Funny how Bitcoin starts to really make people angry. I can't help but feel a lot of the critics are a little bitter about it all for some reason. It's hard to remain objective about things when it evokes such strong emotions as it seems to on both sides.
It's been on HN a fair amount, but it's not been excessive at all. And by definition, it floats to the top because the majority are interested in it!
Bitcoin in my opinion is the most interesting thing that's happened in tech for a long time, and it has the potential to become one of the most disruptive technologies of all time. It is creating ripples in politics, business and economics on a world wide scale. It has the potential for positive social change. Banks leave a bitter taste in most people’s mouths nowadays; Bitcoin can punch them hard in their guts if it can start to eat away at large industries like remittance. No one knows where it's going, general sentiment is that it's future is polarised to total success or total failure. That's intensely exciting! The fact some people say it bores/annoys them I find hard to understand in this community.
For a long time I'd been talking to one of my friends about Bitcoin. He was very excited by it all like me and wanted to buy some. The price then hit $1k. I'd bought in earlier, but he had not. He now actively tells people that he considers it a bad investment. I do not beleive he actually thinks this, I think it's a coping mechanism for his perceived loss. In much the same way I feel like these sorts of posts have the same origins because I struggle to see any other cause.
Bitcoin is a perfect subject matter for HN, I'm confused why it's causing people to actively take measures to try and hide it all.
It's not true at all that it means the majority is interested in it. If I check out some bitcoin submissions, they seem to have from 50 to 600 points. There's tens of thousands of people viewing HN every day, so that's hardly a majority. It might just be a very vocal, tiny minority that upvotes every article about Bitcoin out there.
It's even not too far off to think some of those upvoters have ulterior motives - they own bitcoin, so any good news about bitcoin might increase the value of their coins, so they upvote regardless of the merit of the article. These days it seems about any article title with "bitcoin" in seems to float to the front page.
Personally, I want to hide it because as much as it's cool and techy, the subject matter increasingly is articles on how people have lost / found wallets containing thousands of dollars worth of bitcoins.
The truth is, they have found nothing of value. I was really interested in bitcoins back when it was new and the technology was interesting, however, since every post about it has become entirely financial and there is hardly a post talking about the technology in general, it no longer fits in the subjects I wish to read about.
Wether or not I agree with this is of no importance. However I do think something like a filter (similar to Email.app search tags) would be a nice feature for HN.
There was a post the other day about how certain topics are already heavily penalized already by HN's algorithm. I.e. each vote only counts as half a vote. Anything with "NSA" for example.
[+] [-] TomGullen|12 years ago|reply
It's been on HN a fair amount, but it's not been excessive at all. And by definition, it floats to the top because the majority are interested in it!
Bitcoin in my opinion is the most interesting thing that's happened in tech for a long time, and it has the potential to become one of the most disruptive technologies of all time. It is creating ripples in politics, business and economics on a world wide scale. It has the potential for positive social change. Banks leave a bitter taste in most people’s mouths nowadays; Bitcoin can punch them hard in their guts if it can start to eat away at large industries like remittance. No one knows where it's going, general sentiment is that it's future is polarised to total success or total failure. That's intensely exciting! The fact some people say it bores/annoys them I find hard to understand in this community.
For a long time I'd been talking to one of my friends about Bitcoin. He was very excited by it all like me and wanted to buy some. The price then hit $1k. I'd bought in earlier, but he had not. He now actively tells people that he considers it a bad investment. I do not beleive he actually thinks this, I think it's a coping mechanism for his perceived loss. In much the same way I feel like these sorts of posts have the same origins because I struggle to see any other cause.
Bitcoin is a perfect subject matter for HN, I'm confused why it's causing people to actively take measures to try and hide it all.
[+] [-] relix|12 years ago|reply
It's even not too far off to think some of those upvoters have ulterior motives - they own bitcoin, so any good news about bitcoin might increase the value of their coins, so they upvote regardless of the merit of the article. These days it seems about any article title with "bitcoin" in seems to float to the front page.
[+] [-] robinduckett|12 years ago|reply
The truth is, they have found nothing of value. I was really interested in bitcoins back when it was new and the technology was interesting, however, since every post about it has become entirely financial and there is hardly a post talking about the technology in general, it no longer fits in the subjects I wish to read about.
[+] [-] RossM|12 years ago|reply
I think it's just down to the shear volume of stories about it. It's fine to have bitcoin news on HN, but the frontpage shouldn't be dominated by it.
[+] [-] pyalot2|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JeroenRansijn|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Sir_Cmpwn|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] robinduckett|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] abus|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sz4kerto|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] robinduckett|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mattmanser|12 years ago|reply
If you're spending time making quick scripts pretty, you're doing scripts wrong.
It's concise, clearly written, does its job well, I certainly don't think it's awful.
[+] [-] CrazedGeek|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Houshalter|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] robinduckett|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cfontes|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] robinduckett|12 years ago|reply
This is just a link to the userscripts page, you can see the full source code, and you don't have to install it if you don't like :)
[+] [-] equilibrium|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] blackdogie|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] yread|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] robinduckett|12 years ago|reply