Sit down for a moment commenters, we need to talk.
Yes, you all knew this post was coming one day. We’ve talked about this topic at length internally, and we have decided that we’re going to clean up our act. For some time, Hack a Day has been growing a reputation as the prime source of extremely negative, vulgar, rude, sexist, and inflammatory comments in the hacking community. We’ve had complaints from readers (yes there are readers that aren’t commenters, thousands of them) and fellow members of the hacking community about this problem for a long time. [Eliot] even mentioned it back in 2009 when a job applicant expressed concern. We’ve nicely tried to steer things to the positive in a variety of ways, from suggesting commenters to be more supportive, jokingly making a troll detector, and simply stating that the comments need to stay “on topic and nice”.
When we see things like these tweets by [Jeri Ellsworth], we hang our heads in shame.
She’s not the only one. We actually get this quite regularly. As our readership grows, we see it more and more often. We get emails explaining that people have done a hack but don’t really want to post it because the commenters will just tear it apart in an unnecessarily aggressive and negative way. We have actually had people ask us to remove their projects and comments due to uncivil behavior. Constructive criticism is good, but insulting and angry deconstruction isn’t helpful to anyone.
We’re better than that aren’t we? We are fast, agile and fairly unrestricted in our content. We should be at the center of this community, not on the outer edges, reviled by many for the behavior of a few. Hackaday should be the teacher at the front of the classroom, not the kid in the back throwing wadded up paper at the kids in the front.
What we’re doing:
First off, as far as we can foresee, we will never close the comments section of our web site down. Hackaday should be a home for the entire hacking community and as such, you will always be able to settle in and have a reasonable discussion. We do not want to implement any sort of G+ integration or similar, nor do we want to require registration to leave a comment. We will if we absolutely have to, but lets try to avoid that.
Comment sections and forums have often been a place where negative comments can get out of hand. There are many theories for why this happens, but the result is usually the same: rules and moderation. Many sites have already laid down the law and are adhering to their goals of keeping things civil. We realize that we are to blame if our image is this poor, so we are doing something about it.
From this point moving forward, Hackaday comments will be civil. If you are posting an empty in-joke (“where’s the Arduino?”), a declaration of “not a hack”, a racist, sexist, completely off topic, platform-hating, or personally insulting comment, your post will be deleted. This will be at the discretion of whichever Hackaday staff member happens to see your comment first.
Can you criticize Hackaday?
You can’t walk into a business and start screaming about how much they suck without being escorted out immediately. Same thing applies here.
We are always hard at work trying to find interesting hacks, makes, repairs, tweaks, videos, etc. that appeal to a wide spectrum of readers. We put this web site together for you, as well as 200,000 other individuals. Not everything will appeal to everybody. That would be impossible. However, if you don’t like a post or project, just skip it – we’ll have another one ready in short order. We will feature projects that appeal to the seasoned EE as well as the complete beginner. We were all beginners at one time, and it would have been great to have something like Hack a Day around back then to show us hacks ranging from simple to advanced.
From time to time however, Hack a Day can be a less than desirable place to hang out, especially for those who are coming here for the first time. We don’t want to chase off young, creative minds. As a community, we should be helping those that are just starting to venture into hacking electronics.
If you have a problem, email us. You’ll probably actually get a response that way too. My email is Caleb@ and you’re always welcome to email me personally. Again, please be civil (yep, I’ve had my share of death threats).
Grammar/spelling corrections and dead links:
No need to comment, just email us. A message to team@ will suffice, but you will probably get a quicker response by emailing the author directly. We know we have issues – we’re often so excited about a hack that some little goof slips by. Email us and we’ll fix it. Don’t write a 3 paragraph comment about how important the oxford comma is, or how we’re obviously incapable of functioning because we accidentally flubbed a word. We promise we will never intentionally screw up some grammar, spelling, or punctuation.
What you can will do to help:
Be constructive.
