I’m the off-topic flagger. Yes. I’m that guy. Please hear me out. I read the article. To be honest, I read the first few paragraphs of the article. When I read articles posted on lobster the word associations that come to me while I read are like “Algorithms”, “Functional programming”, “Math”, “hardware”, “chip design” and so on and so forth. While I was reading this the only word association I got was “Navel Gazing” and “I can’t see how this is important to me”.
I’m probably wrong, but this article fell so far out of my Lobste.rs cluster, and so firmly into my “HackerNews linkbait” cluster that I went ahead and flagged it.
I’m not important, but if you think this is unfair, please tell me and I can undo the vote (as unimportant as it is)
I wondered if at some point lobsters was going to get a more codified “what goes here” and “what doesn’t” besides the labels. I think your list is a pretty good start, I’d add feminism in there as well.
I’m one of the (five at this moment) upvoters. While I can certainly see your perspective, it sounds like that’s because the issues being described in the article are not part of your daily professional experience. However, as a UI developer for web-based software, the issues this article (and its predecessor) describe are very much part of my daily life.
Cross-browser compatibility is a lot better than it was in the dark days of IE6. However, for the past two years it has consistently been various flavors of Safari that have caused me the most grief.
It may look like navel-gazing if these aren’t the issues you’re dealing with frequently, but it accurately captured my understanding of the current state of browser technology.
Ah. Good point. My description is more about the first article than the followup linked here. I do find the followup a worthwhile read as well, even though it is more focused on the politics around the technology than the technology itself.
You know, Hacker News has its share of problems, but at least they have a vaguely constructive identity rather than constantly defining themselves in contrast to a “rival” who by and large doesn’t even know they exist. (You get the occasional “this isn’t Reddit” comment, but they’re rare and often rightly downmodded). It’s embarrassing. I enjoy both but if you’re going to make me choose between them, it’s not going to be lobste.rs.
Appending to @tedu ’s comment: I see lobste.rs as a sanctuary from the soapbox for manufactured controversy that slashdot and then HN became. I open up Lobste.rs and I see the board and I think “Man I wish I could understand all those articles”. Lobste.rs makes me want to be a better computer scientist. I open up HN and I think “God, I don’t have time to wade through all this crap. It’s making me a worse person”.
I’m not much interested in rivalry, but I’ve found I like communities that are stricter about what they aren’t. A rule against politics (e.g.) doesn’t mean much if the “but it’s interesting” loophole means the site is half politics.
Fwiw, I liked the original post in this series. I didn’t agree with all of it, but it brought up some interesting points. There was a nice discussion. But nobody here called it link bait, so I’m not much interested in reading elaborate defenses against all the articles complainants. This article probably does qualify as link bait, though, riding the coattails of the first.
I think you should feel free to use the off-topic flag. It’s the only voice you have regarding content. If you simply filter tags you don’t like, you don’t provide any feedback to the community regarding what is or isn’t desired. An upvote is a one-sided display.
And since, judging by the response, people tend not to read much further than the first few paragraphs (or even the title!), I’ll keep the most important points up top, so nobody can miss them.
I kept reading, but it honestly didn’t get any better.
Not only was it a follow up to a somewhat tabloid esque piece, but even this came across a bit like a javascript-everywhere proponent with an axe to grind.
FWIW, I don’t think the first one was tabloid-esque at all. It may have been something you don’t deal with a whole lot, but I found the entire article relevant.
I’m the off-topic flagger. Yes. I’m that guy. Please hear me out. I read the article. To be honest, I read the first few paragraphs of the article. When I read articles posted on lobster the word associations that come to me while I read are like “Algorithms”, “Functional programming”, “Math”, “hardware”, “chip design” and so on and so forth. While I was reading this the only word association I got was “Navel Gazing” and “I can’t see how this is important to me”.
I’m probably wrong, but this article fell so far out of my Lobste.rs cluster, and so firmly into my “HackerNews linkbait” cluster that I went ahead and flagged it.
I’m not important, but if you think this is unfair, please tell me and I can undo the vote (as unimportant as it is)
I wondered if at some point lobsters was going to get a more codified “what goes here” and “what doesn’t” besides the labels. I think your list is a pretty good start, I’d add feminism in there as well.
I’m one of the (five at this moment) upvoters. While I can certainly see your perspective, it sounds like that’s because the issues being described in the article are not part of your daily professional experience. However, as a UI developer for web-based software, the issues this article (and its predecessor) describe are very much part of my daily life.
Cross-browser compatibility is a lot better than it was in the dark days of IE6. However, for the past two years it has consistently been various flavors of Safari that have caused me the most grief.
It may look like navel-gazing if these aren’t the issues you’re dealing with frequently, but it accurately captured my understanding of the current state of browser technology.
I was a little strict :) However, are you describing the original article, or the linked one?
Ah. Good point. My description is more about the first article than the followup linked here. I do find the followup a worthwhile read as well, even though it is more focused on the politics around the technology than the technology itself.
You know, Hacker News has its share of problems, but at least they have a vaguely constructive identity rather than constantly defining themselves in contrast to a “rival” who by and large doesn’t even know they exist. (You get the occasional “this isn’t Reddit” comment, but they’re rare and often rightly downmodded). It’s embarrassing. I enjoy both but if you’re going to make me choose between them, it’s not going to be lobste.rs.
Appending to @tedu ’s comment: I see lobste.rs as a sanctuary from the soapbox for manufactured controversy that slashdot and then HN became. I open up Lobste.rs and I see the board and I think “Man I wish I could understand all those articles”. Lobste.rs makes me want to be a better computer scientist. I open up HN and I think “God, I don’t have time to wade through all this crap. It’s making me a worse person”.
I’m not much interested in rivalry, but I’ve found I like communities that are stricter about what they aren’t. A rule against politics (e.g.) doesn’t mean much if the “but it’s interesting” loophole means the site is half politics.
Fwiw, I liked the original post in this series. I didn’t agree with all of it, but it brought up some interesting points. There was a nice discussion. But nobody here called it link bait, so I’m not much interested in reading elaborate defenses against all the articles complainants. This article probably does qualify as link bait, though, riding the coattails of the first.
I think you should feel free to use the off-topic flag. It’s the only voice you have regarding content. If you simply filter tags you don’t like, you don’t provide any feedback to the community regarding what is or isn’t desired. An upvote is a one-sided display.
Did you get to this bit? :)
I kept reading, but it honestly didn’t get any better.
Not only was it a follow up to a somewhat tabloid esque piece, but even this came across a bit like a javascript-everywhere proponent with an axe to grind.
FWIW, I don’t think the first one was tabloid-esque at all. It may have been something you don’t deal with a whole lot, but I found the entire article relevant.