

Hacker News - eru
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_News

======
byrneseyeview
Ooooh. Why gaze at our own navels, when we can ask other people to make a
collaborative fingerpainting of our collective navel, and stare at _that_
instead?

~~~
eru
The link here is older than the article at Wikipedia itself.

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shadytrees
Best of luck to proving notability. From what I can tell, the requirements for
not getting hit by a speedy deletion for not being notable get more stringent
every day.

~~~
colins_pride
I would argue that Hacker News is at least as notable as Digg or Reddit.

In other words, absolute notability may be hard to establish, but in this case
relative notability is a cinch.

~~~
axod
>> "I would argue that Hacker News is at least as notable as Digg or Reddit."

Notable to us, sure. But notable to the world? I'm not sure.

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tptacek
I think this submission is an abuse both of Wikipedia and of Hacker News.

~~~
rms
I don't understand. Surely the exposure of being on here will result in the
article being improved.

In fact, I don't understand why there is any opposition at all. I am
positively baffled.

~~~
tptacek
First, WP has a thing about coordinated editing strikes on articles,
especially when there's a WP:NOT question, especially when the subject of the
article is coordinating the edit. It's true that WP people are always on the
lookout for any perceived slight, but they're consistent about this one.

Second, stoking a minor controversy by creating a WP article about HN that
immediately gets flagged NN --- an article with virtually no content, on WP,
an article itself inferior to almost any navel-gazing HN debate thread about
HN --- and then requesting that HN come in and fix it... that's also an abuse.

And hey, it's just my opinion. I didn't flag the article.

~~~
rms
But it's a new article. How should it be improved if not encouraging people to
edit it? Isn't that the whole idea behind Wikipedia? There is no need for this
process to be contentious. All it needed to be unflagged not notable was some
references. I went and Googled up 5 articles; it was painless enough. Where is
the abuse?

The article had no content because it was just made; it started with the
opinions of one person. That's why it was requested for people to improve it.
That's what Wikipedia does, it writes and improves encyclopedia articles by
crowdsourcing. Saying it's an abuse because the article is bad is ridiculous.
That's the whole point -- to fix the article. And no, it is not abuse. It's an
intended use of the system. You are saying it is an abuse because it is
controversial? That seems inconsistent, this site thrives on debate and in
this case such debate can only improve the quality of the article.

I still don't get it. I went and reedited the article, I would encourage you
to give it another pass.

~~~
tptacek
I don't think any less of you for disagreeing with me. And I don't think we
should be using HN to organizing WP editing drives.

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antipax
Why would we need an article? It would be about a paragraph long. I don't
think this is really appropriate for inclusion in wikipedia.

~~~
ErrantX
Indeed - unless anyone can put forward a convincing argument for inclusion
then I will flag it not notable.

~~~
tjic
I continue to be dumbfounded the the deletionist philosophy.

( <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mergism> )

If Hacker News is not relevant to someone, they'll never search on the term or
look for a definition.

If Hacker News _is_ relevant to someone (they overheard a reference to it, or
saw a link, or checked out the website and still don't get "what it's all
about", or "who started it") then an article is quite relevant.

If we're talking about a non-searchable Borges library, then I understand why
people might want to winnow the books, so as to increase the information
density of what's left.

...but in an age of infinite storage and effective search, what's the theory
for deleting information?

I've never heard an argument for why deletionism provides more utility than
alternatives.

~~~
ggchappell
I generally agree with you. However, suppose there are good reasons behind the
deletionist philosophy. What might they be? Some possibilities:

(1) Inclusion in Wikipedia is a statement in itself. It says, "This is
notable." In the case of non-notable subjects, the statement is false, and so
the problem is one of inaccuracy.

(2) Information on a non-notable topic is very difficult to check for
accuracy, update, etc. Thus, the proliferation of non-notable topics would
lead to lower overall quality.

(3) Pages on generally non-notable topics would tend to reflect the viewpoint
of perhaps just one person who considers the topic important, or, similarly,
one company. They would thus be prone to excessive POV stuff, advertising,
etc.

