You know how every now and then someone comments "That's it, HN has officially become Reddit" or something along those lines? Well, I think this would be a good opportunity...
(Usually, those comments get downvoted, so please feel free.)
I am sympathetic to your viewpoint, but personally I find "exploring weird internet subcultures" within the spirit of hacking, if not the letter of the law. I'd much rather see this than a lot of the start-up related stuff posted here.
Why do you think they are downvoted? To me, it comes across as pretentious grandstanding, but I also understand the sentiment. I've not been using hacker news for very long, so I'm not familiar with what was posted 5+ years ago
Nahh nahh. You are absolutely right. I love it when the techno "elite" throws out their principles the moment something feels icky but has no set social norms only parallels that are to icky to think about in an objective way.
So you are absolutely correct. Hn is just reddit suddenly
So it is ok for bloggers, journalists, fan sites, meme sites, meme factories etc. To take someone's publicly posted pic and use it for amusement or personal gain?
But it is not ok for a group of collectors to organize collections on internet out of crops of publicy posted photos, for something completely legal?
(Usually, those comments get downvoted, so please feel free.)