<story><title>Ask HN: Is HN a ‘healthy online community’? I’m doing a case study for a class</title><text>Hello HN! My name is Sankalp. I’m taking a class called Fixing Social Media at MIT (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;fixingsocialmedia.mit.edu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;fixingsocialmedia.mit.edu&lt;/a&gt;). We are examining problems with existing modes of social media and exploring affirmative visions for social media that are good for individuals and society.&lt;p&gt;At this point, the class is working on case studies of successful and healthy online communities, where we are seeking insights from online communities we are part of, inspired by, or find interesting. The goal of the assignment is to figure out whether an online community exemplifies or doesn’t exemplify ‘healthy’ behaviors, from the points of view of their own members, on their own terms. I’m here to understand HN from your perspectives and I’m interested in hearing from all of you.&lt;p&gt;What criteria do you use to determine &amp;#x27;health&amp;#x27; in online communities? How do these differ from those criteria you use to determine ‘health’ in offline communities you are in? How does HN exemplify or not exemplify &amp;#x27;healthy&amp;#x27; behaviors? What behaviors of your own would you acknowledge may or may not contribute to the overall ‘health’ of HN?&lt;p&gt;How did you get into HN? Who introduced you? What makes you stay?&lt;p&gt;I began using HN as a source for news, projects, ideas, etc. a couple years ago when a mentor referred me here, but I hadn’t made an account until this week for this Ask HN. I check HN once or twice daily and I actually stay for the discussion as much as the links shared by HN members.&lt;p&gt;In case this is helpful for our discussion, something that our class recently discussed is that communities with controversy aren&amp;#x27;t necessarily &amp;#x27;unhealthy&amp;#x27; — as in, the ability of some communities to work through a controversy and maintain coherence, and to exist as multiple voices coming out of a controversy can be an indicator of being &amp;#x27;healthy&amp;#x27;.&lt;p&gt;I aim to share my findings as well. I hope these questions are interesting to you and that we can hear a variety of perspectives in the comments!</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>M5x7wI3CmbEem10</author><text>is anger useless?</text></item><item><author>rossdavidh</author><text>My method of determining if a community is &amp;quot;healthy&amp;quot; (online or otherwise) is to evaluate it after I&amp;#x27;ve (temporarily) left (e.g. for the day).  Do I feel angry, upset, sad?  Do I feel wiser?  If somebody says something I disagree with, but afterwards I find that it has brought up lots of interesting insights in my own mind, then regardless of whether I agreed with them or not, I consider it healthy.&lt;p&gt;Conversely, even if I agree a lot with what is said, if afterwards I&amp;#x27;m angry, sad, etc. then it wasn&amp;#x27;t healthy.  When younger, I used to think that more anger at what was wrong in the world, would help to fix it.  Experience has taught me that actions taken out of anger, even if well-intentioned, are almost always unskillful.  I want more insight, more understanding, and HN aids me in getting that far more often than, say, Facebook, which I now use only on Sundays, and not every Sunday, as a way of making sure I don&amp;#x27;t let its toxic stew of opinions infect my emotions.&lt;p&gt;I cannot honestly remember how I discovered HN, but I return because, even when I disagree with most of what is said on a topic, it is typically the case that I find my own thinking to be more nuanced or more interesting afterwards.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mixmastamyk</author><text>No, but constant anger is unhealthy.</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: Is HN a ‘healthy online community’? I’m doing a case study for a class</title><text>Hello HN! My name is Sankalp. I’m taking a class called Fixing Social Media at MIT (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;fixingsocialmedia.mit.edu&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;fixingsocialmedia.mit.edu&lt;/a&gt;). We are examining problems with existing modes of social media and exploring affirmative visions for social media that are good for individuals and society.&lt;p&gt;At this point, the class is working on case studies of successful and healthy online communities, where we are seeking insights from online communities we are part of, inspired by, or find interesting. The goal of the assignment is to figure out whether an online community exemplifies or doesn’t exemplify ‘healthy’ behaviors, from the points of view of their own members, on their own terms. I’m here to understand HN from your perspectives and I’m interested in hearing from all of you.&lt;p&gt;What criteria do you use to determine &amp;#x27;health&amp;#x27; in online communities? How do these differ from those criteria you use to determine ‘health’ in offline communities you are in? How does HN exemplify or not exemplify &amp;#x27;healthy&amp;#x27; behaviors? What behaviors of your own would you acknowledge may or may not contribute to the overall ‘health’ of HN?&lt;p&gt;How did you get into HN? Who introduced you? What makes you stay?&lt;p&gt;I began using HN as a source for news, projects, ideas, etc. a couple years ago when a mentor referred me here, but I hadn’t made an account until this week for this Ask HN. I check HN once or twice daily and I actually stay for the discussion as much as the links shared by HN members.&lt;p&gt;In case this is helpful for our discussion, something that our class recently discussed is that communities with controversy aren&amp;#x27;t necessarily &amp;#x27;unhealthy&amp;#x27; — as in, the ability of some communities to work through a controversy and maintain coherence, and to exist as multiple voices coming out of a controversy can be an indicator of being &amp;#x27;healthy&amp;#x27;.&lt;p&gt;I aim to share my findings as well. I hope these questions are interesting to you and that we can hear a variety of perspectives in the comments!</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>M5x7wI3CmbEem10</author><text>is anger useless?</text></item><item><author>rossdavidh</author><text>My method of determining if a community is &amp;quot;healthy&amp;quot; (online or otherwise) is to evaluate it after I&amp;#x27;ve (temporarily) left (e.g. for the day).  Do I feel angry, upset, sad?  Do I feel wiser?  If somebody says something I disagree with, but afterwards I find that it has brought up lots of interesting insights in my own mind, then regardless of whether I agreed with them or not, I consider it healthy.&lt;p&gt;Conversely, even if I agree a lot with what is said, if afterwards I&amp;#x27;m angry, sad, etc. then it wasn&amp;#x27;t healthy.  When younger, I used to think that more anger at what was wrong in the world, would help to fix it.  Experience has taught me that actions taken out of anger, even if well-intentioned, are almost always unskillful.  I want more insight, more understanding, and HN aids me in getting that far more often than, say, Facebook, which I now use only on Sundays, and not every Sunday, as a way of making sure I don&amp;#x27;t let its toxic stew of opinions infect my emotions.&lt;p&gt;I cannot honestly remember how I discovered HN, but I return because, even when I disagree with most of what is said on a topic, it is typically the case that I find my own thinking to be more nuanced or more interesting afterwards.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>epakai</author><text>Not at all. Anger is a superb motivator, but difficult to manage. It&amp;#x27;s true many situations aren&amp;#x27;t well served by the brash actions we might take when angry, but with practice you can separate your action from the emotion. The anger becomes a trigger for thinking about and implementing solutions to all kinds of issues.</text></comment>