I think to myself "I'm spending too much time on Reddit looking at stupid stuff" so I come to HN for some highbrow articles and see a link to Reddit of Neil deGrasse Tyson doing an AMA :/ ...back to Reddit.
Here is a true story. I've curated the hell out of my reddit frontpage.
I went to reddit just now and while it was loading I thought "I'm so sick of the downward trend in my enjoyment of the unstoppable march towards extreme mediocrity in every corner of reddit... if I don't see anything on my frontpage that interests me this time, I'm going to add it to my hosts file"
I scanned the page, saw nothing that interested me (including this AMA... I don't even know who he is) and added reddit to my hosts file.
Then I opened Hacker News. Top link? This reddit AMA. Sigh.
I'm tiring of saying it repeatedly, but simply unsubscribe from those subreddits and visit less often. It's amazing, I know, but reddit is actually more enjoyable when you don't feel a compulsion to click it every hour. That, and quite frankly, you're missing out. deGrasse is extremely well spoken about science and progressing as a human race. Frankly, I'm not surprised it was posted here, the things he said on The Daily Show a few days ago really made my hacker insides glow with joy and pride.
I can't believe that "I have so little self control and lack of understand of how reddit works that I have to forcibly block myself from it via /etc/hosts" is applauded here. That or it's just tongue-in-cheek "reddit sucks [now]" that is applauded. Either way, it doesn't matter. Seeing it in every thread that mentions reddit just perpetuates the stereotype that HN has a bit of an elitist complex.
You mischaracterise me. I've been using reddit for 6+ years. I've pruned my subscribed subreddits down to a handful of ones with a high signal to noise.
If I pruned AMA, I'd be left with not much. truereddit, theoryofreddit, askscience and few niche interests (which disproportionately overwhelm my feed... I'd like a granularity slider for each subscribed subreddit "show me all <---> show me only top posts").
Yes. I have 'so little self control' after using reddit for so many years. It's hard to ween yourself off a habit that was initially so rewarding but has gradually and ultimately become an unrewarding and depressing time-sink.
You would begrudge me trying to manage my 'addiction' by blocking reddit in my hosts file? I should man-up and not click when hovering over a reddit bookmark? I should not tap out cmd-t r enter to navigate there after deleting the bookmark?
"lack of understand of how reddit works" = false
"That or it's just tongue-in-cheek "reddit sucks [now]" that is applauded."
Do you deny the level of discourse, the level of signal to noise, the benefits from contributing or participating haven't been dropping over time?
"Seeing it in every thread that mentions reddit"
This was my first comment about reddit on HN. And I can't remember seeing any others, so I can't comment.
"just perpetuates the stereotype that HN has a bit of an elitist complex."
Where is this stereotype being expressed? "Elitist" is a loaded term. Like those 'Rucola Eatin' Obama Liberals' that Sarah Palin liked to denigrate? HN is comprised of people who want to discuss content over fluff and humour. It's by design! Check out r/askscience. Is that elitist?
You may still get benefits from reading reddit, but after six great years, it's time for me to ween myself off and go cold turkey.