Every project here probably has an area that could be improved, or a part that was done inefficiently. Support your fellow hackers by offering your expertise. Explain why something isn’t working, or how you would improve it. Don’t slam them for their shortcomings. Also keep in mind that different people go about things different ways. Poster X didn’t build something the way you did? Offer an alternative without being insulting. If someone chooses to use their brand new Core i7 monster system to drive a few LEDs, that’s their prerogative. Inside, we all know that it is not the most efficient use of money or technology, there’s no reason to beat that dead horse in public.
You know what else encourages hackers to do more projects? A pat on the back. I talk to people all the time who say that they just don’t have any constructive criticism for the projects, so they don’t comment. Well, that and they know they’ll bring the ire of the worst commenters if they happen to ask a silly question. Drop in and say what you like about a project. Those positive posts might just be enough to encourage that hacker to take it a step further. How many projects have you seen dropped simply because people thought there wasn’t any interest? Tons. If you like a project, let them know.
To encourage this, the writers are going to be keeping an eye on the comments. Randomly, when we see someone being exceptionally helpful, we’ll contact them and send them a prize. This will most likely be in the form of a hackaday sticker, but we’ll see if we can’t find some other fun things as well.
Help us make Hack a Day great. Please.
[Update: we’re working on a comment flagging system currently]
[Update: threading and comment reporting have been added]
and furthermore, it’s nice that you feel proud of your arduino-blinken-led, and want people to see it. Guess what, the front page of HAD is not the place for it. Everyone’s not around to pat you on the back. We’re here because we want to be *inspired* to do *great* *things*. You want some encouragement? Go post your blinkenlights to your mom’s facebook wall.
Bravo HaD, this is a positive step in the right direction. There’s no reason why those in the hacking community can’t behave with civility to each other. Think of all the other great hacks that could be created if all of that negative brain power was turned to a greater, more positive good :)
Incidentally, I think that if jeri made a comment herself during one of the alluded events then the realization that she saw all the remarks would embarrass a large number of the people making sexist remarks into silence.
I started blinking leds too (with a 555), everyone does.. but i didnt write a post to tell the world: “hey look its blinkin =D”. I just stared at it and then said to myself, ‘ok, now i think i’m getting it’
I read hackaday everyday, and check for new post twice a day.. but sometimes (not always, but happens) there’s just ol’ duinos blinking some leds.. thats good for “5 year olds and grannys”, but that’s not relevant at all.
I know the feeling of putting some components in a breadboard and then making it blink, it’s real nice! but even back then, i knew this was just the tip of the iceberg and there was a lot, and still is, to learn.
its like posting about your small brother that just learned how to multiply two numbers in 2nd grade.. it sure is nice, good for him.. but is it nice enough to make everyone know about it?
As one of the many thousands that read but never comment, mostly because I have no clue what 90% of you are talking about but I still think it’s cool to see what people can make things do, thank you HAD. Thank you very much.
I hate to see it come to this but, something does need to be done. I was unaware that many of the creators of the products themselves felt so strongly and I can only dream of the emotional beating you take by seeing your work smashed by the obligatory troll foot. True, yes we all need to be a bit thick skinned and able to take our lumps. I know it personally as I do phone based tech support, DJ and write fiction for fun just as many do this as an expression of their own creativity.
Anywya, as I stop myself from rambling, thank you for finally drawing the line in the sand and defending your castle. In the long run, the faithful will appreciate it greatly.
Thanks for addressing this issue.
It will be nice to be able to read the feedback a project generates without having to wade through the venomous comments.
As a journalist I moderate comments on my site and it is no easy task to deal with the five percent of my audience who cause ninety five percent of the problems.
How about we all try to make HaD a better place by moderating ourselves and giving the writers more time to find excellent projects for the site.
For a start people might not want to troll the anti-trolling post.
Wow. I am late to the party. I have been a long time reader and long time commenter… most of the time my comments are charitable.
