7 ms·

Yes, HN is the appropriate place for this type of posts.

vyrotek 12y ago
On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- frozenport 12y ago
  I don't feel gratified, this belongs on TLC. Why can't we downvote articles?
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  - dang 12y ago
    What disparity? The threshold for upvoting stories is very small.
  - phpnode 12y ago
    no one can downvote submissions, regardless of karma. The reason this is on the front page is that at time of writing, 32 people found it interesting enough to vote up. If you don't like the article, don't read it. Your post is not useful to anyone.
    - shutupalready 12y ago
      > no one can downvote submissions, regardless of karma Why is that? What's the logic of allowing downvotes on comments but not on articles. (My question has no bearing on this particular article, which I found quite interesting.)
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dang 12y ago
Please re-read the site guidelines. This story is appropriate for HN. It's not a close call. Let's not fall for a superficial definition of "intellectually interesting". The story is also brutal, dismaying, and provocative. Hopefully that won't render substantive discussion impossible, but if it does, we'll do what we usually do and weight the thread.
- deadslow 12y ago
  > Let's not fall for a superficial definition of "intellectually interesting". Sure. Can you provide some examples of what's allowed and not allowed then? Because "anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity" actually covers each and every topic in the world. When you exclude one topic, you're actually demeaning people who find that topic interesting.
  - phpnode 12y ago
    a non trivial percentage of your posts are complaints about the quality of HN submissions, (35% or 50% depending on how you count), maybe you should find another website to read if you dislike this one so much?
    - deadslow 12y ago
      Way to answer my question. Thanks.
  - dang 12y ago
    > "anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity" actually covers each and every topic in the world. Certainly not every story gratifies intellectual curiosity. Some (like gossip about celebrities) gratify social curiosity. Others (like many political articles) gratify a desire for agitation, or victory. Others (like promotional pieces) are meant to gratify the author's desire for attention, or business. It's true that people disagree about what meets the HN standard based on what they themselves find interesting, and it's impossible to give these terms a precise definition. On the other hand, they're not just arbitrary, either, the site has evolved some informal but pretty coherent standards over the years, and there are editors whose job it is to make judgment calls and who try hard to strike the right balance for the community. What I hope is crystal-clear, though, is that HN is not just for articles about startups and technology. The curiosity we value here is polymathic.

On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

frozenport 12y ago
I don't feel gratified, this belongs on TLC. Why can't we downvote articles?
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- dang 12y ago
  What disparity? The threshold for upvoting stories is very small.
- phpnode 12y ago
  no one can downvote submissions, regardless of karma. The reason this is on the front page is that at time of writing, 32 people found it interesting enough to vote up. If you don't like the article, don't read it. Your post is not useful to anyone.
  - shutupalready 12y ago
    > no one can downvote submissions, regardless of karma Why is that? What's the logic of allowing downvotes on comments but not on articles. (My question has no bearing on this particular article, which I found quite interesting.)

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dang 12y ago

Please re-read the site guidelines. This story is appropriate for HN. It's not a close call. Let's not fall for a superficial definition of "intellectually interesting". The story is also brutal, dismaying, and provocative. Hopefully that won't render substantive discussion impossible, but if it does, we'll do what we usually do and weight the thread.

deadslow 12y ago
> Let's not fall for a superficial definition of "intellectually interesting". Sure. Can you provide some examples of what's allowed and not allowed then? Because "anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity" actually covers each and every topic in the world. When you exclude one topic, you're actually demeaning people who find that topic interesting.
- phpnode 12y ago
  a non trivial percentage of your posts are complaints about the quality of HN submissions, (35% or 50% depending on how you count), maybe you should find another website to read if you dislike this one so much?
  - deadslow 12y ago
    Way to answer my question. Thanks.
- dang 12y ago
  > "anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity" actually covers each and every topic in the world. Certainly not every story gratifies intellectual curiosity. Some (like gossip about celebrities) gratify social curiosity. Others (like many political articles) gratify a desire for agitation, or victory. Others (like promotional pieces) are meant to gratify the author's desire for attention, or business. It's true that people disagree about what meets the HN standard based on what they themselves find interesting, and it's impossible to give these terms a precise definition. On the other hand, they're not just arbitrary, either, the site has evolved some informal but pretty coherent standards over the years, and there are editors whose job it is to make judgment calls and who try hard to strike the right balance for the community. What I hope is crystal-clear, though, is that HN is not just for articles about startups and technology. The curiosity we value here is polymathic.