I think HN is reflective of the tech industry.

I’m in my 40s and have been working in tech for a long time. I remember a time when it genuinely felt like the industry was a force for good in the world, opening doors for people to do things they never used to be able to do. And the companies were so open, e.g. I remember Facebook’s OpenGraph opening up a world of new social apps that were exciting to develop and to use. For sure there was a level of youthful naïveté at work there but it was still an exciting and interesting time to be in the industry.

That positivity still happens today but to a far less degree. Nowadays it feels like every major tech player is all about lockin, about dark patterns that draw users into their services whether they’re happy about it or not.

We used to point and laugh at the cynical, out of touch companies like Oracle. Now it seems everyone aspires to be them. So yeah, I’m often negative on HN.

The people posting on HN didn’t change, the tech industry consolidated and became more evil.

> I often leave HN less happy than when I first opened it up. I don't want to read reddit levels of hate and destruction, I just wanted to read tech news and learn new things

Usually it is the titles and posts underneath rather than users who make me less happy

Before AI programming was hard enough so it set a threshold that most reddit level minds could not pass.

We're talking about an investment platform that discusses tech stuff. There is plenty of positive and interesting discussion on here. I just don't see the need for blind positivity towards any new thing that comes into view.

HN is full of people who want to take other people's money. It should be in the forefront of your mind anytime someone wants to push something here. Nerdy tech discussions are a side effect, and has nothing to do with the motivations of this platform.

I mean isn’t that a fair reflection of the tech industry’s direction in recent years? Tech became obsessed with money over everything else, of course people are cynical about that, how could they not be?

I quite concur with you, though nerd/tech/hack circles seemed critical of each other since forever.

But isn’t it just shift of the tech in general?

From quirky, optimistic, positive, “don’t be evil”, inclusive ~20 years ago.

To corporate, creepy, fascist, ultra greedy since ~10 years[1] ago and onwards to this day.

I could feel gradual change of comments more into right political spectrum, since 7-8 years.

[1] Personally - Cambridge Analytica and Facebook scandal is that point for me.

I think the problem is reddit frankly, the negative thought patterns it instills stick with people when they comment elsewhere online.

Is the more positive tech/startup stuff actually happening in public online any more? Seems to be a bit on X but mainly in private Discords or (madness) in person these days.

Negative sentiment around Meta is caused by Meta behavior. Not by some kind if irrationally negative mentality.

Wouldn’t it be a great idea to vibe code a copy site of HN that would rewrite negative headlines/comments or filter those out completely?

It always was negative or rather very critical of big tech and “innovation” (aka thinly veiled turbo capitalism) and very positive about open source projects and small startups.

I think you would be hard pressed to find much positive sentiment about a company like Facebook here; eg a post 6 years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25662215

There are certain threads that always invite a lot of negativity just because of the subject matter. It’s relatively easy to avoid those once you spot the pattern …

Have you considered that maybe tech's role in the world and its impact might've become more and more undeniably negative and as such talking about tech inevitably brings negativity?

I've been noticing that a lot lately. There was a period of like 8-12 months where I took a break from HN, and when I came back it seemed like HN had changed a lot.

Every comment thread got dragged into talking about the same few dozen things (or people) no matter where it started and the same shallow reddit level comments seemed to be all over the place.

Whereas before even on contentious topics there would be viewpoints like X s negative in these ways but if we also consider Y, W and Z these could be confounding factors, people were open to alternative takes and wanted to learn. Even on subjects I disagreed with I came out of it feeling like I better understood things, and other viewpoints. Nowadays though it feels like if the headline read "SpaceX space craft contacted by extra-terrestrials" it'd take 30 minutes to turn into a discussion of Musk.

Problem is I need to stay in the loop on the tech news scene that isn't shallow stories written by "tech journalists" who have a PHB understanding of the issue they're covering, or thinly vieled marketing brochures.

If anyone has any pointers to where I could find that I'd appreciate it. Moreover if anyone knows of some semi-private communities that would take in a poor internet refuge seeking a new tech land to call home I'd appreciate an introduction.

https://x.com/KelseyTuoc/status/1588231892792328192

You're fooling yourself if you think your opinions, particularly on matters outside of your direct experience, can exist independent of well funded influence campaigns.

The vibe has changed towards silicon valley. It's like a country club for the highly out-of-touch autistics.

It's also full of people who stay in ivory towers and complain about first world problems while a lot of real suffering is occuring right outside their bubble.

I take that hn negativity over looking at the world through corporate rose-colored glasses and being... "excited".

Yup - as I posted in another thread, HN is the land of the miserable.

Edit: I wish HN showed some kind of indicator next to usernames, like a small flag for the poster’s country. I’d love to see how reactions to an article vary depending on where people live.