Ask HN: Meaningful discussions, how?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8580931

by KajMagnus • 12 years ago

3 10 12 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I'm wondering how do you think a discussion system would look that:

- Helps people understand others with other points of view

- Solves problems in society, removes unfairnesses

- Helps you make better decisions and build a better world

- Saves time

I'd like to build that discussion system :-) Actually I've already started but I'm not sure if I'm doing the right things.

For example: What features would it have that aren't already present in other discussion systems? In ten years, what things/features would we then take as obvious, that are missing today?

striking• 12 years ago

In my opinion, it really depends on the subject matter at hand. StackOverflow only works because it removes discussion and forces people to write questions with single, factual answers. [1]

What subject matter do you wish to approach?

[1] http://blog.codinghorror.com/civilized-discourse-constructio... (Find "At Stack Exchange,")

KajMagnus5• 12 years ago

That's an interesting point of view, to think about what things to discourage / remove / hide, rather than what to show.

Thanks for the link to Discourse — I haven't noticed the words "you must suppress discussion" until now when you pointed them out.

The only ways I could think of implementing that, was by collapsing threads with relatively few upvotes, or that people flag as off-topic. Hmm..., S.E. actually does it also via making comments smaller, via community guidelines and by removing formatting. I wonder if that can make sense in forum software.

Your mentioning "suppressing discussion" made me think about something, namely removing the discussion completely: collapsing long sub threads, and replacing them with auto generated summaries of the most interesting things therein, see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8581040

Actually I don't understand "What subject matter do you wish to approach" (not a native English speaker). Could you please rephrase?

KajMagnus5• 12 years ago

I think in the future there will be advanced text analysis libraries that summarize discussion forum threads and quotes the most useful and interesting information therein. So, instead of having to read a sub-thread with 30 comments, you will be presented with a text block that summarizes the thread including the most useful information therein. And it'll also be clarified for you if the thread is about something everyone agrees about, or if it's something controversial. And the most useful links to other Web pages will be provided to you.

This would make it possible to quickly get something interesting out of a 1000+ comments long discussions here at H.N.

krapp4• 12 years ago

Why is an algorithm telling me what I should be interested in preferable to the minimal effort of actually reading what people write? Discussion forums are about the dialogue, and those long threads are a feature, not a bug.

What you seem to be looking for is akin to insisting that book publishers only publish the covers of a novel because the summary is really all you need. You're missing the plot if you approach it that way.

KajMagnus5• 12 years ago

If you get a summary of a thread and the most interesting things therein, you can better decide if you want to read the thread in whole or not. This helps you focus your time on the threads you are really interested in.

Right now, when I find a 1000 comments long page at H.N., I might read a bit at the top, then scroll down a bit randomly, read some comments, and then go on to some other topic. Most threads I don't read — I don't have the time — and I think I miss many interesting things. I think I'd want accurate summaries that helped me find and focus on the "right" threads.

Ask HN: Meaningful discussions, how?

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