Comment by sph
3 years ago
NAK.
Hacker News is pretty serious compared to most social media, and I love that. Which makes some rare harmless comments or posts like this one actually good to encounter once in a while.
The seriousness-to-joke ratio of this site is just perfect in my opinion.
Oh yeah I definitely agree that the jokes here are quite tolerable compared to most/all other sites.
It's just that a lot of joke answers early on in the life of a post may make other users who may otherwise seriously respond, look at the responses and go "Aah it's a joke post/it's filled with joke responses, better not waste my time". Consequently the post may not see many upvotes and die out quickly.
In comparison, a post like this has the potential to easily get a few 100 upvotes with good discussions on the (changing/constant etc) demographics. But if a lot of initial responses are jokey in nature we may lose out on that.
Fair enough. But I think in generals polls need a fake answer for bots, trolls or they will contaminate the other results further. See the reference to the Lizardman's Constant someone linked elsewhere in this thread.
> Lizardman's Constant
Thanks for this, that's a good point.
Why did the 105 year old chicken cross the road?
To do a second upvote.