In one sense I look forward to the “kiddies” (adults and young-uns) being muted a bit.
Seems having user accounts (that can be banned / put on probation) would go a long way to reduce quite a bit of the crap posts. I would still allow anonymous posts… but at least protect the users who want their name protected.
I now wonder if “moderator ego” is going to cause issue. Certain posters get moderated simply because one mod has a bone to pick with them.
I don’t have a solution or recommendation at the moment. HAD has obviously put some thought into this. I just wonder how the dynamic will change. I hope for the good.
Ok second post, and I really do dislike doing that, but this is an important topic.
I think that users being able to rate comments is the best solution, even if that is with the above stated moderation, it would provide important feedback for the other users and non commenters that would maybe discourage a lot of the poorly conceived posts without putting HAD on the spot for censoring them. I think that Youtube should be an example as it has a much larger userbase than HAD and has suffered the same problems but has implemented the same strategy of user’s moderating users with some success. YT is certainly improved recently even if it doesn’t completely solve the issue.
I don’t like where this is heading… It’s gonna end up a “Yes”man land like BoingBoing. How else are you going to know if you are posting content that is relevant/interesting to your readers? I’m in the camp of “if you’re gonna put it up in public on the internet, then expect criticism good and bad.” I’ve gotten sand in my crotch about what others have written before, but that is why I don’t post most of my stuff on the interwebs. Also I’m very lazy and don’t want my IP stolen and patented. If ya feel the need to get backpats on what you’re doing and not doing it for the project itself (8hr write up for a 5 minute build) then yeah, attentionwhore it up. Oh well, I’m sure it’s not gonna be as bad as I imagine. They are pretty good at discerning intent and this is their site. I just have a feeling I’ll get a bit bored after the 8th “great build :)!!!!!!” comment. Best of luck to us all.
And what were wrong with my hacks that some mooks copied and you posted instead of mine.. Some of us have valid dissidence for hack a day and some of the hacks.
I think this was a long time coming, if you walked up to some one on the street and said Half of things that were said what would happen? Part of freedom of speech is choosing Not to say what ever you want. Having said that I am apposed to censorship, I feel that I have the right to read whatever I want. We should have shown restraint with our comments but we did not and now censor is the word of the day. We have no one to blame but our selves. If you don’t like it feel free to make your own Hack web sight, as for Hack a day You got to do what you got to do
Like any one is going to read this.
@A7
I think we’re on different pages here. It’s not about telling the world that you did it, it’s about showing others how to do it. It’s a beginner’s guide.
OK so I have read nearly all of the comments on this post before writing this. I want to say Thank You HaD! The negative comments are completely useless! I don’t see any sense in even using a rating system; I trust the HaD writers to use their judgement.
I clearly see that a group of commenter’s are all for the cleanup and some are for the “Freedom of speech, safety, grammar, lame, and not a hack” BS. I just want to remind HaD writers to ignore the advice of the Latter group even when they complain on posts like this. The change that you propose is very needed and welcomed IMHO.
I love electronics and hacking (I’m only 17 and check HaD multiple times a day btw) but I also love being recognized for my accomplishments (It’s one of the main things that make me do a project well and through to the end). One of the worst things I can imagine would be having a project featured on HaD and receiving a comment like “Looks like a slow day today” (Similar to a comment another featured hacker received on his project – as the first comment!).
A quick note on the negative list I made earlier:
Freedom of Speech is ridiculous – If you think you have freedom of speech on HaD YOU ARE WRONG! and I beg you to move to a different site. HaD writers – please do what you need to do to make this site better. It’s your site, don’t let others push you around. Those people are precisely the people you don’t want.
Safety – give it a break. I am in High School and I have built more High Voltage / High Current power supplies than you could imagine. I have also built pressure vessels out of PVC and guess what – it’s always worked! I have never heard of anyone even getting injured from a PVC spud gun exploding. Safety lectures are what my parents are for. If someone kills themselves being stupid…well thats one more ignorant person out of the gene pool. Let evolution take it’s course.
