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Comment by w3pm | Hacker News Reader

Why is this on the front page of HN? Anyone read http://corte.si/posts/socialmedia/trouble-with-social-news.h...?

Unfortunately, that article is spot-on. I want to be reading industry news, not someone's social gossip. Specifically, I want to read articles about optimizing Erlang, the latest developments in NoSQL databases, developer war stories, and changes in the funding landscape. I don't want to hear about someone apologizing for an offensive Twitter post.

I think we need a separate category called 'industry gossip' for this kind of drama.

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It's on the front page of HN because this community cares about civility, online interactions, open source contributions, and gender issues in technology.

I don't want to hear about someone apologizing for an offensive Twitter post. Go ahead and keep downvoting me for expressing an opinion -- I'm sure I'm not the only one with similar feelings :)

--> To respond to the posts below: I think the original post is fine, I didn't make this comment there. Hearing about that is interesting and is a fine example of how easy it is for users with social capital to abuse it, a reminder we need. Seeing two threads containing blog posts of people apologizing? I'm not sure I actually care, I think my learning and interest ended after reading the original thread. Now we're firmly in noise territory.

How is "I made this thing, shared it with the world, and was ridiculed by high profile members of the community" not a developer war story?

When you get to the point in your life when you decide to start a new company or venture, you will understand the value of these posts. There are many important soft skills that most people hyper focused on technology don't necessarily hone (and since you mentioned funding, you clearly don't think this should be like the programming reddit), and by seeing public examples we all learn how to handle similar circumstances in the future.

It's on the front page of HN because this community cares about civility, online interactions, open source contributions where gender is concerned.

I for one enjoy these. Not because of schadenfreude (I don't like seeing people cut down) but because I learn vicariously through others' gaffes

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