I came here expecting to see something like this at the top position. Apart from the standard rant about how completely unconstructive criticism -- in fact just outright insulting whole people and companies from the safety of anonymity -- seems to rule around here, there are a couple of other things I'd like to say.
HN would greatly benefit from a regional filter -- as in, a filter of which comments I read, not who can post them. WTF do I care what some guy in Australia thinks of a very prominent Bay Area employer? He doesn't have friends and neighbors who work there, we do. Geographic community still means something, and much of the news on HN happens in our locale.
(Honestly, I have a difficult time taking any developer who doesn't live here seriously, but that's a different discussion.)
Second, up/down voting is conflated with "makes me feel good/not good" -- a better system would allow feedback to be more nuanced: agree/disagree, insightful, well-researched, funny etc. So we could have filters on discussions for what's actually insightful, not just what gives people the fuzzy comfort of knowing their preconceptions can remain safe and unchallenged for one more day, because the world has made low someone who has actual accomplishments (and mistakes)
HN would greatly benefit from a regional filter -- as in, a filter of which comments I read, not who can post them. WTF do I care what some guy in Australia thinks of a very prominent Bay Area employer? He doesn't have friends and neighbors who work there, we do. Geographic community still means something, and much of the news on HN happens in our locale.
(Honestly, I have a difficult time taking any developer who doesn't live here seriously, but that's a different discussion.)
Second, up/down voting is conflated with "makes me feel good/not good" -- a better system would allow feedback to be more nuanced: agree/disagree, insightful, well-researched, funny etc. So we could have filters on discussions for what's actually insightful, not just what gives people the fuzzy comfort of knowing their preconceptions can remain safe and unchallenged for one more day, because the world has made low someone who has actual accomplishments (and mistakes)