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Comment by pmilot | Hacker News Reader

Maybe it's just because I don't frequent social networks all that much, but I've never been exposed to this sort of depiction of Edward Snowden. The only coverage I've come across of him focused solely on what he did or his current predicament, not his image.

Even calling that Wired cover "sexualized" seems a little farfetched to me.

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Apparently the author finds Rubik's Cubes to be sexual aides, so I think this piece may be more a reflection on the author than on anyone else.

Not using social media is probably the simplest and most effective strategy to stick to the 'real issues'.

… and yet here we all are.

Does HN fall into the social network category ?

Every human network is a social network. Whether you're on YouTube or Hacker News or a neighborhood book club, your experiences will be shaped by the people in your network.

That being said, some platforms are inherently better than others, depending on your definition of "better". The New York Times can be occasionally stringent when reviewing comments but at least it keeps the drivel out. Likewise, HN is a great community because the people here have an expectation that statements of fact require evidence to be taken seriously.

I don't think so. The signal to noise ratio here is much higher than on typical social media. It's self policing and there are rewards (karma) for good behavior that are absent on most social media. HN to me feels more like early Usenet newsgroups than it does something like Facebook.

I appreciate that the ego-factor is very low here. No profiles, no avatars, no 'mentioning' of other people, just the author name of a comment, that's it.

Also - hn doesn't center around people, but around topics. That changes the whole thing.

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