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Ask HN: Is there a Hacker News for writers?

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Re: Ask HN: Is there a Hacker News for writers?

#91

Post by krapp »

muzani wrote: post #57
seydor wrote: post #31

There is a hacker news for everything, it is called reddit

The mainstram writing groups are terrible. The average writing ability on many of the writing groups are actually lower than the rest of reddit. I think it attracts hobbyists who refuse to take any advice. It's like how some grandmas refuse to use timers when cooking pasta. These groups are full of people who are always challenging the norm. They spend more time criticizing Stephen King and R.A. Salvatore's writing o…

People who can write are too busy writing to spend time commenting on Reddit.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a Hacker News for writers?

#92

Post by muzani »

krapp wrote: post #91
muzani wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mainstram writing groups are terrible. The average writing ability on many of the writing groups are actually lower than the rest of reddit. I think it attracts hobbyists who refuse to take any advice. It's like how some grandmas refuse to use timers when cooking pasta. These groups are full of people who are always challenging the norm. They spend more time criticizing Stephen King and R.A. Salvatore's writing o…

People who can write are too busy writing to spend time commenting on Reddit.

I don't buy into this whole "competent people are too busy for X". There's always time to socialize and mentor others. And even the best writers get writer's block for weeks.

I believe the main purpose for these groups is emotional support to becoming a professional. Which can often be in contrast to wanting to improve. So they can be very hostile to constructive criticism.

r/screenwriting is probably an exception. I think people who know about screenwriting are already very capable writers. More talk about how to solve specific work problems, or request career advice past 10 years. Less on trying to get your foot into the industry.

It's still no HN, closer to r/androiddev. In HN you have people talking about quitting FAANG. I believe in a top tier screenwriting group, you'll have more discussions on how to survive Hollywood, things like salaries at Disney, and such.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a Hacker News for writers?

#93

Post by svnt »

PuppyTailWags wrote: post #90
svnt wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean there are people with arts degrees who went through adjacent if not identical accredited programs and early careers, now working professionally in journalism and writing fiction. The broad perspective, if not the specific niche of the perspective, is well-represented. This is functionally not the case with engineering schools. Are there any experienced CS or CpE majors working as journalists for major mainstre…

I have no idea what your logic is right now beyond making a point that's spoken from a place of complete ignorance of an industry one doesn't work in and, upon being confronted with that ignorance, doubling down with even less logic. The original point of issue was the claim that industry-specific news pertaining to writers isn't needed. Whether or not computer scientists are writers has nothing to do with the incorr…

I think some of our definitions are different. I guess to translate, my point is this: a news site for fiction writers may be wanted, but a news site and a community like HN are different things. The community is not a given even if people want news. In addition to the necessary components I mentioned in another post there are sure to be significant others: e.g. a large number of people are profitably employed as developers and spend a good portion of their workday looking like they are working while browsing online. I assume science fiction writers probably spend a lot of time online, but also that there are far fewer of them than successful engineers/developers.

You have given an example of people in a specific subfield wanting to spread awards around, unless you’re referring to something else. I’m not denying the reality of that. That is very different from what we are discussing as well.

You think it will work, I’m skeptical it will work. That’s ok.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a Hacker News for writers?

#94

Post by svnt »

PuppyTailWags wrote: post #90
svnt wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean there are people with arts degrees who went through adjacent if not identical accredited programs and early careers, now working professionally in journalism and writing fiction. The broad perspective, if not the specific niche of the perspective, is well-represented. This is functionally not the case with engineering schools. Are there any experienced CS or CpE majors working as journalists for major mainstre…

I have no idea what your logic is right now beyond making a point that's spoken from a place of complete ignorance of an industry one doesn't work in and, upon being confronted with that ignorance, doubling down with even less logic. The original point of issue was the claim that industry-specific news pertaining to writers isn't needed. Whether or not computer scientists are writers has nothing to do with the incorr…

Or maybe your position is it already exists and is called Publisher’s Marketplace? I ran a quick check and it looks like there are around two orders of magnitude difference in traffic between HN and PM. I don’t think it could support/be supported by a community.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a Hacker News for writers?

#95

Post by Bayart »

asicsp wrote: post #37
Bayart wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it related to the litrpg sub-reddit ? I ended up there semi-randomly (reading far too many Chinese webnovels) and it's a pretty nice place for discovery, as a reader.

You might enjoy https://old.reddit.com/r/ProgressionFantasy/ too.

I'm already subbed to it, but thanks on behalf of the others !

Re: Ask HN: Is there a Hacker News for writers?

#96

Post by PuppyTailWags »

svnt wrote: post #93
PuppyTailWags wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no idea what your logic is right now beyond making a point that's spoken from a place of complete ignorance of an industry one doesn't work in and, upon being confronted with that ignorance, doubling down with even less logic. The original point of issue was the claim that industry-specific news pertaining to writers isn't needed. Whether or not computer scientists are writers has nothing to do with the incorr…

I think some of our definitions are different. I guess to translate, my point is this: a news site for fiction writers may be wanted, but a news site and a community like HN are different things. The community is not a given even if people want news. In addition to the necessary components I mentioned in another post there are sure to be significant others: e.g. a large number of people are profitably employed as dev…

You claim you are skeptical that it "will work" when I have pointed to multiple already existing communities where it is currently working in this very thread.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a Hacker News for writers?

#97

Post by PuppyTailWags »

svnt wrote: post #94
PuppyTailWags wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no idea what your logic is right now beyond making a point that's spoken from a place of complete ignorance of an industry one doesn't work in and, upon being confronted with that ignorance, doubling down with even less logic. The original point of issue was the claim that industry-specific news pertaining to writers isn't needed. Whether or not computer scientists are writers has nothing to do with the incorr…

Or maybe your position is it already exists and is called Publisher’s Marketplace? I ran a quick check and it looks like there are around two orders of magnitude difference in traffic between HN and PM. I don’t think it could support/be supported by a community.

PM is of course supported by a community; it runs on a subscription model and is actually reporting based on people telling it what's up.

I think you are speculating on a place of ignorance about a community you're not a part of and assume you can simply deduce the state of a community anyways, even when your priors are completely wrong.

Re: Ask HN: Is there a Hacker News for writers?

#98

Post by svnt »

PuppyTailWags wrote: post #97
svnt wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe your position is it already exists and is called Publisher’s Marketplace? I ran a quick check and it looks like there are around two orders of magnitude difference in traffic between HN and PM. I don’t think it could support/be supported by a community.

PM is of course supported by a community; it runs on a subscription model and is actually reporting based on people telling it what's up. I think you are speculating on a place of ignorance about a community you're not a part of and assume you can simply deduce the state of a community anyways, even when your priors are completely wrong.

The original question was “is there a HN for writers”. Your post, in my view, proves me right. PM is not a HN. I don’t pay a subscription, there isn’t a paywall. Without logging in I can’t tell where in the IRL/pseudo anonymous usernames range it is but I’ll continue to speculate that it’s more on the IRL range.

As I said earlier, I think our definitions are different. Yours is a very broad take on a news site. Mine is more of a direct analog to HN.

You are correct I am not a part of the science fiction writing community. The fact that I am not in no way precludes me from having valid positions on the viability of a community model translation from one community to another based on a more broadly informed macro perspective. It might even be the more accurate perspective as members tend to be biased toward their communities.

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