[codinghorror]

I was just being honest. There is an element of sterility to the culture here, IMHO. I still like Hacker News, but it's not as enjoyable to discuss things here. Hard to quantify, exactly, but it does feel a bit stilted and artificial, dry and academic, like everyone is trying extra hard to perform and please their peers.

(This is probably exacerbated by the fact that pg has gone on record stating that your Hacker News karma score is factored into any Y Combinator submissions you make. Nothing wrong with this, but it turns this site into a sort of proxy startup / investor pitch for some folks.)

On the whole, I'm more of an advocate of saying what you feel, while being reasonably civil. That said, I do not support 4chan style anarchy, or what the broad Reddit/Digg has turned into. I still think prog.reddit is pretty decent though.

[jrockway]

I don't think you've seen enough of Reddit or HN, honestly. I have spent wayyy too much time on both, so I feel uniquely qualified to comment ;)

Most discussion on Reddit consists of short attacks (or attempts at jokes). There is plenty of that on HN, sure, but a lot of comments are pretty long explanations of what the poster thinks. I don't find this to be sterile (and I enjoy not knowing about Internet memes anymore).

Interestingly, most of your comments here are significantly longer (and more insightful) than those at Reddit. I think it's because you are replying to comments here with actual substance, whereas on Reddit most of the comments are mindless and don't leave much for you to say. I think this is a sign that HN is doing well, or rather, that it works the way I like. (That's why I spend my time here now, rather than on Reddit.)

[codinghorror]

I think they both have their strengths and weaknesses. I am a fan of both, but there's a certain fun factor here that is missing.

The idea that fun and "serious discussion"/work are mutually exclusive is the biggest disappointment, to me, of the HN culture. It's just not true. You can have it both ways. In fact, you should demand it. Remember, this stuff is supposed to be fun!

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000979.html

And given the fact that a flirting article (WTF?) is on the front page, perhaps this part of the HN culture is changing. Unlike the stultifyingly boring drug war article, at least that's sort of fun..