In summary, every argument I can think of boils down to lack of notability ->
poor quality.

And perhaps that does mean that there should be a notability standard on
Wikipedia. On the other hand, I think it is clear that a large number of those
people labeled "deletionist" have a notability standard that is significantly
too high. (I also think it is very clear that HN is notable enough for
inclusion; I'm rather baffled that anyone would think otherwise.)

~~~
ubernostrum
Honestly, no, there are no good reasons behind the deletionist philosophy as
currently embodied on Wikipedia.

The problem is that, although Wikipedia has policies for maintaining quality
and relevance, they have fixated on something which is _not_ a policy
(notability, which is merely a guideline) and given it a status so far and
above all other policies that it's hard to see as anything other than
irrational extremism.

A good first step toward improving Wikipedia would be the utter abolition of
the notability guideline, replacing it instead with the much more useful and
relevant question of "does this article present information which can be
verified by consulting reliable sources?" (see policies: WP:V, WP:RS) This
maintains quality and relevance (since now the criterion is not "I've never
heard of it/it doesn't have X results in Google/etc.", but is rather "no
sources can be found to corroborate these claims"), and does away with the
endless wanking over what is and isn't "notable enough" for Wikipedia.

~~~
ErrantX
I can prove who I am and have acres of relevant links and sources to the bits
of software I have written and the sites I maintain.

Do I deserver a spot there? I doubt it.....

Notability guidelines were always important in my WP time. I would say 90% of
the articles I cam across doing clean up tasks were just grime that cluttered
the place up. There is no point having useless stuff there - it reduces what
relevant stuff you can find!

~~~
ubernostrum
I still just don't see what harm it does to have not-notable-enough-to-you,
but reliably-sourced, verifiable information in Wikipedia. What is the problem
that deleting solves in this case?

(of course, the flip side: I have, I'm told, for a while been hovering just
near the bare minimum criteria to be "notable" enough for Wikipedia, and the
thought of having to endure the endless stupidity that is having an article
about one's self frightens me to no end)

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mixmax
Well, I made the article. It's pretty small, but maybe somenone wants to
expand it?

~~~
eru
Thanks. The first expansions already happened. Perhaps more people want to
improve it?

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ErrantX
Gents if were going to edit the article can we PLEASE attempt to stick to
content guidelines.

Words like "strive" are weasely and should be avoided (this is an
encyclopedia). Report on what was said (and if PG said "I strive" then say
something like "Graham has said he strives to").

And umm... some of those references make very little sense

This link for example:
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/mar/10/apple-...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/mar/10/apple-
television)

It is interesting information but ONLY relevant if there was any particular
effect from the HN crowd (aka meaning it deserved mentioning in the article -
which it doesnt as far as I can tell). Indeed the best place for that to be
mentioned is Woz's article.

Im editing and removing some stuff now - dont kill me :)

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rms
There are plenty of commercial blogs that have covered Hacker News but I don't
think that's enough anymore... has a newspaper or magazine or tv show
mentioned hacker news?

I added some links, one of the things I love about Wikipedia is that someone
will fix my citations. :D

~~~
chacha102
I'm guessing if Huffington Post covered Hacker News, it would be considered
notable.

It is stupid that blogs like Techcrunch and Mashable aren't thought of as
being creditable enough to get something on Wikipedia. If Wikipedia keeps up
that mind frame in 2-3 years, they will stop adding articles, because there
will be no more Newspapers or Magazines.

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petercooper
_Some famous users of Hacker News include David Heinemeier Hansson[3], Joel
Spolsky[4], and Michael Arrington.[5]_

DHH has posted 25 comments and Michael has made 1 post and 3 comments.

Are there any "famous" people in, say, the top 50 percentile of activity? :)
_(Update: I've removed my reference to Joel as he seems to be an active user -
awesome!)_

~~~
parenthesis
<http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=spolsky>

------
eru
We do not have a Wikipedia article, yet.

Who's ready to prove notability?

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edw519
Sorry to say, but I believe that our name is holding us back. We joke about
it, but to the other 99%, there's nothing funny about "hacking". With another
name (Programmer News? Coder News?) we could have a more mainstream presence.

