Recent submissions

Comment · 3 years ago
Right, what we trade in regulating the score, we lose in data privacy since all credit scoring systems have no problem fucking around with your data giving it to whoever asks even though there is a tremendous amount of information attached.
Comment · 3 years ago
I don't see how an unchecked Playstation is at all comparable to how much Microsoft can leverage ABK across several industries. Microsoft knows this, it's why they're OK with Game Pass destroying software console sales (something they admitted during previous trials). It's peanuts for what they want to do.
Comment · 3 years ago
It was a cesspool, with subs like jailbait and fatpeoplehate running rampant, turning platform into nothing but a hate-obsessed one with lots of porn (mind you, not the type that reddit became famous for around ~2018, but revenge and gif reuploads to imgur). I certainly would not consider any of those "what made reddit great".

What made reddit great was the era after this, when many subs were then removed for promoting hate, users could also start avoiding subs so they won't show up, and everything else left up to user choice. This was the time when more people started to trust reddit more, and thanks to the likes of tumblr struggling, people felt comfortable enough to post more valuable and personal content.

Until of course they started messing with things again and then started allowing a lot of violence on the front page and filling feeds with recommendations.

Comment · 3 years ago
There is design diversity, but you're just not going to find it on mainstream sites or apps because they're catering to the everyman. When that occurs, you're tossing away novelty for a sense of expectation.

Much in the same way you can find a variety of art but the majority that gets attention are hyper-realistic works. It's just easier to understand for the everyman.

Comment · 3 years ago
We just rely on layers and layers of cruft. We then demand improvements when things get too bad, but we're only operating on the very top layer where even dramatic improvements and magic are irrelevant.

Windows is especially bad at this due to so much legacy reliance, which is also kind of why people still bother with Windows. Not to claim that Linux or MacOS don't have similar problems (ahem, Catalyst) but it's not as overt.

A lot of the blame gets placed on easy to see things like an Electron app, but really the problem is so substantial that even native apps perform slower, use more resources, and aren't doing a whole lot more than they used to. Windows Terminal is a great example of this.

Combine this with the fact that most teams aren't given the space to actually maintain (because maintaining doesn't result in direct profits), and you've got a winning combination!

Comment · 3 years ago
You can't really be stagnant due to competition. Not unless you're deep into some niche that's difficult to get started in or stick around.
Comment · 3 years ago
It's a little different, Microsoft doesn't care about consumers as they stopped being relevant to Microsoft's financials in the Ballmer era. Even consumer Office spending makes less than LinkedIn for companies to put into perspective how little they care.

However, enterprise/commercial? The same group you're trying to sandwich between a 365 subscription and azure/github? These are the people in which when they do have evidence that they are being negatively affected, will cause a massive dent in Microsoft's bottom line.

Comment · 3 years ago
Yes, also people dramatically undervalue how substantial the absence of data is when it comes to profiling someone. Especially when you compare it to other data points, for example not having credit cards on record is enough information to start building a whole lot of other connections.
Comment · 3 years ago
I actually believe this is one of the reasons Reddit (and its alternatives) will never reach their peaks again. Too many want to take, not many want to give their valuable information.

What this essentially boils down to, is AI will then process everything easily accessible and "low quality" (your tech purchase recommendations for example), and everything more valuable will be locked behind communities that invest resources into creating barriers to entry.

This isn't new of course, Patreon is an example of this. Discord also has private channels too, to indicate this is a common pattern that will only increase. Reddit knows this as well, hence their rushed attempts at locking down access.

Basically, get used to having to put in work for information you want and can't find through chatbots!

Comment · 3 years ago
That's kind of a big if. We're assuming the users are happy, but from what I've seen having to rely on Patreon or other external apps is making users unhappy.
Comment · 3 years ago
I can understand why both your friends and the company struggled to respect your choices and required so much more legwork than normal, because man oh man you are quite bad with words!
Comment · 3 years ago
I really disagree with the community building part, but I do agree with the defaults on Discord being horrible.

With the community building aspect, forums were not great for it. Due to how fragmented it was, and how subforums were often dramatically different sections, this meant that unless you were genuinely deeply into [topic] and were spending numerous hours per day regularly you would not build a community at all there. This is why on most forums, it's only the trolls who became known, they had that cross-contamination aspect. Forums also had a lot of UX that discouraged caring about the user. Names were tucked away, profile images were tiny, people hid signatures due to how obnoxious they got. They became the equivalent of reading a mailing list you were randomly added into.

This doesn't really excuse Discord. By default it encourages too many indicators. Tutorials for new accounts, rule modules, every channel has an indicator on it, there's buttons left right and center making you afraid to click anything, then the whispers for joining servers, the list goes on. This is one aspect that I hope Discord spends severe amount of resources looking at in 2024. Which I think they absolutely are capable of doing, but I'm not sure if their investors care about the new user experience sadly.

Comment · 3 years ago
The biggest pro to choosing the likes of Svelte (or Vue, htmx, long list of newer frameworks that have learned from React/Angular's shortcomings) is how few footguns there are.

That's really the big thing. I know everyone loves to believe they're masterclass programmers and falling for such traps is beneath them, but after seeing some of these masterclass programmer's react repos... it's very clear why the react docs is filled with many disclaimers and notes (which kudos to the react team for phenomenal docs).

Comment · 3 years ago
JSX is necessary to use React otherwise you create even more footguns in a library that's littered with them.
Comment · 3 years ago

Live from the official Hacker News API

A modern reader for Hacker News · SvelteKit + Skeleton