Show HN: Visalist – Find visa requirements for countries around the world • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Visalist – Find visa requirements for countries around the world

#241

Post by desdiv » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 1:39 PM UTC

mricordeau wrote: post #239

desdiv wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, but this is incorrect. The European Travel Information and Authorisation System has not even been developed yet, much less deployed. It will only come online in 2021. Until then, Schengen is visa-free for Canadians and Americans. >On July 5th, the European Parliament has given its final agreement to implement the European Travel Information and Authorisation System, ETIAS. European authorities have decided to…

I'm talking about the opposite way: FROM Schengen Europe countries TO Canada. My first comment was not really clear to be honest.

My apologies, I misread.

Re: Show HN: Visalist – Find visa requirements for countries around the world

#242

Post by wenc » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 2:48 PM UTC

diminoten wrote: post #233

reikonomusha wrote: post #186

I find many of the critical comments to be shortsighted, especially those talking about trust/credibility. Do people really believe folks will check this site then run over to book an international ticket straight after? This is an awesome site to get a general idea where I (or my friends & family) can and can’t travel with and without extra work. It has a nice interface, a good collection of information, and is easi…

I have a completely evidence-free theory that, over time, the average sentiment score of comments on HN has gone down. Maybe I'm succumbing to bias with this theory (hello Eternal September), but it seems like all I read on "Show HN" anymore is negativity and dismissiveness. I really ought to try and do the analysis. I think it wouldn't be hard (HN is very good about keeping historical data, and sentiment analysis lo…

I don't know.

To me, HN is a place where ideas are workshopped. If one is looking for accolades, Reddit might be a better forum.

I don't think I have any trouble with critical sentiments as long as they are correctly critical. Of course, too often they are not because some HN folks have an ax to grind, and to make things worse, they are misinformed because a little knowledge is a dangerous thing (pseudointellectuals). [1]

But at the same time, if people are not critically examining ideas, that almost defeats the purpose of this place. I've seen some really bad and incorrect ideas on Show HN that are given a pass due to lack of expertise and discernment on the commenters' parts.

Criticism, when done with civility with the intention to build up rather than tear down, can be a wonderful thing.

Also, despite its purported negativity, people still dip their toe in the comments sections from time to time, holding out hope for finding the one or two gems. For all its flaws, there's no other general forum on the Internet (that I know of) that congregates this level of intellectual ability mixed with technical expertise. (specialized forums notwithstanding)

[1] https://danluu.com/hn-comments/

Re: Show HN: Visalist – Find visa requirements for countries around the world

#243

Post by hellofunk » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 4:28 PM UTC

pcl wrote: post #183

hellofunk wrote: post #181

This is rather basic -- what if your home country is different than the country you live in? Your flexibility to travel, for example in Europe, is quite different if you have a European ID card even if you are not from there. You still need visas to some countries but not others, depending on both your ID card as well as your home country.

Can you expand on that a bit? I'm a US citizen living in Norway (a member of the EEA but not the EU). I know that I can use the EEA immigration lines at many (but not necessarily all) checkpoints in EEA countries if I present them with my Norwegian residence card at the window. Are there other travel optimizations, either in-region or elsewhere, that I should look into? Are they all dependent on a residence card, or…

Consider someone from a country with poor passport freedoms. Normally, if they lived in their home country, they'd need visas for lots of places. But now they live in Europe. Thus, the places that require visas depends on:

1) The home country. 2) The destination country. 3) The holding of other residence permits.

That person does not need a visa if they live in Germany and want to travel to Belgium, but they do if they want to visit London. And the only way to know that is by considering all of the above points, not just their home country.

