Social platforms amplify and discuss DeVault's analysis
1 Today · 12h ago · 1 article · 2 posts · 3 sources · development 1 of 1
The essay circulated on Hacker News (reaching 117 points with 42 comments) and was shared on Mastodon with summary commentary about Y Combinator's control of the platform.
“Because it's run by a bunch of billionaires.”
twipped@twipped.socialDrew DeVault Software developer and bloggerY Combinator Startup incubator that hosts Hacker News
Elon Musk Owner of Grok AI
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What was reported 1 claim about this development
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1 outlet Why is Hacker News like that?
first by HN Frontpage, 12h ago
What people said 19 voices · verbatim
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This doesn't mirror my experience, which is that most posts and comments criticizing the current administration and conservatives in general get significant positive engagement. There are few posts taking the opposite side, and those that try often get downvoted to oblivion.As a recent example, anti-progressive themes (being supportive of Israel…
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"Why is Hacker News like this?" TLDR: Because it's run by a bunch of billionaires. https:// drewdevault.com/blog/Why-is-HN -like-that/
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One thing I've noticed is that people will engage in thread arson to kill submissions they don't agree with. When I see some of these low value comments, I check their comment history and often they have reasonable comments on other things.So what they're doing is leaving low value comments and then they're probably the same people flagging it as…
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This is almost comically backwards. HN is very pro-union, like reddit. In fact, it's pretty much the same users and political opinions as reddit.It's funny he mentioned the grok discussion. The other day I saw grok got some new release, and although I don't use it, I was curious whether it is any good, and was pleasantly surprised people were…
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The flagged comments given as examples are exactly the type I don't want to see here. Not because they are wrong (they are not), but because they are boring, low-calorie declarations of obvious that add very little value to the topic at hand. It's like every mention of an iPhone got a comment about poor conditions of Chinese assembly workers…
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Very apropos is this same author's post from a few years ago where they literally and explicitly support corporate censorship, albeit when that censorship was coming from a lefty perspective.> Nevertheless, the system as it exists today produces outcomes which approximate both rationality and justice, and I do not stand in opposition to the…
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The irony of flagging this post should be obvious.If you're not already, I strongly recommend using [algolia](https://hn.algolia.com/?query=&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page...]) to view HN. That way you can still find content that is ordinarily rudely shoved out of view.Another irony: using algolia, I've come to see most of HN users as refreshingly…
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Jensen Huang is neither a Nazi, nor far right.HN has other biases that mirror the biases of the avg tech worker in the valley and those of the people called out in the article.But they don't neatly fit into "far left" and "far right" buckets. People who use those terms usually are professional agitators.
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I have a hard time imagining a tech forum in my heyday doing anything with a Bill Gates press release other than giving it a giant middle finger.Musk is several orders of magnitude worse than Gates, yet here we are, cheerfully discussing his marketing and flagging dissent.This is not a forum for “hackers” anymore, if it ever was. OP is completely…
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This is a good example of a person observing a community, slotting the whole thing into one of a small handful of political categories based on the relatively tiny proportion of comments that lean one way or another, and then claiming that the community has changed or is hypocritical when it turns out people tend to have more dynamic opinions than…
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The takeaway from this is very important, and always missed: the people at the top were, are and always be intentionally political, ideological and conspirational in their activities. And what benefits them the most is exactly the kind of asymmetry which is created when everyone else keeps politics out of their conversations.
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>the system at Hacker News amplifies right wing politics and bigotryI can't say I get that impression. You don't get any Trump is great kind of stuff and Musk gets slagged off. I suppose it depends on what you think is right wing.
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But couldn't a bunch of posts that are just coming here to lift up one of Elon's products also be counter productive? You can never tell if someone is genuine when reviewing a product he put out. I think that is a big problem as well.
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"I think it's an interesting discussion."Except for comments you want hidden because you think they are "boring" or "low-calorie".
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Oh, right. Drew devault. The drew devault that pays danbooru, the drew devault that collects loli art, drew devault that made a foss hitlist. That drew devault
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It’s because people keep amplifying meta-discussions instead of focusing on the topic at hand. Hence, this article as example. I shouldn’t even be commenting.
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Hear fucking hear.Maybe this article will finally grant me the strength to leave this decrepit place. It’s 90% AI articles and press releases anyway.
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every thread has some “low calorie” comments. The only ones being flagged are the political ones
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If you're far left the center is right, if you're far right, the center is left.
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