Comment by johnfn
2 days ago
Thank you for the very long and thoughtful comment. It's an fun and interesting idea to think about, and I certainly don't mind reading long tangents :) But I want to push back on it a tad: I think it misses my point a little bit. I completely am fine with HN being a negative place - I wouldn't have been here so long if this bothered me! But I don't think all divisiveness is made equal. And in particular, I think the divisiveness on HN about AI feels different than previous divisiveness. I think your argument hinges on how if you are pro-A you are much more likely to notice anti-A sentiment. This is true, but I think the quality of anti-A sentiment differs in this case from the past.
When TypeScript came out and for the first couple of years, I was the biggest TypeScript zealot on the planet. I loved it! There was a point when I typed T that the autosuggestions on iPhone would suggest "Typescript" :-) This all to say: when anti-Typescript sentiment popped up, I definitely noticed it, and it definitely annoyed me. (I still think back on jashkenas saying that he didn't see any point in TS because any good engineer wouldn't make the errors it catches and I just want to throttle him! But I digress...) And there definitely was a lot of it.
But there was a difference in quality between the anti-TS sentiment and the anti-AI sentiment. No one ever attacked my abilities as an engineer for saying I liked TS; no one ever said the things I built with TS were embarrassing or intern-quality like they have with AI. It never devolved into personal attacks the way that anti-AI commentariat pull out when they run out of other arguments.
I'd make a humble suggestion. I would like to suggest that when comments get that derisive, that those comments are removed faster and those users are banned faster. I genuinely think it brings down the quality of discourse site-wide. (FWIW, I think the same about pro-AI incendiary content - very low-quality comments about how people are going to lose their jobs / become obsolete without AI should equally well be flagged, removed and banned.)
I know the HN moderator team is incredibly busy and I am very thankful for all you do!
Yes, not all divisive topics are equally divisive. It depends on how people feel. More people feel more intensely about AI than about Typescript, and certain other topics exceed even AI in intensity. The dynamic I was describing is powered by feelings so it makes sense it would show up more where those are more intense. I think that accounts for the differences you've experienced, no?
> I completely am fine with HN being a negative place
That can't be true, or else the personal attacks, derisive and incendiary content you're describing wouldn't bother you!
Also, it isn't possible to treat comment quality and negativity as separate issues because the two are related. Negativity reduces comment quality, for many reasons. One is what when people are angry or frightened they become repetitive and uncreative. Another is that such comments evoke more, and worse, from others.
> I would like to suggest that when comments get that derisive, that those comments are removed faster and those users are banned faster.
No argument there, but this is what we're already doing, or at least trying to do, regardless of the topic. If we knew a more effective way to do it, we'd be there!