
How is YC-HN not unlike a cult such as Scientology? - yc2cult
I have studied HN some 2 weeks now, and just ventured to comment 1 day, I find that there is a very thin mindset. &#x27;Karma&#x27; on HN doesn&#x27;t mean what it should mean, Karma mmeans what goes around comes around, on HN it means a sock-puppet can affirm ( circle-jerk ) another sock-puppet and rack points. So what.<p>YN-HN appears to be a feeder for some kind of VC creepy scientology like cult. I notice there is no free talk of real entrepreneurial, and there is no tolerance to mention that most high-tech jobs suck after your 40 years old.<p>If i had to guess it would be that HN is ran by iQtel the CIA front in SV where they want to find you malleable minds to feed their high-tech jobs in Utah ( NSA ), or some terrible boring place back east. The idea of forcing someone to hang out with them in SV for 3 months, isolated from the real world is troubling.<p>Also taking any money from VC to start a biz is NOT real entrepreneur, the idea is U the owner OWN 100% of your company, and when U play with a VC, they own 90% and you are just a cog in their machine.
======
drdeca
From what I've heard, in hacker news, as in other sites with a similar
mechanism such as reddit, there are said to be systems in place to try to
detect voting rings and not count those votes.

Of course, I doubt these systems are even close to perfect, but it is probably
good to keep in mind that there is at least an attempt to reduce that problem.

Regarding the name "karma", that has become a standard term for these sorts of
reputation point systems. The term did not originate with HN. That doesn't
mean it is beyond criticism or anything, but HN wasn't the first site to use
the term that way.

Now, I'll agree that there are some significant problems in "startup culture",
but I don't think "cult" is a great description.

It's not like there is some doctrine that everyone here "has to" subscribe to
or anything. Iirc I've seen some criticisms of the culture be treated fairly
well.

However, that's not to say that things don't get downvoted. There are some
fairly strong norms here about the style of commenting. (Speaking of, the norm
here is generally against using "U" for "you".)

Also, even expressed in the best of ways, some ideas are still quite
unpopular, and sometimes maybe not for good reason.

Perhaps one of these could be responsible for the response you got for what
you said about high tech jobs for people over 40?

You say that getting money from a VC to start a business is not real
entrepreneurship. I think that depends what one means by entrepreneurship.

If entrepreneurship is a self funded business endeavor, then indeed not.

If entrepreneurship is attempting to create a novel business, then it seems
like it would be.

If neither of these definitions capture the meaning of "entrepreneurship",
then idk.

It seems valid to me to be working to develop a product and to be motivated
more by the product existing and getting profit than to be motivated by having
end control of the product?

But I am sympathetic to some skepticism about VC funding stuff.

In case you are curious, iirc, most of the source code for HN is available,
and is written in a lisp dialect called Arc, which is by Paul Graham (user pg)
(some of it is private though.)

I don't know, I think this at least responds to much of what you say. I hope
you find it to be at least a respectful response, even if it doesn't fully
address your concerns.

