to, but this is getting a little bit out of hand and quite frankly, rather silly.
Looking through your post history and for your previous account, it looks like over half of your posts concern Apple with the vast majority of them having a negative slant. If people are moderating you down (I haven't) it's probably because they either disagree with your arguments or doubt your sincerity. Unless you're trying to argue that reality has an anti-Apple bias.
Note that I personally would classify myself as having a somewhat pro-Apple mindset, but I see plenty on HN who are very clearly pro Google/Android. No such monoculture exists.
> Hacker News is definitely turning into the monoculture Paul Graham said (here on this site) that he wanted to prevent.
It happens to all websites with upvotes and downvotes system for comments. Before Hacker News I've seen it happened to habrahabr.ru (russian website with similar audience, invite-only).
To have been upvoted, you need to say things everyone agrees with. If you are in minority, then you are downvoted. But talented people are in minority. Rich people are in minority. Business owners vs. wage earners are in minority. So, any community with driven-by-majority censorship quickly degrades to a totalitarian sect. A community built to select good ideas, to filter them out of dirt, must encourage outstanding people who are in minority by definition, not discourage them by downvoting.
That's why I'm against downvoting. Upvotes are OK for me, but I don't like the idea of downvotes on HN. They limit my ability to express alternative point of view here. They make me mimic "the grey mass". Probably it's not the system PG intended to build.
Anything I post critical of Android and Microsoft on Hacker news gets voted up. Most criticism I post about Apple gets voted deeply sub-zeroed or for submissions, flagged and removed. And it has gotten much, much worse the last 6 months.
Hacker News is definitely turning into the monoculture Paul Graham said (here on this site) that he wanted to prevent. At this point I feel the value of having a discussion about matters here has dropped sharply and is continuing to do so.
What's the point of commenting when it will get minus'ed, despite backing your comment with verifiable data? Meanwhile the ones saying something equivalent of "I disagree (but I have no argument)" gets top votes. What's the point of submitting stories when you know it will get flagged and censored?
A culture of censorship and self-affirmation. Do really I want to be a part of that?
What is interesting is that I observe the deepest abuse of the moderation system after morning has hit the US continent. During European working hours this place is usually quite civilized. At this point Hacker news seems to contain at least two widely different cultures. I sense a clash or divide of some sort coming in the near future.
Thinking about it, my feelings right now tells me that this place has turned into a smaller, but much worse mob-rule than reddit ever was. And I quit reddit because of the completely uncritical mob-rule found there.
Time to do some reflection around my online-habbits. I hear Google+ is a great place for reasonable hacker-type discussion these days.