Then again, maybe this is exactly the way pg & friends want it.

~~~
mechanical_fish
Maybe we can control the traffic dynamically. When traffic is low we can
switch to "Coder News". As the server load grows larger the title can switch
to "Disco News". As we approach redline, we'll see "Accounting News".

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mroman
Wikipedia is such a disgrace, I don't think HN ought to be on there.

They DELETED the article for the Snoopy Calendar!

Wikipedia ought to be deleted.

~~~
DLWormwood
> They DELETED the article for the Snoopy Calendar!

I always wondered if that was a widely circulated bit of ephemera or not... My
first exposure to a computer was in Kindergarten during a field trip to a
military base. The sysops kindly printed off a late 70's sheet for each
student. I never saw or heard of the program that made this until late college
and only in asides. (And Google doesn't seem to have much info, besides the
infamous "nerd purity test" question.)

~~~
mroman
The Snoopy Calendar
[http://www.users.on.net/~farnik/wikicgi/wiki.pl?SnoopyCalend...](http://www.users.on.net/~farnik/wikicgi/wiki.pl?SnoopyCalendar)

is what Real Programmers <http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/real.programmers.html>
have taped to the wall . . .

Seriously, Wikipedia has become DAMAGING . . . why? because I am intimately
acquainted with a certain topic (religious) and - after scouring the web for
months - I finally found THE, THE definitive informational resource for said
topic, in the form of a website, I proceeded to add links to the website to
the existing related articles. I had never contributed, as I felt that what I
had to contribute was not truly worthwhile . . . until I found that site, and
realized I could contribute something of high value. What happened? The FREAKS
DELETED ALL I CONTRIBUTED. Links to a site that had no ads, no commercial
links, ALL FREE, all accurate, all simply priceless, as there is a serious
lack of accurate info on that religion . . .

From that moment on, I wonder HOW MANY, JUST HOW MANY great sources of
information I will never know existed after using Wikipedia . . . the thing is
a cancer, a black hole, a false sign, an utter failure if you ask me, because
(and this is the kicker) links that lead to 100% erroneous information in the
articles I contributed to, those, why, THOSE didn't get deleted! Bunch of
ignorant, arrogant, little thugs running that site . . . it's a travesty.

~~~
lacker
are you by any chance a Scientologist?

~~~
mroman
No, I am not. Not by far.

I know you did not ask, but I am a Vodouisant, as in, the Vodou (oftentimes
spelled "Voodoo") religion is my religion. I am also - at the same time as if
often the case - Roman Catholic (no relation to my username either BTW :-) )
as I was raised Roman Catholic.

Am I militant about my religion? No.

Do we aim to "convert" people? No! Newcomers are a PITA if you ask me.

Am I tolerant of all other religions other than Islam? Yes.

Is my life dominated by religion? Not at all. I keep things in perspective.

Are there reliable and accurate sources of information for Vodou? Hardly. I
can count the online sources in one hand.

The whole thing with Wikipedia was just horrid, I truly do think it was
partially motivated by plain racism, as Vodou is basically a black people's
religion, although it is open to all races and sexual orientations.

~~~
mroman
A-ha! Another racist and/or religiously intolerant character just downmodded
me . . . unbelievable.

Well, here's the thing folks: HACKERS simply don't do that . . . there are way
too many people here that simply don't belong here, and need to scram like
pronto.

Edit in reply to comment below:

Mayhaps I should have stated that I disapprove of its tenets of violence,
among many other aspects of it, instead of saying I am not tolerant of it.
Since I refuse to act (such as downmodding you or anyone who disagrees with
me) on my opinion I guess I am tolerant of it in spite of the sheer loathing I
feel for it and its practitioners.

Anyway, I hereby leave the discussion, any who want to take advantage of this
go ahead and ridicule yourselves.

~~~
jibiki
"Am I tolerant of all other religions other than Islam? Yes."

I think people might find this somewhat offensive. Islam is a diverse religion
spread over all parts of the globe. Your comment seems to dismiss it entirely.

