Ask HN: What's so special about HN? Why do you hang out here? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What's so special about HN? Why do you hang out here?

#11

Post by dvdcxn » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 10:21 AM UTC

stephenr wrote: post #6

There is also https://lobste.rs , and I like their approach more (it's not inherently related to venture capital backed startups, and its much more transparent with the community (i.e. the concept of effectively hiding unpopular opinions does not exist there) Unfortunately, it's also nowhere near as active - possibly because it works on invites and its often hard to find someone who will invite others. Having said th…

Would love an invite if you still have any, seems like a nice place to spend my lunch hour.

Re: Ask HN: What's so special about HN? Why do you hang out here?

#12

Post by dvdcxn » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 10:23 AM UTC

frou_dh wrote: post #9

Low-effort 'humour' comments get downvoted here! Compare to much of reddit, which is to wade through hoards of comedy-slugs attempting to riff off each other.

To be fair I really enjoy reddit's focus on irreverence even if the quality of said irreverence has dropped on the more popular subs in recent years.

Re: Ask HN: What's so special about HN? Why do you hang out here?

#13

Post by mwhuang2 » Thu, Dec 10, 2015, 3:05 PM UTC

It's like a newspaper for techies. The community is also polite and intellectual, and I feel more comfortable here than on other sites.

Re: Ask HN: What's so special about HN? Why do you hang out here?

#14

Post by S4M » Fri, Dec 11, 2015, 1:00 AM UTC

dvdcxn wrote: post #11

stephenr wrote: post #6

There is also https://lobste.rs , and I like their approach more (it's not inherently related to venture capital backed startups, and its much more transparent with the community (i.e. the concept of effectively hiding unpopular opinions does not exist there) Unfortunately, it's also nowhere near as active - possibly because it works on invites and its often hard to find someone who will invite others. Having said th…

Would love an invite if you still have any, seems like a nice place to spend my lunch hour.

I can send you one if you email me (my email is in my profile).

Re: Ask HN: What's so special about HN? Why do you hang out here?

#15

Post by usermac » Fri, Dec 11, 2015, 5:42 PM UTC

S4M wrote: post #14

dvdcxn wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would love an invite if you still have any, seems like a nice place to spend my lunch hour.

I can send you one if you email me (my email is in my profile).

Thank you. Got the invite and signed up. ^_^

Re: Ask HN: What's so special about HN? Why do you hang out here?

#16

Post by mod » Fri, Dec 11, 2015, 11:20 PM UTC

Comments, that's 95% of why I'm here.

I could find the same stories elsewhere with no (or worse) discussion.

Re: Ask HN: What's so special about HN? Why do you hang out here?

#17

Post by eecks » Fri, Dec 11, 2015, 11:23 PM UTC

frou_dh wrote: post #9

Low-effort 'humour' comments get downvoted here! Compare to much of reddit, which is to wade through hoards of comedy-slugs attempting to riff off each other.

This definitely makes reading the comments more interesting. There also seems to be less of a hive mind here.

Re: Ask HN: What's so special about HN? Why do you hang out here?

#18

Post by fisk » Sat, Dec 12, 2015, 12:26 PM UTC

stephenr wrote: post #6

There is also https://lobste.rs , and I like their approach more (it's not inherently related to venture capital backed startups, and its much more transparent with the community (i.e. the concept of effectively hiding unpopular opinions does not exist there) Unfortunately, it's also nowhere near as active - possibly because it works on invites and its often hard to find someone who will invite others. Having said th…

I can see it's a hard problem for lobste.rs to keep the level of discourse high if they let in everyone, but then, yeah, it generally sucks if you would like to add to a conversation and their attitude is "Well, get an invite from one of your friends of course". Because of course I'd be friends with one of the exceedingly modest number of people who have accounts there. It probably seems like a good marketing attitude to them to assume hugeness or the destiny of hugeness, but attitude puts me off somewhat.

But, yes, what you said about not being connected with the whole startup thing which definely draws a certain amount of...amorality to HN.

Re: Ask HN: What's so special about HN? Why do you hang out here?

#19

Post by insoluble » Sun, Dec 13, 2015, 3:51 PM UTC

nonotmeplease wrote: post #3

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #2

Mostly-polite interaction on the content of ideas rather than personal attacks. High signal-to-noise ratio. A fair number of thought-provoking posts from a lot of different angles.

Why is so hard to build a similar community somewhere else? (I don't plan to but...) Suppose I wanted to build a community like HN, how do I proceed?

Strong moderation with clearly defined goals and rules could go a long way, granted you had the resources to back it up long enough for it to become self-sufficient. Stack Exchange has some categories with strong moderation and rules. The problem with SE, in my opinion, is that posting there feels literally like working without being paid. There's almost no fun in posting answers on SE, while there is still a bit of fun posting on HN.

Re: Ask HN: What's so special about HN? Why do you hang out here?

#20

Post by Nicholas_C » Sun, Dec 13, 2015, 9:04 PM UTC

Good discussion. I don't know anything about a many posts here (not a programmer by trade, and barely a hobbyist) and I don't work in startups. But there are a lot of interesting things that are posted here and the intelligent discussion keeps me coming back.