Grammar – I hate English. I want to engineer. I couldn’t care less about HaD writers spelling a word wrong. I have never seen an unreadable post. As long as I can tell what the hack is, I don’t care how fast the writers type it.
Lame Projects – News Flash: you don’t have to read them! I find a perfect variety of different posts on HaD and some I read while others I am not interested in. I am still learning and I need noob posts as much as I like seeing super complicated posts.
Everything I have ever seen posted here has been a Hack. I congratulate every hacker who has been featured here. If you don’t think something is a hack then please post with a project that YOU did that you think is a hack because the fact is – they did something that you didn’t and should be honored for it.
Thanks for putting up with my long comment. Search my name on youtube if you think I’m not qualified to write a post like this. I love you Hack a Day and I am just trying to help! :)
@kyle
No, it’s not because of the word “dick”, it’s the whole sentence.
You officially Don’t Fucking Get It.
I think letting users vote on comments is a good idea, perhaps putting in place a mechanism by which comments with a overall low rating aren’t displayed or are displayed in another way. That way the community can clean it up in a meaningful fashion.
This has been bugging me for a while and I feel that even useless comments should get deleted regardless if they are offensive or not. Users like those don’t contribute at all and there’s no use in keeping their comments.
Simply put – Thanks
As someone who has had a few little projects featured on HaD, I can tell you that what gets to you isn’t the criticism itself, but rather the knowledge that most of the people lobbing negativity haven’t ever actually built anything.
Funny thing about that — people who actually make things rarely rip you to pieces. They don’t need to, because they don’t need to artificially boost their confidence by trashing someone else. And anyway they’re too busy doing their own thing to care.
I can tell right away if the commenter has experience in a particular area but just happens to be brusque, or if they’re just some snotty sh-t who is ragging on a project because it happens to be at the top of the feed. The former group has always existed — they are just par for the course when you share your work anywhere. The latter group, however, has got to go, and I hope they do. Soon.
People don’t know what trolling is.
IMHO, it’s perfectly OK to be negative. I’d rather talk to someone who’s honest than someone who just tells people what they want to hear.
And catering to the younger audience probably didn’t do much to help your situation. I genuinely do believe that HaD had a more mature audience back in the day.
Not sure why, but I haven’t seen this much. Maybe I just come to the comments early, and normally don’t come back often.
But I’m glad to see it. Nobody should be hammered for doing a project. That said, I have said I don’t see the point to a project, but didn’t put it down. I do try to be helpful if I can.
But I can see where the trolls come out when somebody (female) like Jerri posts something great.
Jealousy or what ever, I would expect the little creeps to come out and razz her for doing something nice.
thank god,
trolls go after charlie sheen
I am an avid reader. I, more often than not, skip the comment section because it quickly falls into unproducting slander etc etc. I will give it a chance and start reading a few more :)
I’m for this, though I also vote to display “comment removed” rather then it just disappearing. Also the shame might help motivate some to be better.
That actually sounds like a pretty good idea. But wouldnt there be some people that would repeatedly post garbage every time it gets removed? just reposting and reposting…
I think repeat offenders should have their name and email banned, or put on suspension. That would show them we wouldnt take it. sort of like ‘alright, we’ve had it!’
I’m actually kind of amazed people are still so sensitive. This internet thing has been around for a long time now. The more exposure you ask for (and if you post your stuff online, you are asking for the exposure), the more criticism you will receive. If you can’t ignore a post that is obviously a troll, then I don’t know what to tell you. As for the posts being critical of projects or the way something in a project was implemented, a lot of the time it’s because it’s frustrating to see people do something so amazingly backwards. Ive been reading HaD for a long time and I can think of a bunch of projects that showed up on the homepage where my first through was… REALLY?!?!?!WTH!?!?! I understand that sometimes people are just starting out, but you need to know when you took the hardest route to getting something done. Having someone shame you on the internet is, all things considered, a pretty safe and effective way for it to happen. Sure there are nicer ways of saying something, but as long as there is a suggestion of how to do it better, it’s all reliant information. We aren’t talking about emotions, we are talking about engineering and there is always a way of doing something better.
