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Ask HN: How might HN build a social network together?

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Re: Ask HN: How might HN build a social network together?

#151

Post by bnralt »

wheats wrote: post #135
ilyt wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's also have zero notification whatsoever that someone answered to your comment so you have to keep engaged in constantly looking thru it manually

Maybe a really unintuitive system for ranking too? Like make it unclear why some posts are ranked higher than others, and why some are somehow greyed out even though there isn't an obvious way to downvote or report content. Also make it so you have to manually minimize the top reply in order to see the second most popular topline reply because there should be absolutely no limit to seeing the amount of subreplies.

The thing that gets me about the unintuitive system for ranking is that you have zero idea how long something will be on the front page. It could be 3 hours old, #4 on the page, with a few hundred upvotes and more points than almost all of the votes on the front page, and then just disappear an hour later.

And once something drops off the front page, it gets seen by almost no one. I keep trying to stop myself from spending too much time on comments (editing them for clarity and grammar, finding sources that people can follow instead of just relying on my claims, rereading the person I'm responding to in order to make sure I actually got what they were saying), because it's easy to spend 30 minutes trying to make a solid comment only to find out that the whole discussion has now disappeared and no one is likely going to read it.

Re: Ask HN: How might HN build a social network together?

#154

Post by shanebellone »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #142

I feel like we already have I have gotten jobs off of HN, started organizations with people I met here, hired people from posts, argued and agreed and flamed and shared ....all the stuff you do with social networks It's just that this network minimizes the "personality" driven aspects of social networks because it's not driven to optimize profit or engagement. It's seemingly driven to optimize for civility. I think t…

My title is a bit ambiguous in retrospect. Many took it as: How can HN become a social network.

My intention was to address the many talented and accomplished makers who engage with the platform. The title should probably read: "How might we build a social network that benefits everyone?"

Sorry!

Re: Ask HN: How might HN build a social network together?

#155

Post by AndrewKemendo »

shanebellone wrote: post #154
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #142

I feel like we already have I have gotten jobs off of HN, started organizations with people I met here, hired people from posts, argued and agreed and flamed and shared ....all the stuff you do with social networks It's just that this network minimizes the "personality" driven aspects of social networks because it's not driven to optimize profit or engagement. It's seemingly driven to optimize for civility. I think t…

My title is a bit ambiguous in retrospect. Many took it as: How can HN become a social network. My intention was to address the many talented and accomplished makers who engage with the platform. The title should probably read: "How might we build a social network that benefits everyone?" Sorry!

No apologies necessary, communication is one of the most challenging things we do

I understand what you meant though, and just to be more focused I don't think it's possible to build a large social network that retains coherency.

Dunbar's number is a good guide here

Re: Ask HN: How might HN build a social network together?

#156

Post by karaterobot »

anon1094 wrote: post #4
shanebellone wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue that HN is a collective not a social network.

You're being social right now, on Hacker News.

Where does the network come in? I can't friend anybody, I can't tag anybody. There's no social graph, at least not one that users are aware of.

Re: Ask HN: How might HN build a social network together?

#157

Post by shanebellone »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #155
shanebellone wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My title is a bit ambiguous in retrospect. Many took it as: How can HN become a social network. My intention was to address the many talented and accomplished makers who engage with the platform. The title should probably read: "How might we build a social network that benefits everyone?" Sorry!

No apologies necessary, communication is one of the most challenging things we do I understand what you meant though, and just to be more focused I don't think it's possible to build a large social network that retains coherency. Dunbar's number is a good guide here

Aren't those two different things?

A systemic limitation on individual connections is fundamentally different than the network's aggregate scope.

Re: Ask HN: How might HN build a social network together?

#160

Post by danielovichdk »

martindbp wrote: post #150

Personally, despite its reputation I've gravitated more and more towards Twitter, because at HN I can't really trust what people are saying. People may sound smart and like they know their stuff, but you can come up with great sounding arguments for and against anything. It takes a lot of time and energy to figure out if someone is worth listening to, so to me it makes more sense to seek out the known experts and fol…

Interesting. I find the discussions here on HN much more useful than pretty much any other so-called social media.

There is nothing social about them. They act as echo chambers imo and very easily become cargo cults surrounded by the usual suspects.

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