Ask HN: How did you discovered HN?

#1

Post by coppolaemilio » Sun, Sep 06, 2020, 5:46 PM UTC

I remember watching one of my repos (abandoned now) get a lot of stars out of nowhere and being super confused. Then one of the regular contributors told me "you are on the front page of HN" and I had no clue what HN was. After all that I couldn't stop coming back to this site. If it wasn't for that I don't know if I would have ever discovered it.

So I was wondering, how did you find out about HN?

Re: Ask HN: How did you discovered HN?

#2

Post by ksaj » Sun, Sep 06, 2020, 6:16 PM UTC

I was getting fed up with how every comment section on Reddit devolves into nonsense - either trolling, arguing, or stupid memes. Don't get me wrong. Memes are fine in the right place - like Twitter. It has twit in the name for a reason... The problem is, no matter what the subject is or how the conversation is going, it eventually devolves into rubbish. Call me an old crank, but I find it extremely tiresome. It's like being an adult, but choosing to hang around with children with limited attention spans. If I wanted that, I'd just take up a babysitting job and turn everything into a Card Against Humanity game.

So one night, I just said my farewells, passed on the reins for a couple channels I administered, deleted all my messages and logged off. I had more than a year of Reddit Gold, but meh... it wasn't worth sticking around, even though parts of the Lounge are alright for general chatter.

Prior to this, I had seen a few mentions to articles here, and I checked it out. I actually read more of the comment sections than the articles - exactly what I was looking for. People actually discussing stuff.

HN's subjects are on par with what I look for, and people actually being able to converse civilly without turning everything into a meme or a flame fest is a huge bonus.

So, here I am. Feel free to send me HN Gold if it gets invented.

Re: Ask HN: How did you discovered HN?

#3

Post by oxygenz » Sun, Sep 06, 2020, 6:17 PM UTC

I've been interested in Ycombinator for a long time... saw a reference to hackernews

Re: Ask HN: How did you discovered HN?

#4

Post by sushshshsh » Sun, Sep 06, 2020, 6:20 PM UTC

I've been here so long on so many banned accounts that I can't even remember how or why I got here

Re: Ask HN: How did you discovered HN?

#5

Post by giantg2 » Sun, Sep 06, 2020, 6:31 PM UTC

I've been reading it for a long time. I only recently opened an account to comment/post. I think I heard about it from someone in one of my college classes.

Re: Ask HN: How did you discovered HN?

#6

Post by codegeek » Sun, Sep 06, 2020, 8:40 PM UTC

I think I found Paul Graham's articles when googling for startup ideas and found HN as well.

Re: Ask HN: How did you discovered HN?

#7

Post by brudgers » Sun, Sep 06, 2020, 10:20 PM UTC

Shopping oriented research for a new workstation class computer rekindled my interest in current tech after about a decade. Eventually, I wound up regularly looking at Techmeme. One day, there was a link to an HN discussion thread. In a few months, HN pretty much replaced Techmeme's river.

Re: Ask HN: How did you discovered HN?

#8

Post by muzani » Mon, Sep 07, 2020, 3:03 AM UTC

I applied to YC, saw that they asked for HN handle and look positively on people who have said smart things on HN. So I suppose I should cut down on the trolling, lol.

Re: Ask HN: How did you discovered HN?

#9

Post by muzani » Mon, Sep 07, 2020, 3:06 AM UTC

ksaj wrote: post #2

I was getting fed up with how every comment section on Reddit devolves into nonsense - either trolling, arguing, or stupid memes. Don't get me wrong. Memes are fine in the right place - like Twitter. It has twit in the name for a reason... The problem is, no matter what the subject is or how the conversation is going, it eventually devolves into rubbish. Call me an old crank, but I find it extremely tiresome. It's li…

Yeah, this is one of the reasons I like HN. Memes are fun, but sometimes I just want to discuss stuff seriously. I'll still upvote a clever pun or subtle meme reference on HN, but no reason it should be at the top.

Re: Ask HN: How did you discovered HN?

#10

Post by ksaj » Mon, Sep 07, 2020, 3:50 AM UTC

muzani wrote: post #9

ksaj wrote: post #2

I was getting fed up with how every comment section on Reddit devolves into nonsense - either trolling, arguing, or stupid memes. Don't get me wrong. Memes are fine in the right place - like Twitter. It has twit in the name for a reason... The problem is, no matter what the subject is or how the conversation is going, it eventually devolves into rubbish. Call me an old crank, but I find it extremely tiresome. It's li…

Yeah, this is one of the reasons I like HN. Memes are fun, but sometimes I just want to discuss stuff seriously. I'll still upvote a clever pun or subtle meme reference on HN, but no reason it should be at the top.

I love puns, but if a comment is only made for the sake of making the pun, it probably isn't adding anything to the discussion. A pun or meme-ish comment with additional actual content however, is much more conducive to conversation, and doesn't risk derailing or dead-ending an otherwise perfectly good thread.