People that create projects featured on this site are, for the vast majority of projects, highly intelligent people. People that enjoy reading about these projects are also, I would have to assume, intelligent people. Intelligent people should already have the skills to ignore trolls on the internet and to filter information to take out the good bits and discard the bad bits.
One last thing…..
I don’t understand how anyone can feel “This isn’t a hack” comments are offensive, when for the most part things that receive that comment….. are not a hack. Seriously.
One more last thing….
I love this site. Daily reader. Multiple times a day. Everyone just needs to grow up. The trolls and all the overly sensitive people too. <3
Right on Hackaday! I totally support your move to make this community friendlier. Keep up the good work my friends.
Unless the ability to post without registering is fixed the idiots will continue to ruin your blog. It’s just how it works, it’s too tempting to post and run. If required registration is out of the question, then at least employ some type of douchebag filter system for the posts. Perhaps make it in to a contest of who can make the best bad post filter script and whoever wins gets a hack a day t-shirt?
The interesting thing to note is that all public forums in “Real Life” are censored/moderated. If you go to a an open discussion and start saying the kinds of things that are often posted here, you would find yourself politely escorted out of the building.
That being said, I agree that there is a difference between “negative comments” and inappropriate comments. If a person says “You shouldn’t use x, y would work better” it’s not the same as saying “It’s stupid that you used that thing!”
Of course we should be polite to each other, since any communication from one human to another IS Real Life, but the moderation should be used in moderation. ;)
I have to agree with the registration concept, otherwise there’s a way around it.
At least on Google+ the chat is positive — Mostly because we’re all using our real names there.
Also, this is the first time I have ever commented.
Gizmodo/ Gawker have dealt with this plenty of times in the past, as many know ofc.
I hate to say it, but I generally avoid the comments and finish at the article / follow through links.
I still love you <3
long time reader, rare commenter…
i welcome the increased moderation but i’d much prefer that the community do it as others have suggested. i hope to see it one day. in the meantime i hope you exercise it judiciously, focus on “-isms”, and leave burying trolls to us at a future date.
I think this is a good thing. Please still criticise. Take a moment to make it constructive and polite. Course, my support is lost at the bottom of 282 comments, but still, it’s here. BTW- there are multiple Daves posting here. I have never read an offensive comment from one.
YEA! Tearing someone’s creativity to shreds because they were “unlucky” enough to be submitted to HAD is wrongity-wrong-wrong. It was their creative moment. Not every creative moment may meet your standards for Da Vinci-esque magnitude. But it may have been to that person at that time. I don’t really care how many Arduino projects get posted. Every project was a step on someone’s journey of discovery. There is no room for haters here. Move along. THANKS HAD!
+1 to this. It’s about time. Reading this and some of the comments though: this particular xkcd comic coming to mind – http://xkcd.com/810/
after reading this post i found out that i didnt need a registration to reply here, GREAT!
but really, this is meant for the full internets, not just HAD.
I allways wonder why people take the BS comments serious,
i can understand that you guys at HAD take the reactions(emails) serious, but the comments?? i allways see them as the Fuck You’s written on the wall or public benches. if you clean them today, tomorrow they will be full of crap again.
Ofcourse you guys at HAD can waste a lot of time trying to delete al the BS, but please there are better ways of spending youre time!
You wouldnt clean the bench from all the BS in youre neighbourhood every day right? So long live the freedom of speech and the inconveniences that come with it!!!
freedom of speech has never been the most practical of all, but the inconveniences are necessary.
( i come from the Netherlands, here people are getting arrested for posting crap on twitter, and this scares me!)
