interfacelab

Well, actually, I’m guessing they do.  A lot.

The other day, oldmanstan posted an “Ask HN” article to Hacker News asking people what they did to relax.  I wrote a very honest reply:

Play poker, masturbate, play with my cat.

Not at the same time.

Now, I was being relatively serious, though slightly tongue in cheek.  I mean, what male under the age of 40 doesn’t flog the bishop on the regular to unwind?  Most scientists, psychologists, doctors consider it a very healthy habit.  It helps prevent prostate cancer, floods your brain with endorphins and dopamine and is an indicator of healthy self-esteem.  I think the only person in the universe who doesn’t throttle the speed stick is Christine O’ Donell, but I don’t even believe that.

But the point of this blog post is not to talk about masturbating, it’s to talk about how Hacker News has lost any sense of personality.  Any sense of humor.  I’ve noticed this becoming increasingly true over the last year, and I find it worrisome.  Let’s look at some of the replies I received:

RiderOfGiraffes wrote:

I can’t believe people on HackerNews are upvoting that comment. Does it really add that much to the conversation?In the time I’ve been here on HN I’ve come to this position. When I reply or submit, I like to consider a hypothetical someone in a year’s time, mining HN comments for insight and information. I’d like to think that what I write has some use to the in context, and at the same time accurately reflects who I am now.

And yes, the reply fits in that mould. In a year’s time if someone came across that comment, I’d like them to know that I thought it peurile and unfunny, and I flagged it.

Maybe I am just an old fart, but get off my lawn!

Well, RiderOfGiraffes, I simply don’t believe you don’t choke the chicken.  But, that’s not even important.  What is important is this line in your response:

When I reply or submit, I like to consider a hypothetical someone in a year’s time, mining HN comments for insight and information. I’d like to think that what I write has some use to the in context, and at the same time accurately reflects who I am now.

Well good for you, I’m glad you are so thoughtful.  I, however, simply don’t give a shit.  Someone asks a question, and I reply with my thoughts at the time that I have them.  I could give two shakes of a tail feather if someone in the future finds my comment insightful or informative.  I am simply responding to a question with an honest answer.  So shame on me for that, I guess.

But, I also have to tell you, I don’t really believe this is why he is so upset.  The guy responded to the thread three times, which tells me that I’ve upset his prudish sensibilities instead of insulted his intellectual integrity.  I think he is afraid of masturbating.  Such a shame, because it’s such a fantastic activity.

Further down the thread chain, he writes something else I find curious:

I used to think there was a HackerNews community, I used to think that I was a member of it, and I used to be proud to be such.Seeing this comment get downvoted and its parent upvoted with what I can only view as teenaged boys giggling over some smut, I see that there is no single, coherent community with a shared core of beliefs and standards. And maturity. It’s a painful lesson.

And the Oscar goes to …

Listen, if I remove the word masturbate from my original response, would we be here discussing this?  Of course not.  So a single word, masturbate, now has RiderOfGiraffes ready to write off the HackerNews community and his weird ideals of what that is.  Ideals that may or may not be shared with everyone else.  In his attempts to put me down, and those that voted my original comment up, as a teenage boy laughing over smut (masturbating is smut?) – he’s actually gone against the very grain of what he claims he’s a member of.

The only person who has a legitimate gripe is dime who says:

Perhaps the real fear is the community degrading the way of Digg or Reddit? Personally, I chuckled at the comment. However the thought of HN being overrun by hordes of interwebz meme spitting, boob picture posting trolls did cross my mind. One thing that holds true for any community…don’t feed the trolls.

Right on the money, buddy.  I, too, fear HackerNews turning into Reddit or Digg, but I also feel we mustn’t sacrifice a sense of humor in the transaction.  Humor is a very real binding agent for communities, it is a very social (sometimes anti-social) behavior.  Unfortunately, the way HackerNews has been progressing, it’s become very apparent it’s not tolerated or appreciated, no matter how small the dose of it.  Which is a shame and it’s not the way it used to be.

Anyways, I would like to apologize to RidersOfGiraffes for offending him by using the word masturbate, however weird that is to say.  I do belive, in my heart of hearts, if you find masturbating an offensive sport, I would urge you to really consider the reasons why you think that way.  I fundamentally believe that is a harmful belief system to maintain for such a mundane activity.