I was contemplating whether to write this for quite a while and in general I wouldn't, because it contributes to a bad signal/noise ratio. And I'm not immune to making some semi-snarky remarks that might not contribute too much, myself. But there's a certain... shall we say _behavior_ I recognise from reddit that made me feel it was warranted.
Why? Is that your job? Why do you feel it's your responsibility to inform people when they have strayed from your idea of what someone else's vision of HN is supposed to be? Do you think it's a useful thing to do or that it brings you some benefit?
It's to my benefit because I'd prefer HN not to turn into what reddit ended up as, as then it'd lose its usefulness for me. I don't think it's my job, no, and hence why this is the first time I've done this. But knowing that the moderators aren't heavy handed around here it falls to the existing community to govern itself to a degree. People are free to flag my message if they feel it's inappropriate.
if i am curious about something and want to learn, i don't want to need to sift through jokes and sarcastic comments. i find joy in learning and people can still be informative and use humor.
I'm frustrated this is getting so much pushback - puns are noise. HN is more enjoyable than reddit precisely because of the higher signal-to-noise ratio. But a significant part of the comments of this post are arguing about how much fun to have in the comments, a complete waste of my time.
We are debating, with hushed academic rigour (well some of us are) an article where the author is talking about how they designed and implemented a system to drop hats out of a window at passers by.
Hats.
Out of a Window.
For a joke.
Not a cure for cancer.
Not a peace proposal
Not a way to get people out of poverty
Hats. Out. Of. A. Window.
This hushed "no we mustn't pun or mock" type attitude is one of the main drivers of stupid tech fads
It leads to people in positions of power to write down phrases like "This product isn't seen by our customers as a bridge to the metaverse". The product being a fucking chat app with bulletin board built in. At no point did anyone in the room mercilessly rip the piss out of them. And it shows.
