Though it might seem like it that isn't the case - people here are generally helpful and down to earth. The problem is that there's an ingrained fear here that the site will turn into reddit[1] with all of the oneliners, memes and silliness that defines it nowadays. HN is the last resort for intelligent discourse for many users. And they don't want to lose it.

As a result of this fear anything that resembles a comment that might have been made on Reddit will get downvoted.

[1] I have nothing against Reddit, on the contrary I personally write loads of silly comments there and enjoy the oneliners.

It's not fear that motivates me. It's simply desire.

I desire to read thoughtful, insightful commentary, and I don't want to get bogged down reading boring garbage. Therefore, I upvote comments that I find thoughtful or isnightful (even if I disagree with them) and I downvote anything I think detracts from that.

I don't have anything against snarky one-liners, memes, or silliness per se. They just have to be remarkably clever or insightful in order to meet my standards. The "nerds have no sex life" comment that triggered this subthread was a boring retread of a tired joke, and the whining about downvotes that followed it was even more boring.

Don't think you can't be silly or snarky or post memes on HN. Just understand, the bar is set a lot higher here -- your silly/snarky/meme-filled comment needs to provide a lot more value than on other sites.

Given the subject matter, I wouldn't pop this in the intelligent discourse pigeon hole, however your point is well taken.

I am not sure if it is my background in planning or my enjoyment of beating puzzles, but I think this subject matter is exactly on par with this site. Watching the videos, you realize someone perfectly reversed the algorithm that makes Sim City 3000 run. Through trial and error this guy beat the system. I think it takes a lot of intuition to get this completed.

Granted, from a purely logical viewpoint this city wouldn't work, but that's not the challenge. The challenge was to beat Sim City 3000 and he did that. Think of it as trying to get the highest score in Pac Man or Super Mario Brothers. There are competitions on that! And from one screenshot from the videos, it seems as though there are competitions for Sim City 3000 too.

Yes this city wouldn't work in real life. The subway system would be prohibitably expensive; getting all the power from neighboring cities wouldn't work; having groups of buildings to satisfy a citywide requirement wouldn't work. Yet he beat the game. That is all.

Funny jokes seem to get upvoted (see the first comment here http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1277622)

But the funny jokes that get up-voted are generally intelligent, too (I think).

At least we can say the bar is higher than reddit where half the stories are dominated by a big 50-level-deep thread of stupid puns.

I think that one was skewed by fanboyism.

No, not intelligent, or snobby. Big-souled.

Like Douglas Hofstadter said: "Small-souled men, beware!"

I (and a lot of us here) have no patience with constrictive thinking. In this case, why was sex brought in? Trying to artificially decrease a person's worth is petty.

I think you got me wrong, I'm certainly against criticizing someone's neat simcity video with a jab about getting laid (frankly, such pent up frustration might say more about the accuser).

But I also see a fair bit of "oh my beautiful mind is too good to read this pointless article" on occasion -- That's simply a perhaps-better-spelled version of the same small mindedness.

"oh my beautiful mind is too good to read this pointless article"

Perhaps it's just that time and attention are limited...

If that's the case, said genius should quit commenting on message boards and get back to work :)

I want to procrastinate in style.