[bgb54]

That speculation, specifically an organized Saudi hit à la Khashoggi and leaning on geopolitics and business regulation to make its case, dominated the HN thread. The discussion was sprinkled with dumping on Nigeria’s systems and business environment, assuming because he wasn’t American that he had to borrow from shady characters, linking recent changes to his business to the killing, and panicked nailbiting over NYT descriptions of his condo hitting a little close to home. With few exceptions (such as accusing Saleh of being involved with cocaine), the examples I’ve mentioned found themselves steering the discussion, not downvoted in the slightest.

I wish the HN guideline was “there’s no upside for anyone mentioning Reddit from an often glass house” instead of specifically calling out comparisons of this site to that one. When this forum dumps on Reddit, it walks away with an impression of superiority that could not be further from the truth. Observe my sibling. All forums have their problems and HN is not blessed with immunity.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23847195 is the main overall thread, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23848397 is another including smug necros, and there are many others.

[kbenson]

> When this forum dumps on Reddit, it walks away with an impression of superiority that could not be further from the truth. Observe my sibling. All forums have their problems and HN is not blessed with immunity.

At the same time, I would rather HN have a false sense of superiority that sometimes keeps it from descending to the depths as people at least make the attempt sometimes to keep it better than that, rather than just accept that it's often no different, and thus excuse that behavior when it happens.

That is, having the perception of superiority is helpful in as much as it allows comments like yours to have weight. Your comment on Reddit might be met with "well, duh, it's Reddit." Hopefully here some people are instead thinking about what they want this forum to be and whether they helped or hindered that. That's a bit pretentious of me to say, but I also think it's true.

[uniqueid]

    > When this forum dumps on Reddit, it walks away with an
    > impression of superiority that could not be further 
    > from the truth.

It could be further from the truth.

[vkou]

> assuming because he wasn’t American that he had to borrow from shady characters, linking recent changes to his business to the killing, and panicked nailbiting over NYT descriptions of his condo hitting a little close to home. With few exceptions (such as accusing Saleh of being involved with cocaine), the examples I’ve mentioned found themselves steering the discussion, not downvoted in the slightest.

Indeed. Because the cost of the deceased's apartment was mentioned, folks started grasping at straws, some assuming it's a politically motivated (with a vague implication that this may have been class warfare) killing.

[unishark]

Personally I'm just a tourist that posts here now and then (maybe a bit too much lately). And I have posted on Reddit more and for longer. I'm not some kind of smug HN insider that gains personally by it being seen as superior in some way.

And this site is way better than Reddit. In terms of maturity, intelligence, site rules, etc.

Though I don't really get what you seem to be upset about regarding the armchair detective work. The cops led with the same general theory. The victim actually _was_ american (correct me if I'm wrong here) but he did business in foreign countries.

[sharken]

What sets HN apart from Reddit are the more articulated comments due to these key factors

* Downvoting is not available for everyone.

* No sub forums, so no fragmentation.

* Less known than Reddit meaning fewer trolls.

* No UI makeover :)

* Great admins.

[rangibaby]

“We did it Reddit” is quoting a Reddit comment made when the Reddit hive mind found a bunch of “evidence” that a certain guy was the Boston bomber, but he turned out to be someone totally innocent

[Redoubts]

This is the most HN post I've seen in a long time.