This post is not really a post, it’s a comment inspired by this post from someone leaving lobste.rs.
I’ve been using the internet for a long time - long enough to remember the release of Mosaic being a big deal. I’ve been around for all the major online communities that have formed (obviously, I have not used the vast majority of them). One of the sad realities of online communities is that they are all eventually ruined, most often by folks posting stuff that isn’t aligned with the mission of the site.
I gave up on Hacker News earlier this year. I still visit the site to read articles. Used in that way, however, Hacker News is just a different version of Google News. I will occasionally check the comments on an article to see if there’s a free link or whatever.
What I don’t bother with is reading or posting comments. I once read someone say they avoid HN because “there’s nothing there” in the context of the comment section when it comes to running a business. Sadly, I think we’ve reached that point on HN for all topics. Comments are mostly low-effort, uninformed, and lazy. The laziness of the responses to my final comment on HN made me ask “Is this really the best way to spend my remaining years?” It was, as the kids say these days, the straw that broke the camel’s back. It was a relatively minor thing by itself, but it pushed me to come to grips with the fact that it’s not the site it once was, that I was wasting my time participating there. It’s been a long time since I had a productive exchange in the comments section there. That’s what I’m looking for when I decide where to spend in an online community, not merely the ability to avoid the low-effort, upvote-maximizing zingers that dominate Reddit. (Do note that I’m not claiming anyone else is going to care that I’ve left HN, nor should they.)
So now let’s bring this back to the post I’m commenting on. After all, that’s what motivated me to write this post.
…some people implicitly proclaiming that ADHD is not a disorder/disability, but a preference…But then I get someone coaxing me to admit it’s a preference and not an accessibility need.
That’s precisely where these sites fall apart:
Suddenly, participating in the site sounds like a boring proposition. One example that comes to mind is a formerly popular, highly active open source news site that had one out-of-control commenter vandalizing discussion after discussion in an attempt to make himself look smart. I even sent an email to the guy running the site to explain the problem. He agreed with everything I said, but told me to ignore it. That obviously wasn’t helpful. The site is still running, but it’s empty and irrelevant. From the sound of it, lobste.rs is on the same road to irrelevance.