It’s not so much the stupid / negative / hurtful comments people are making on this website that annoy me, it’s the fact that I need to sift through them in order to find the quality posts.
Off with their heads! (Or introduce a registration system (whichever is easier / more legal))
My suggestion? Count the posts by users, and select the top five. Going to put money they’re also the top 5 trouble makers.
Good luck HaD. Keep rolling.
To those who say “Use a Youtube/Slashdot comment rating system”: HaD said in this very post that they don’t want to have a registration system, which would be required for that. Although it would be possible to block multiple ratings/spam IDs through IP tracking and cookies, cookies can be cleared and IP addresses can be obfuscated with a proxy.
However, I would suggest that HaD implement a “Flag for spam/trolling” button, so that community users could suggest HaD moderate certain comments.
I also suggest that HaD put the team@ address at the end of each post, so that people will be reminded to email about inaccuracies/spelling errors instead of writing a comment.
I wish a +1 button was already implemented so I could click it.
Also, that is a lot of comments. As of this post, it took me 6 seconds middle-mouse-button scrolling at full speed to get here. I wonder if this comment will be viewed by someone at HaD, or anyone else for that matter?
To anyone who replies to this comment: I won’t read your reply. I’m not clicking “Notify me of follow-up comments” on a thread this long and growing.
i put a few projects on HAD, but after the negative trolling and the like i stopped reading the comments, not worth the effort to feed all the 13 year old kids and people not actually hacking something.
Even with the moderators editing/deleting comments i will still submit, after its about sharing the knowledge in a community
I don’t mind comments getting removed that are direct insults, but I swear if I see comments getting removed that are along the lines of “Your project sucks because…” I am taking my viewing habits else where.
To be honest I was surprised this post was even made, this is the Internet, it can be a great place or a creepy evil place, you do not get to pick and choose. I only remember reading one or two nasty comments since I have been reading the site in general.
Also if trolls are reading about projects here then going off to those projects websites and trolling how does that have anything to do with the people posting comments here?
I’m just hoping hack a day doesn’t turn into a nanny web site where people’s posts get deleted cause A Person or B Group doesn’t like it.
Daily reader, seldom poster.
Thank You HaD! Discovering you has changed my life for the better and inspired me to think through problems in new and creative ways. I visit 2 or 3 times a day.
If we ignore the trolls,(little children), they will get bored and go away. Let’s not reply to the traps they set.
Thank you @all for the awe inspiring content you share with the rest of the world! And…
Jerri Ellsworth R O C K S!
I think part of the problem stems from the rather blunt nature of many hackers. If they think a project sucks, they don’t mean to come across as saying “it sucks and by extension you suck”. But there have been some rather …. poorly designed and executed projects featured here. I am not talking about ones where people are learning basic EE skills and as a result their projects are amateurish, I am talking about outright dangerous projects because the hacker doesn’t know what they don’t know.
So – it seems like a lot of this trolling may be, in part, the propensity of the community to more freely speak their mind and more quickly jump to conclusions than your average audience. I for one would rather be told my project is absolute crap as long as somebody explains in a clear and concise manner WHY that is the case and they are coming from a direct but positive angle and aren’t out to simply troll or be an idiot.
Frankly, I haven’t seen as much of this trolling or talking bad about female hackers or any of this – now granted I don’t read ALL of the comments and yes, things should be cleaned up a bit but uhh… were they really THAT bad or is it more that people expect to be coddled and praised for everything they do and that wasn’t happening and as a result some people started taking it personally?
Nearly most of the hacks on this site are the very first attempt of making a working project. When the commenter attack the hackers, the entire community does itself a huge disservice. A hack is a hack if one person uses a device in some manner other than intended by the manufacturer. HaD will be better for these new polices.
i think negative comments are ok, they can be helpful too
troll comments are obvious and sometimes funny but i wouldn’t care if they went away
it’s the internet though, you should be able to say whatever you want
what i DONT want to see is powerhungry HAD moderaters who delete slightly negative comments
These hackers who keep saying ‘you need to have a thick skin’ and ‘we must keep bashing the noobs’ are very stereotypical. They remind me of the fat dude in the Simpsons (the Comic Book Store dude).
