Comment by f1shy
3 days ago
I have seen pretty toxic comments in many political threads. Specially in threads of political that have nothing to do with technology in any way.
BTW even being the least toxic leaves the bar still pretty low, if you ask me.
There's a reason those kinds of posts are considered off-topic here. Polarized subjects quickly get ugly and toxic, people tend to turn off their brains and just react rather than trying to understand the other perspective. It's a shame, I enjoy discussing those topics, especially with people I disagree with. But it's almost impossible on the internet.
Not so off topic. About 2 weeks ago, I commented in such an article saying I humbly don’t think is an appropriate topic for HN, and I was downvoted to hell in a hurry…
most of your comments start by objecting to the person you reply to - that sets most people on edge and they are likely punishing you for your tone as much as the content
We could have positive discourse on polarized subjects, but the forum doesn't want that. We are artificially limited here in many ways. If the forum were changed, it could be a lot easier to direct conversations in a constructive way. But it's currently designed for mass-appeal and engagement.
>but the forum doesn't want that
Who is the forum exactly?
>But it's currently designed for mass-appeal and engagement.
Are you talking about hacker news? Your description confuses me in relation to the site you are on.
I'd like to see you expand on how one would remove the artificial limitations without massively increasing the administrative/moderative workload.
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I find the most emotionally negative content on HN is about public education. There are so many people who were personally affected by poor schooling in their youth and cannot resist to add their (usually unhelpful and uninsightful) two cents to the discussion. So many of these negative comments are paint with a very broad brush, like: "Public schools are terrible in state X." It is so general as to be useless.
Years ago, when I was young, I noticed a trend watching local TV news: Whenever they would interview people on the street, past a certain age, their comments become so much more negative. Example: "So, how is traffic in your part of town? Oh, it's never been worse." "How are the public schools? Oh, it's never been worse." Ad nauseam. Whenever I feel any conversation in my life is drifting into "Oh, it's never been worse.", I tune out.