Re: Show HN: Visalist – Find visa requirements for countries around the world

#244

Post by diminoten » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 5:10 PM UTC

wenc wrote: post #242

diminoten wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a completely evidence-free theory that, over time, the average sentiment score of comments on HN has gone down. Maybe I'm succumbing to bias with this theory (hello Eternal September), but it seems like all I read on "Show HN" anymore is negativity and dismissiveness. I really ought to try and do the analysis. I think it wouldn't be hard (HN is very good about keeping historical data, and sentiment analysis lo…

I don't know. To me, HN is a place where ideas are workshopped. If one is looking for accolades, Reddit might be a better forum. I don't think I have any trouble with critical sentiments as long as they are correctly critical. Of course, too often they are not because some HN folks have an ax to grind, and to make things worse, they are misinformed because a little knowledge is a dangerous thing (pseudointellectuals)…

The comments on HN tend to be so completely out of touch with reality, that it's sometimes hard to separate the wheat from the proverbial chaff.

If the negativity was constructive, I'd be with you, but I don't think it is. It's the incorrect or incomplete application of concepts people pick up in blog posts or half-read books about one person's opinion about how to do a certain thing, represented as gospel.

Regarding your link, I urge you to check the dates those comments were posted. You'll find, I theorize, that the number of these quality posts has gone down over time. I believe the "good parts" are fading, getting lost in the increasing noise.

Re: Show HN: Visalist – Find visa requirements for countries around the world

#245

Post by thunfischbrot » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 6:10 PM UTC

twblalock wrote: post #232

1hakr wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Visalist has links to official websites aswell, so you can always cross check!

What is the advantage of that over just using the official website in the first place? It seems like you'd need to do that even if you used Visalist, so you might as well skip the middleman and just go straight to the reliable information.

It's not always as easy, as each country, and sometimes each embassy has their own structure on their respective website. This service has a lot of merit, especially if used as directory to links of the original source of information. Try finding out whether a Bangladeshi citizen traveling to Saudi Arabia can travel without visa, with visa, with visa on arrival or not at all from a google search.

Re: Show HN: Visalist – Find visa requirements for countries around the world

#246

Post by wenc » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 6:12 PM UTC

diminoten wrote: post #244

wenc wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know. To me, HN is a place where ideas are workshopped. If one is looking for accolades, Reddit might be a better forum. I don't think I have any trouble with critical sentiments as long as they are correctly critical. Of course, too often they are not because some HN folks have an ax to grind, and to make things worse, they are misinformed because a little knowledge is a dangerous thing (pseudointellectuals)…

The comments on HN tend to be so completely out of touch with reality, that it's sometimes hard to separate the wheat from the proverbial chaff. If the negativity was constructive, I'd be with you, but I don't think it is. It's the incorrect or incomplete application of concepts people pick up in blog posts or half-read books about one person's opinion about how to do a certain thing, represented as gospel. Regarding…

I'm curious, given your feelings, what motivates your (fairly active) participation in the comments section?

Not trying to be snarky, just want to know what people are truly looking for in the comments, because I happen to have a different view of the comments (maybe it's just in the sampling of topics I'm interested in).

Re: Show HN: Visalist – Find visa requirements for countries around the world

#247

Post by thunfischbrot » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 6:22 PM UTC

1hakr wrote: post #109

gnicholas wrote: post #75

Nice looking site. As others have pointed out, it's important to be 100% credible so that people can trust that the results are correct and up-to-date. The overall look of the site is consistent with this, but having "by 1HaKr" in the lower right would be a red flag for some folks who think of "hackers" as exclusively black hat. It would help the site's credibility if you linked to authoritative source documents show…

This is super useful feedback. I will change my name there. There are already links to official government websites. About driving, license, i will add that. Also thanks for pointing out the typo.

I suggest putting the source of information more prominently, and adding links to each piece of information. Especially in more tricky situations, e.g. a Bangladeshi traveling to Israel, it is much more helpful if the additionally mentioned Tip of "Confirmation from Israeli government required before visa is issued" would contain a link at least to the wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh%E2%80%93Israel_rela...

Similarly, I am wondering how to deal with unofficial or temporary information, e.g. Saudi Arabia did not issue visas to Bangladeshi/Pakistani/Nepalese travelers for a while two years ago, without any reason stated or any official information as to why. Similarly there are restrictions which would be great to be included, e.g. an "unaccompanied" female traveler with a muslim sounding name may not receive a visa to Iran, again, without official documentation.

