
Ask HN: What Is “Good” & “Bad” HN - billme
First, like many, truly value HN, respect the mods, community, YC, etc.<p>Asking “what is good &amp; bad HN?” - because I am guessing like many, I read dang’s comments, once in awhile  glance through his recent comments, but I never gotten in habit of reading all his comments, or at least trying to follow his meta-HN comments.<p>Dang posted this comment to a submission made early today — and honestly curious what tips the community has on finding and&#x2F;or writing good posts for HN; here’s dang’s comment:<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=23239567
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lma22
I'll speak to comments mores than posts.

Good HN is sourced, maturely explained viewpoints, that have "meat" to them.
"Meat" being a thesis and supportive dialog. Or, at minimum, personal
experiences that enhance the discussion at hand.

Bad HN is puns, harsh politics, humor, and dismissive language. Examples:
"Nah, [my subjective viewpoint]", "correlation is not causation", "I feel
attacked", etc. These comments clutter the comment section, add nothing to the
discussion, and brings HN down ten pegs. It also invites those in who want to
chat without understanding the topics and/or reading the articles. Reddit is a
prime example of this.

~~~
gitgud
Another Good one is _respect._ We can agree/disagree, discuss or rant, but if
there's no respect for the others involved... HN falls apart.

Personally, I can be obnoxious at times. But respecting others' comments,
helps create a welcoming and open place, which is what makes Hacker News a
great place.

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billme
Stating the obvious, there’s also these official HN pages on the topic.

Approach to Comments:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html)

Site Guidelines:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

FAQS:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html)

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veddox
Be ready to learn. Many if not most HN discussions attract at least a few
commenters who are really experts in that field - sometimes world experts. (Of
course, they also attract a lot of people who obviously aren‘t, and most
people will be somewhere in between.) You‘re welcome to put your reasonable
opinion out there, but keep sufficient humility to accept that you may have
been mistaken.

