bezier-curve

Joined 5 years ago

Karma
261
Submissions
194
Member since
Dec 4
I used to take HN seriously, but I can't anymore. After years of contributing, it's clear the site is allergic to criticism of itself. Meta commentary about moderation or culture gets recoded as "crankiness" and penalized, no matter how well-founded.

This isn't about one downvote. After 5 years I never reached the 501 karma required just to downvote, a basic function. That's a system that rewards conformity while suppressing dissent.

When I updated this bio with critique, the moderator asked if I wanted my account closed. When I pressed for an explanation, and pointed out how downvotes coincided with my emails, I got silence. That silence is its own answer.

HN isn't an open forum. It's internet feudalism: users generate the content, the lords guard the system, and feedback about that arrangement is unwelcome. That's why I'm done.

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Recent submissions

Comment · 4 days ago
Yeah, I meant comments.
Comment · 5 days ago
I've contacted HN before and they've told me they auto-downvote certain kinds of content. It's not a stretch to assume their views are influencing that criteria.
Comment · 6 days ago
Actually, you can't unless you meet a karma threshold. I have been on this site for 6 years and I still haven't reached it because my opinions are too controversial (apparently).
Comment · 9 days ago
I think for me at least, my main concern with data centers is the energy fueling them and the air pollution. It's not fair to buy up property around residential areas and force portable natural gas turbine emissions into people's lives. We need these powered by renewable energy at minimum.
Comment · 1 month ago
For less than the cost of this plan, you can get ChatGPT Pro 200, Claude Max 5x, and Kimi Code. At least that's what I'm doing, and the model diversity does help with adversarial code review loops.
Comment · 1 month ago
I am not talking about open models. I am talking about proprietary models being trained on public information. A lot of people want to posture about what an ideological person might think, and some of it seems conveniently positioned to use a past figure that can't speak for themselves.

I think copyright has real intrinsic value in our society, but having been subjected to threatening legal letters for legit fair use situations in my youth, as a result I don't think the legal structure behind it is sane. I always respect copyright when I can, but it's gotten to a point where fair use is not equally considered.

Comment · 2 months ago
Maybe we could have privacy protections before assuming every adult in the US is a child until giving random companies our PII? That would be cool, but not holding my breath.

Edit: of course, downvote the comment pointing to Americans having more civil rights. Expect nothing less from the HN techbro cesspool. And yes, this meta commentary infringes the guidelines, and the trust contract is broken at this point. This site does not deserve my energy anymore.

Comment · 3 months ago
It's basically talking about the impact on the environment and which class of society will end up benefiting from AI. I thought the article was pretty clear, and a message we as a society should be discussing more, especially with the current state of things.

With that said, the article reads like it's been through an AI pass, and not as concise and direct as it could be.

Comment · 4 months ago
One thing I see missing in a lot of these discussions is whether or not the metric is solely based on speed. I think AI just allows you to look at your code in different ways and provides more chances to catch mistakes. I am definitely slower with AI assistance, but that is because I use it to increase the quality of my work.
Comment · 4 months ago
Fair, and maybe some people should see this, but the article alone is not that interesting. It quotes the president saying what anyone vaguely aware of politics might already be able to infer. My comment should have been more clear that the article just lacks substance.

Edit: Interesting loss of karma after explaining myself even though the comment scores are unchanged. Totally not rigged voting system...

Comment · 4 months ago
Not sure why this narcissist gaslighter is in the HN feed. Not very thought-provoking content.
Comment · 4 months ago
The moon is probably the only celestial body humans can actually occupy with current technology, for every other object in the solar system we need robots.

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