I believe they suffer from great insecurity which they try to counter by being smart-asses and by trying to show how 1337 they are. People like that make me laugh. Not with them… at them.
It’s sad that HaD had to resort to comment censoring, but it’s in their right. Too bad some people don’t know how to be civilized…
It seems half the people here would most like to have no real comments but maybe some script that in various ways tells the project originator how gloriously wonderful his efforts are.
So how about making a secondary link that has such fake comments and make the URL sycophant.hackaday.com and the rest of the visitors can retain the right to voice the truth when a dinky/old/overly-basic project is dinky or old or too simple.
I mean I know the comments can get annoying in repeating the same discontent and know how some people do it towards really everything, but comments can also get annoying in their ridiculous praise and the all too frequent attacks on people who state a truth. And yet only the first group is seen as the problem huh? But that is because the ones shouting are the same ones that form the bulk of the second problem group.
I just hope my confidence in that the management is aware of the second group being a problem group too is justified.
This is a welcome change. I’ve personally seen the trolling ability of certain people on this site (Anyone remember that DIY mini comp? Not particularly useful, but innovative. The developer probably prayed for a few hundred people to be banished to hell). Encouragement IS important, I agree, but I don’t see why comments that only recommend a different way should be blocked… some people don’t KNOW a better way, what’s wrong with educating them? As long as the people telling them are not insulting them, and are themselves open to criticism…
Also, granted I may have let out a “Marry me Jeri!” comment from time to time… it was clearly meant to be praise, not some weird stalking thing. Of course, I suppose crystal clear comments would be better…
All in all, happy about the changes, could have been happier.
If you were a female hacker, and read through feedback on a project of yours, and every single time there was a comment about your appearance, good or bad – would you feel welcomed and encouraged or just tired of it?
You might think such comments are compliments, or at least harmless, but in actuality, they are obnoxious.
It’s really unfortunate to see that one of my favorite hackers, Jeri Ellsworth, was offended by commenters.
While I do think that everyone is entitled to their opinion, I agree that any negative comments should be in the form of “constructive criticism” (“OH BOY, another Arduino” vs “good job, any plans to port that to AVR?”).
To be honest, I haven’t noticed how negative the comments were because I mostly read Hack a Day posts from Google Reader. :)
@ Jon
there are always other sites for those that are starting with electronics.. There’s instructables, maker.. A great website for beginners is ‘the electronics club’ (don’t have the URL right now, it’s .co.uk, great site, recommend it, not mine though)
Anyway, I believe it’s better for a noob(derrogatory or not) to see a true hack and get inspired, than settle with an easy leduino prject. Again, there’s tons of books, websites, for the complete newbie, and for those who want to start in electronics. What made hackaday what it is today was the quality, ingenuity and the challenge of more complex projects, and the fact that it shows that those projects are tangible even if you don’t have much experience.
If the intention is to educate and help, calling textbook circuits ‘hacks’ is not a good start.
I find it interesting that the group with the least to lose (those who have never actually posted until now, “long time reader, first time posters”) are so quick to support a policy that affects people who actually took the time to post in the past…
I agree with HAD’s decision.. I was particularly shocked to see people criticizing the 14 yr old Chilean kid’s earthquake warning system – if they’re so great, why don’t they do such a simple yet effective & socially responsible hack? He has 29k twitter followers, that has to say something!
What I meant to say is – being a regular Hack A Day reader since it’s first month – I totally agree with the admins no matter what others say..
Perhaps organizing the comments as threads (similar to reddit) would help keep trolls down. Interesting discussions would rise to the top, and troll threads could be nipped at the root.