

Ask HN: What motivates your participation on HN? - llambda

Due to some recent discussion regarding the quality of socialization in Internet communities, I'm curious how HN feels? Why do you participate and how do you feel about that participation? Are the motivators that cause you to engage mostly positive or negative? How about the net-result of that socialization?
======
georgeorwell
The quality of the socialization has a lot to do with the rules, so my
comments are mostly about those.

I can participate anonymously save for my IP address without using any special
software.

I'm lonely, sad, lost, burnt-out, angry, and confused. Every time someone
upvotes one of my posts I feel a bit better. I want to get up to 500 karma so
I can downvote people too. Then again, the existence of internet karma and the
karma leaderboard makes me want to throw a bucket of water in the world's
face.

It's nice that insightful and polite comments are rewarded. I think I still
like Slashdot's tag-based moderation system better, I'd like more details than
up/down.

There isn't much of a coherent community here compared to most forums (eww,
fora?) I've used in the past. Once in a while I recognize a name or two. Then
again, the lack of community probably eliminates most of the drama that gets
so tedious on internet forums. It feels more like strangers responding to
strangers, so in that sense is pretty democratic.

I wish stories could be tagged by topic and then filtered.

I would like to see the total number of upvotes and downvotes on comments and
stories, because +50 -51 is a very different story from -1. I would like some
mechanism to downvote stories that isn't too punishing.

I feel like I'm sinking into a pit of nothingness every time I see a
hellbanned user post a perfectly valid comment, and then I check their comment
history and see that they have been doing this for a very long time without
any awareness. Maybe users can earn the right to become unhellbanned via
upvotes. I would like to be able to not have user's posts greyed out - the
greying out just feels mean to me.

I wish there was more interesting technical stuff posted. I wish people would
share their startup ideas. I wish it was a bit more fun.

I think computers undermine the quality of local relationships. My girlfriend
hates all of you equally.

At the end of the day, I wish I felt like doing something more than reading
Hacker News and I loathe myself for even posting here. On the other hand, it's
nice to have something to read besides Boing Boing and to practice writing and
to get thoughtful responses sometimes. The comments read like they're
generally written by young men trying to impress other young men, but maybe
that's just how I use them personally. This time I'm just seeking validation I
guess.

------
icey
I used to come around because the commentary was top-notch. There was a
reasonably high likelihood that a true subject expert would chime in for
nearly every topic on the front page.

Now I come for the links and mostly avoid the commentary, as it's largely
opinion based and/or a series of pedantic grammar corrections.

------
DigitalJack
Correcting someone is a powerful motivator. It's the root of all arguments.

Some of my participating is of the "correcting" kind, but I also genuinely try
to wait for opportunities to contribute helpful and interesting things from
what I have learned in my life thus far.

------
rthomas6
I read HN because it motivates me to be a more well-rounded and self motivated
person. I like reading about all these successful people. I also read it
because I'm not a CS person (I have an ECE background), and I like applying
CS-domain ideas to ECE applications, like VHDL and embedded design.

------
Mz
I don't actually know why I returned recently. I have been asking myself that
here lately. I don't have a clear answer, at least not yet. I think probably
the answer is rooted in "I have stopped bleeding to death, so my brain is
probably functioning again. Thus, like it or not, I need an outlet."

Historically: I originally joined to ask a specific question. I stuck around
to get some of my intellectual needs met. I ended up feeling super burned by
some things. I go on haitus periodically, usually not something I plan. I just
get busy with other things I guess. I had some conscious reasons for my most
recent hiatus but, looking back on it, it roughly coincides with a timeframe
where I was bleeding profusely and my brain was just not working. I have
health issues. Sometimes hn is just too much. (shrug)

