Ask HN: What is causing the major growth in new HN users?

#1

Post by mcgyver » Wed, May 17, 2023, 6:52 AM UTC

This was brought up by someone some months back [1] and was judged by dang to be a spike due to YC applicants. Assuming, the the data here [2] is accurate, what is the explanation for new user growth and are the new users causing any issues?

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35009073

[2] https://hackernews-insight.vercel.app/user-analysis

Re: Ask HN: What is causing the major growth in new HN users?

#2

Post by jruohonen » Wed, May 17, 2023, 7:03 AM UTC

Some speculations: one of the few places left with mostly civil discussion, no algorithms, plain text, no unnecessary user interface distractions, etc.

Re: Ask HN: What is causing the major growth in new HN users?

#3

Post by ggm » Wed, May 17, 2023, 7:26 AM UTC

Leakage into other fora, and time: anything which lasts gets known.

There's a lot of retro going on atm: typewriter collecting, pinball, what's old is new and HN is quite old school.

Re: Ask HN: What is causing the major growth in new HN users?

#4

Post by poly_morphis » Wed, May 17, 2023, 7:55 AM UTC

jruohonen wrote: post #2

Some speculations: one of the few places left with mostly civil discussion, no algorithms, plain text, no unnecessary user interface distractions, etc.

But why now and not a few years ago? The spike appears to have started at the beginning of this year which is most intriguing to me.

Re: Ask HN: What is causing the major growth in new HN users?

#5

Post by jruohonen » Wed, May 17, 2023, 7:58 AM UTC

poly_morphis wrote: post #4

jruohonen wrote: post #2

Some speculations: one of the few places left with mostly civil discussion, no algorithms, plain text, no unnecessary user interface distractions, etc.

But why now and not a few years ago? The spike appears to have started at the beginning of this year which is most intriguing to me.

No idea. Might be due to the AI hype? Or worse: bots?

Re: Ask HN: What is causing the major growth in new HN users?

#6

Post by ano88888 » Wed, May 17, 2023, 8:15 AM UTC

LLM bots?

Re: Ask HN: What is causing the major growth in new HN users?

#7

Post by mcgyver » Wed, May 17, 2023, 8:27 AM UTC

poly_morphis wrote: post #4

jruohonen wrote: post #2

Some speculations: one of the few places left with mostly civil discussion, no algorithms, plain text, no unnecessary user interface distractions, etc.

But why now and not a few years ago? The spike appears to have started at the beginning of this year which is most intriguing to me.

I went hunting for stats of topic trends on HN as the whole AI thing has gone bananas. Looking at the "ChatGPT" keyword chart [1] the volume is crazy and seems to line up time wise. It is a correlation but not sure if it is the right one.

[1] https://hackernews-insight.vercel.app/keyword-analysis

Re: Ask HN: What is causing the major growth in new HN users?

#8

Post by mcgyver » Wed, May 17, 2023, 8:33 AM UTC

ano88888 wrote: post #6

LLM bots?

Bots of some kind crossed my mind. I find it interesting there has been no announcements from dang about the change in behaviour - unless I've just missed them.

Re: Ask HN: What is causing the major growth in new HN users?

#9

Post by iExploder » Wed, May 17, 2023, 8:35 AM UTC

ano88888 wrote: post #6

LLM bots?

LLM chatbots, AI hype, .. rustaceans :) sorted in order from most to least annoying

Re: Ask HN: What is causing the major growth in new HN users?

#10

Post by [deleted] » Wed, May 17, 2023, 9:22 AM UTC

iExploder wrote: post #9

ano88888 wrote: post #6

LLM bots?

LLM chatbots, AI hype, .. rustaceans :) sorted in order from most to least annoying

[deleted]