Then there are cases in which a US-visa with at least one entry stamp enables you to travel visa-free (e.g. Georgia) or makes you eligible for visa-on-arrival, similarly e.g. the coverage of an existing Schengen-visa would be great to show you eligibility across the map.

Would you care to put your source into Gitlab.com or Github.com or similar, to enable pull requests from travelers who run into updated information? That would make this a great, constantly updated source of information!

Re: Show HN: Visalist – Find visa requirements for countries around the world

#248

Post by diminoten » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 7:04 PM UTC

wenc wrote: post #246

diminoten wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The comments on HN tend to be so completely out of touch with reality, that it's sometimes hard to separate the wheat from the proverbial chaff. If the negativity was constructive, I'd be with you, but I don't think it is. It's the incorrect or incomplete application of concepts people pick up in blog posts or half-read books about one person's opinion about how to do a certain thing, represented as gospel. Regarding…

I'm curious, given your feelings, what motivates your (fairly active) participation in the comments section? Not trying to be snarky, just want to know what people are truly looking for in the comments, because I happen to have a different view of the comments (maybe it's just in the sampling of topics I'm interested in).

Shouting into the void about the void helps me deal with the void's existence.

Honestly, if I were a completely rational actor, I wouldn't comment on HN.

Besides, I think you'd find the level of comments on HN to be no better than what's on Reddit or Stack Overflow or Quora or Slashdot or Twitter or Facebook or even Google+.

Re: Show HN: Visalist – Find visa requirements for countries around the world

#249

Post by ziont » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 7:15 PM UTC

raverbashing wrote: post #101

ziont wrote: post #99

If you have a Republic of Korea or Singaporean passport, you can get into any country.

I would be very careful with such statements because it's easy to miss a crucial detail. E.g. the limits of ESTA

https://www.passportindex.org/byRank.php

Re: Show HN: Visalist – Find visa requirements for countries around the world

#250

Post by wenc » Mon, Dec 10, 2018, 9:37 PM UTC

diminoten wrote: post #248

wenc wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious, given your feelings, what motivates your (fairly active) participation in the comments section? Not trying to be snarky, just want to know what people are truly looking for in the comments, because I happen to have a different view of the comments (maybe it's just in the sampling of topics I'm interested in).

Shouting into the void about the void helps me deal with the void's existence. Honestly, if I were a completely rational actor, I wouldn't comment on HN. Besides, I think you'd find the level of comments on HN to be no better than what's on Reddit or Stack Overflow or Quora or Slashdot or Twitter or Facebook or even Google+.

I think I see where you're coming from. Humans aren't always rational.

I have a different view. I think the quality of a subset of comments here are appreciably better in some respects than many of the sites you listed. Of course there are contrarian, misinformed pseudointellects, but at the same time, one also gets to hear the unvarnished thoughts of lead developers of specific products (e.g. Timescale, Azure services, D programming language, etc.). I know of no other forum where this is true.

Maybe my mind is used to filtering out stuff I don't care about, so most of the cruft and negativity doesn't really bother me. I also come from an academic tradition where debate and disagreement (high quality or not) is just part of life. To me, it's just a reflection of the world out there -- all forums have their brand of stupidity. HN's just a different kind of stupid from Reddit, and I'm ok with all kinds of stupid as long as there are still good bits that edify me, which is why I keep coming back.

Site(s) like StackOverflow and certain StackExchanges have higher quality exchanges on particular topics, but they aren't designed for discussion. They are heavily constrained Q&A sites. The bar of acceptability is much higher (questions get closed all the time), but the topics also more or less have verifiable answers, which makes it easy to achieve "quality"; this is not true of a general purpose discussion forum. Jeff Atwood (StackOverflow's founder) was interviewed on the MIT AI podcast recently about this, and his answers on how to arrive at high quality online communities were insightful.

Finally, and this is my opinion, the way to counter incorrect and unhelpful discussions isn't to withdraw but to redirect the discussion in more helpful directions by providing correct information and a counterargument. HN is just the aggregate of people who visit it -- the same people have to self-govern it to some extent.