zlacker

This is Hacker News. We come here for hacker news. If we want political news, we go to reddit.

>>DXL+(OP)
Yes, because the internet does not exist in the real world! Why should we care what's happening around us? Eyes back to your monitors!

>>DXL+(OP)
I've been hacking since last night, and I found this interesting. My point is, news doesn't have to be about technology, business, or startups to be interesting to hackers.

>>nkohar+3
Every site has a focus.

>>DXL+(OP)
Personally, I agree. If I want news like this then I go to other websites. I come to Hacker news because its focused

>>chengm+5
Of course it doesn't, however once this site starts getting diluted with information that I consider to be off-topic then I leave and so will others. The GREAT thing about Hacker News is that it covers startup and programming news and is a wonderful resource without me having to go through loads of stuff I'm not interested in, or (more importantly) that I can find elsewhere

>>inovic+g
Point taken.

>>chengm+n
Anyway, its sparked debate :) We've a great community on here, so whats good is we can do so intelligently. I'm not from the US, so not only was this off-topic (for me) but also not even politics I'm interested in :P

>>run4yo+9
I'm not suggesting we become the politics subreddit. Just saying that it's important to know what's going on IRL too. :)

>>nkohar+C
You can visit other sites you know. I'm pretty sure Paul won't mind. :-)

>>nkohar+3
I don't agree with nkohari, but he shouldn't be voted down this much. A 0 or a -1 is enough to say "no, we don't agree". It's not as if he said something horribly offensive.

>>davidw+H1
Thanks for the support. I guess I didn't realize that this was an opinion-free zone. Honestly I think it's ridiculous that I would get down-voted for supporting an article that's now at number one. Clearly people care about the topic, and it's not like I contributed "less" to the discussion than the original comment I replied to, which was up-voted like wildfire. It's not like I'm on here spouting support for Ron Paul or linking to leftist blogs.

>>nkohar+3
How did this get negative points? I can only upvote!

>>nkohar+c2
I too disagreed with you, but voted you up (from -8 to -7) because I think it's ridiculous that you can bury someone that much.

If you think about it, the only people that deserve to be buried are true trolls posting viagra ads and those terrible scat porn stories on slashdot... and those people don't care about their karma anyway, so you might as well just delete their accounts.

Why don't we just have some kind of floor on comments. Really -1 is enough to say "this comment is crap" without resulting in a situation where someone is dogpiled.

>>initse+d2
You need a certain level of karma to downvote.

>>DXL+(OP)
Really? You're interested in Ron Paul and George W. Bush alarmism?

>>DXL+(OP)
He should be able to submit whatever he wants. People who vote this stuff up should lose karma. Call it a "user obviously doesn't grasp the point of the site" penalty.

>>davidw+H1
I agree with davidw, but he shouldn't be voted up this much. A 3 or a 4 is enough to say "we agree". It's not as if he said something horribly insightful.

>>DXL+(OP)
We come here for hacker news. If we want political news, we go to reddit.

I come here for intelligent analysis of news which I take notice of. Although I'm very curious about software, I still take notice of political current events in the US... as, I think, do most intelligent people.

Although it's questionable that some universities have departments dedicated to it (http://rhetoric.berkeley.edu/), I think political rhetoric like this speech is very interesting for hackers, especially so from mass psychology and CogSci perspectives.

>>inovic+g
having to go through loads of stuff I'm not interested in

Anyone interested in making an open version of reddit? One where people can write their own "favorites" algorithm, and/or one where user's votes are available via API?

>>andrey+c3
See how short the path is from politics to meta-meta discussions? A slippery slope indeed;-)

I wouldn't vote me up that much either, but there is a difference between voting up and voting someone way down.

>>andrey+g3
I don't understand why this comment got down-voted as it has. Steve Jobs is a closer example of the charisma and rhetoric needed to lead, but the example linked to here is another fine data point. If you aspire to leading a company, don't you want to inspire as well as perspire?

>>robg+C4
I think there's some reflexive downvoting going on here, because people are terrified of what happened to reddit happening here. But we won't let that happen.