Hacker News Guidelines

Disfavoring humor is one of the things that keeps HN from becoming like reddit where the top answers often seem to be empty witticisms.

While it might have worked for you karma-wise, many bad/average attempts at humor seem to get downvoted a lot and I am glad for it.

When I click on a topic that I'm deeply interested in, the last thing I want to see is someone's attempt at being witty to collect internet points.

This is going to be a divisive issue.

Personally there's nothing I can't stand more than people who take life too seriously and can't find the absurdity in every day matters. If someone manages to make me spit out my coffee, give a chuckle or even just a smile then I am eternally grateful. After all, I'm usually on HN because I need a temporary mental break from work.

Value comes in many shapes and forms. But is also in the eye of the beholder. I just ask that you and others don't assume for a second that someone trying to make others laugh is doing it for "internet points." Some people genuinely like trying to bring a smile to the faces of others. Those who succeed are my heroes.

> I just ask that you and others don't assume for a second that someone trying to make others laugh is doing it for "internet points." Some people genuinely like trying to bring a smile to the faces of others.

Spot on!! I personally couldn’t care less about these brownie points, my whole life been (and still) using alt/nicknames accounts and mostly in sites/chats where the whole upvote system isn’t there, when I help someone in something or make a joke, because it makes me feel better to know I helped someone or brought some smile, I don’t care about your fake coins or whatever, but some people are so fixated about it for some reason, and that’s why I don’t like “influencers” culture in general, they are usually slaves to these thumbs up!

The problem with that is the response varies a lot by individual.

There have certainly been occasions -- albeit rare -- when a humorous HN comment has made me laugh out loud, or at least grin.

But most of the time I find attempts at humor here to be annoying and distracting. Especially when it devolves into a deep thread of few-word or one-line responses that reminds me very much of things I dislike about Reddit.

Put another way: I don't come here for humor. That doesn't mean I won't appreciate it sometimes, but that's not what I'm here for, and the majority of the time I find it to be an unwelcome distraction from what I actually come here for. I come here for discussion, whether just to read it, or to participate in it. Short, humorous comments almost never lead to discussion.

C'mon, that's disingenuous. I don't want the top comments to be middlebrow dismissals or lectures about jokes or jokes themselves. The irony is that your comment to this effect is itself a shallow dismissal.

> HN tends to be little better than Reddit at either.

I assure you, you are wrong in this. There are times when I see HN threads devolve into Reddit-land, but it's fairly rare, and very noticeable when it happens, because it reminds me why I generally don't bother with Reddit, but am (mostly) happy here on HN.

> or off-the-cuff rants related only to the title (because no one here RTFA)

> Please don't post comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit. It's a semi-noob illusion, as old as the hills.

I hope this irony was intentional, as it's top notch.

HN doesn't ban humor. HN disfavors it - you can still be humorous, but you have to not just be humorous, but actually provide substance. Solid discussion written in an entertaining style tends to be highly upvoted. Allowing "mere jokes" with no substantial content leads to Reddit. If you want that - go there.

Moreover, middlebrow dismissals do go against HN's intent, as pg noted back in 2012:

<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4693920>

> If someone manages to make me spit out my coffee, give a chuckle or even just a smile then I am eternally grateful.

For small values of eternity.