Still on the tech side of things HN is doing quite well, with clever mechanics to downrank incendiary stuff, killing troll comments asap, etc. Combined with excellent, consistent moderation (courtesy dang et al).
With growing awareness + press coverage, those platforms who deliberately implemented bad algorithms to harvest maximum attention (FB, YT, TW) increasingly find it damages their brand image. There is an incentive to (at least marginally) improve their features / biz models.
Then there is digital literacy. We used to have netiquete and that can be taught. If you read the (very entertaining) article The Internet of Beefs [0] you'll see there is a solution by not getting involved in a beef, or extracting yourself if you got baited. Similarly it helps to know how to avoid trolls [1].
It will not be easy to change cultures large-scale. Many people just like to beef (there is a similarity with road rage too; people forget themselves online). Others enjoy starting beef wars for the lolz, or - more sinister - with strategic objectives.
At least we should be able to create more safe harbours, where people thrive from uplifting experiences online. Changing culture bit by bit.
I think one of the things with HN compared to FB et al is that HN isn't a for-profit company. It's essentially a public service of YC. They don't make a dime off of this, as far as I can see. Because of that, they don't have to do evil engagement-boosting tricks to try to make more dimes.
>They don't make a dime off of this, as far as I can see.
Maybe not directly, but every YC company advertises themselves and their projects here, and HN is known as the hub for the SV tech and startup scene, which gives YC an automatic amount of "street cred" and visibility in all of the discussions had here. I'm sure Hacker News has made YCombinator more than a few dimes indirectly from all of that.
In general internet communities face a trade off between monetization and quality. The more you monetize a community the crappier it becomes. In the long term, the key to running a healthy online community is to find a good balance, which essentially means figuring out how to not make too much money.
With growing awareness + press coverage, those platforms who deliberately implemented bad algorithms to harvest maximum attention (FB, YT, TW) increasingly find it damages their brand image. There is an incentive to (at least marginally) improve their features / biz models.
Then there is digital literacy. We used to have netiquete and that can be taught. If you read the (very entertaining) article The Internet of Beefs [0] you'll see there is a solution by not getting involved in a beef, or extracting yourself if you got baited. Similarly it helps to know how to avoid trolls [1].
It will not be easy to change cultures large-scale. Many people just like to beef (there is a similarity with road rage too; people forget themselves online). Others enjoy starting beef wars for the lolz, or - more sinister - with strategic objectives.
At least we should be able to create more safe harbours, where people thrive from uplifting experiences online. Changing culture bit by bit.
[0] https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2020/01/16/the-internet-of-beefs/
[1] https://github.com/prettydiff/wisdom/blob/master/Avoiding_Tr...