I am just questioning the motivation of AlJazeera. I used the word propaganda after reviewing the videos and headlines/content on their english page (which doesn't differentiate editorials from news).
Some headlines off their main page :
Gaza Tragedy: Almost 1000 Martyrs, 4525 Wounded //the number of hamas fighters out of 1000 is not given
Israel hitting Lebanon with rocket fire //its obvious they are responding to rockets
Gaza now Israeli weapons testing lab?
The Afghan scam
Ahmadinajad’s Christmas message
Can there be any doubt who the real terrorists are?
So what have Gazans got to complain about?
What is Israel's goal in Gaza?
Fighting Within
Obama v. Washington mythmaking
There are a few balanced headlines but they are the minority. I also noticed they specifically chose unflattering pictures of Western government/military representatives. They even devote a section to conspiracy theories on the main page.. come on.
I am not just some spammer i read the site a lot and wanted to offer my view on why they are going with creative commons. Call it a conspiracy theory if you wish.
Unless it's mandatory to, verbally or with text, say what the footage shown is about there is no way to know what is going on. Context is important especially with highly emotional footage of the Israel/Gaza conflict, a good example is the video seen on Liveleak of a Hamas military parade where a truck carrying rockets exploded, it was said to be an attack by Israel but in fact was later found out to be an accident by Hamas.
Giving support to Creative Commons licensing is nice to see but not for spiteful reasons.
Yes, the article is by Creative Commons, but it is not relevant for HN. I don't want to squash these kinds of articles, but if we keep getting them, it'll politicize the HN environment, which cuts down on dialogue.
I recommend posting such things on mattmaroon's www.nonhackernews.com.
I disagree. Like it or not, this is the first time that a news network has opened their content for scrutiny, hopefully without editing which Al-Jazeera usually minimizes, letting the video speak for themselves.
I didn't mention anything about liking it or not. Explain to me how this topic's pertinence to HN outweighs its politicizing. Haven't plenty of other organizations released their content on creative commons? Why is Al-Jazeera important in this regard except for political reasons?
I wouldn't call it propaganda. Al Jazeera seems very balanced and has even overtaken BBC as my preferred mainstream news source.
They're doing great things with citizen journalism and opening up to new channel such as mobile, as well as hiring smart people and considering the future of news.
I don't pay much attention to Al Jazeera, but it was interesting to watch their portrayal in the Western media morph from the "Arab BBC" to "propaganda outlet" between 2001 and 2003.
Welcome to HN, where the spam (and unpopular opinion) get down-voted. It's a completely legitimate comment, and one that I also agree with based on his other post substantiating it.
Otherwise, I've noticed the bandwagon downvoting comes once the comment reaches -3 or lower. There's no turning back after that.
It's really no surprise or different from any other social network. People naturally shun the unpopular and form groups.
Yeah, for sure. It's a worrying trend in my opinion, and it might be unavoidable unless a software solution is implemented. I don't want new HN members to be discouraged from contributing just because they made one mistake, and nothing would crush your morale faster than seeing all of your karma vanish just because you expressed an unpopular opinion.
Also, I really dislike the phrase "unpopular opinion". It's people's opinions! People can feel however they want. They should not be curb-stomped by the general populace just because they reject monogamy, or because they thought Hitler was an effective-but-misguided leader, or... et cetera.
If it's any comfort, a couple of days ago one of my comments took a karma hit but rebounded back into positive territory. It wasn't political, though, so maybe that's the distinction.
This happens more than you might think, but generally the score won't stay that low for long. Comments like this seem to attract a large number of votes in both directions.
If you look at Reddit, almost any comment saying anything positive about Israel (or negative about the Palestinians) is downmodded massively. Enough of HN is from Reddit that you're almost certain to get the same sort of thing here, too.
Disclaimer to the downmodders: I'm not pro-Israel at all--I just think this sort of downmodding the other side of an issue, regardless of the merits of the post itself, is ridiculous.
Disclaimer to the downmodders: I'm not pro-Israel at all--I just think this sort of downmodding the other side of an issue, regardless of the merits of the post itself, is ridiculous.
Sigh, I was going to upmod you, and then you added that. That's EXACTLY the problem! You shouldn't need to kowtow to the "popular" position in order to not get downmodded! Wasn't that exactly the point of your comment?
You are basically saying that if people think you are pro-israel you will be downmodded - that's disgusting.
You are basically saying that if people think you are pro-israel you will be downmodded - that's disgusting.
But that's the entire point of this post--that's what happened right here in this thread! People are downmodding because of contrary opinions, whether we like it or not.
By the way, I'm not pro-Palestine either--I would say I'm neutral, but it's more of a case of "I could care less, and it helps me avoid wasting time on useless flamewars."
I know you recognized the problem. But why didn't you resist? Why did you add that?
By the way, I'm not pro-Palestine either--I would say I'm neutral, but it's more of a case of "I could care less, and it helps me avoid wasting time on useless flamewars."
I don't need to know your position on Israel/Palestine in order to decide if I should up or downmod you. You are too used to reddit.
You had a good point, and again here, you should have stopped there.
Don't feed the people downmodding because of contrary opinions by posting your opinion if it has nothing to do with your point. Yes there are some people doing that, but I think most HN's are not. Trust that they will do the right thing, and don't encourage people who will do the wrong thing.
Yeah. Personally, I think it's OK to use downmodding as an expression of disagreement. (If I'm saying something stupid, I want my karma to take a hit for it.) However, as soon as the comment reaches -2 or maybe -3 max, then that has to stop, because any score lower than that needs to be reserved for troll comments.
Downmod stuff that's wrong, downmod trolls. And upmod the good stuff. Leave the stuff you disagree with alone. And if you can't tell the difference between "wrong" and "disagree with" then leave it alone.
And for stuff that's wrong, downmod just a little as a signal to people, especially if there are comments correcting it. Everyone is wrong sometimes, unless the person is flamebaiting there is no reason to punish someone for being wrong.
The philosophy of HN is upmod the good stuff - there is a reason you can't downmod a story.
Enough of HN is from Reddit that you're almost certain to get the same sort of thing here, too.
Though many News.YC users used Reddit before (or may still), the people who've migrated here are not randomly selected Reddit users. Judging by their comments, News.YC users seem quite different from Reddit users.
I don't know if the downvoting does work well enough for that; this guy clearly made a new username just to be a douche.
If the minimum time was set to something like 12 or 24 hours, I can't see that causing too many people to be scared away. If they are, then they probably didn't have much good to say anyways.
Some headlines off their main page :
Gaza Tragedy: Almost 1000 Martyrs, 4525 Wounded //the number of hamas fighters out of 1000 is not given Israel hitting Lebanon with rocket fire //its obvious they are responding to rockets Gaza now Israeli weapons testing lab? The Afghan scam Ahmadinajad’s Christmas message Can there be any doubt who the real terrorists are? So what have Gazans got to complain about? What is Israel's goal in Gaza? Fighting Within Obama v. Washington mythmaking
There are a few balanced headlines but they are the minority. I also noticed they specifically chose unflattering pictures of Western government/military representatives. They even devote a section to conspiracy theories on the main page.. come on.
I am not just some spammer i read the site a lot and wanted to offer my view on why they are going with creative commons. Call it a conspiracy theory if you wish.