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Comments On Comments
Someone writes a blog post about some cool new application they’ve written. Nine times out of ten, within minutes, someone comments “first!”, someone else asks if there’s a Windows version, and still someone else complains when they find out there isn’t one. Hours go by, and maybe the blog post is submitted to Digg or Reddit. The pedobear, facepalm, and Admiral Ackbar memes get dragged out and downvoted, and that little patch of the Worldcomputerwebnet descends into anarchy. Ironically, this kind of situation is worthy of a facepalm. Aha, recursion!
A quick look at sites like YouTube or Digg would make you think that comments are the shittiest idea ever and that, frankly, the Internet is full of morons. It’s a shame, because I think that comments are capable of being awesome. Comments mean that anyone can pitch in and discuss what they think about a story. On the other hand, comments mean that, well, anyone can pitch in and discuss what they think about a story. It’s a double-edged-sword. Except with keyboards instead of blades. Just be thankful we haven’t enabled comments on real life yet.
Over the past few months, my faith has been restored in Internet comments. For a while now, my favourite website for getting news has been Paul Graham’s Hacker News. It’s a more-or-less democratic news site with great user-submitted articles, and the comments are superb. Experts chime in, people with actual experience have things to say, and the opinions and points of view of others are considered. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced or taken part in a more mature conversation on the Internet. For recent examples of what I’m talking about, check out the discussion on Jason Calacanis’ recent post about Apple, John Gruber’s take on Apple’s FCC answers, and an article on hacks in video game development. These three stories are full of vibrant, on-topic discussion. When I see a story on Hacker News, I open the link in a new tab, and I also automatically click the “comments” link, because the comments are usually just as intellectually stimulating as the story itself (more so in some cases). There’s no room for Captain Picard here, folks. Unless he wants to talk about writing software. I mean, hey, the guy went to Starfleet Academy — surely they teach C there. Java at the very least.
Hacker News has reminded me that maybe the real-world version of the “Comments” section could be awesome people hanging out at a party having a mature discussion about interesting things. If the rest of the Internet would just follow HN’s lead, maybe that dream could become a reality.
