tomhow

The main issue is that it doesn't engage with the substance of the post, and in fact, it exemplifies the very point the post is trying to make: there is a big and growing gap between those who recognize the benefits or potential of AI and those who don't (or, to widen the point, who only see negative effects or negative trends in society).

I'll make it clear that I don't think your complaints or concerns are unfounded or invalid. There's merit and substance to all these issues, and it's fine to discuss them on HN. They are discussed all the time here, and they can and should continue to be discussed in the future.

But an important part of being the kind of curious commenter that we want everyone to aspire to be is that we can look at topics holistically. We need to be able to look at the opportunities and risks together and discuss ways that the benefits can be captured and shared throughout society, and the risks and costs adequately recognized and curtailed. Most people I know of in the tech industry are taking these matters seriously.

It's a vast and complex topic to discuss, and here's not the place for me to get further into it. But the point is that it's a bigger and more complex topic than your comment adequately recognizes, and we need people to always be making the effort to be thoughtful and curious rather than fulminatory or denunciatory in their participation here.

(Also: I can understand you may not easily recognize that your comment breaks the guidelines; it's common for people to not recognize that their words seem more inflammatory when read by others than they intended them to be.)

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50013882.

Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents. Omit internet tropes.

This is definitely becoming a trope; it's repetitive and adds little or no interesting new substance to discuss. Headline writers aren't going to change the way they write headlines because people keep posting these comments on HN, and HN readers understand AI models well enough to know what is meant. It's well past being a new or clever thing to point out, so let's give it a rest.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

But we're not taking it to that extreme. We're fine with using LLMs for checking of spelling and grammar, and for suggesting improvements to text you've authored yourself, and then using your own human judgement to apply the changes back into your text.

What we are saying is: don't copy+paste something from an LLM chatbot or translation tool into the Hacker News comment box and submit it.

> making that too much of an absolute "bright line" is a net negative for HN

What matters is the outcome. HN is for thoughtful conversation between humans, and that's what people expect when they come here. If regular HN users have that unpleasant sensation that comes upon realizing that what you're reading was generated by a machine rather than being authored by a thoughtful human, the commenter made a negative contribution to HN.

See https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html#generated and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47340079.

Please write all comments by hand, from your own thoughts, and resist the temptation to copy+paste anything from a chatbot or translation tool.

Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive.

When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3."

Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer...

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

> punching up

You're not punching anyone. People like that aren't reading your garbage. The only people reading it are other HN readers who are almost all just employees and indie developers trying to make a living. If you want to make a difference to the world, come up with interesting new ideas that can actually change things. Otherwise, stop wasting everyone's time, your own most of all.

It's fine to debate and critique people's actions. But these repeated sneering, belittling snarls about someone's knowledge level and even physical characteristics are off limits here, no matter who they're about.

This is a site for people who have higher standards of themselves than this. Please read the guidelines carefully and have a think about if this is really the right place for your style of discourse. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

> What will you do for your next feat? Lecture us on the fine differences between lynchings and honor killings?

The guidelines include:

Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes.

Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive.

When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3."

Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. It tramples curiosity.

You've been politely asked to observe the guidelines several times over the years. Most others don't find it hard, and this is only a place where anyone wants to participate because enough people make the effort to raise the standards rather than drag them down.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Edit: looking over your comment feed, I even see you reminding others of the guidelines, so it's not that you don't know them. Please try harder to be an upstanding community member in all your participation here.