Hacker News Reader

Comment by matt2000 | Hacker News Reader

matt2000

The fact that this story is the top of hacker news should indicate to us all that this site has lost what it had. How is this different than reddit? How do we want it to be different? This is simply a sensational, horrifying article that has been up voted because of its shock value. We can do better.

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I'm quite happy to see this story on Hacker News. Yes, it has shock value but also leads to some deep questions about human nature, cultural relativism, morality, criminal justice, etc. For example, it has made me wonder whether an every-man-for-himself culture necessarily leads to a poor outcome for all involved, a bit like the prisoner's dilemma on a large scale. Can China become a first-world country without changing this aspect of their culture?

Most people didn't read up to the core part of the article

> In China the compensation for killing a victim in a traffic accident is relatively small—amounts typically range from $30,000 to $50,000—and once payment is made, the matter is over. By contrast, paying for lifetime care for a disabled survivor can run into the millions. The Chinese press recently described how one disabled man received about $400,000 for the first 23 years of his care

It's not some Chinese specific culture problem, it's economics.

I don't think it's a bad article but what I have noticed is that the discussion threads under articles of this type on HN are of a generally low quality.

I was about to make a snarky reply about your complaint, but first I wanted to remind myself what HN was like when it first started and I had my original account. So I headed to the archives and realized I'd forgotten how great HN was in 07/08. So thanks for the nostalgic moment.

Shocking content does not mean it is shock value.

I would say: https://news.ycombinator.com/classic but that doesn't seem to help much.

What is that page?

Stories ranked using votes from old accounts.

I rarely downvote. However I did this time. Last I checked, Hacker News comment guidelines specifically request you NOT post comments in the vein of "this site is becoming Reddit."

Oddly enough, I thought the same as you, but it actually says that rule is for accounts less than a year old, so I guess he's technically okay.

Participation on topics is entirely voluntary. If you don't like a subject, don't participate. There are other people you use this site who might find things interesting that you do not. Don't like it? Shut up and don't respond.

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