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Would this community prefer to be under the radar?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Would this community prefer to be under the radar?

#21

Post by derefr »

staunch wrote: post #18
jey wrote: post #7

Yes, because TechCrunch has nothing to do with hacking. But the other posters are definitely right: this is an inevitable problem and it would be nice to have a more organic solution. I've been trying to read and vote on the "new" page more.

> Yes, because TechCrunch has nothing to do with hacking. Techcrunch is read by a huge percentage of all hackers working on tech startups. This site was previous called "Startup News". I think the TC audience is very well suited.

Let me re-quote the grandparent post for you, perhaps removing a bit of subtlety in the process:

> Yes, because TechCrunch has nothing at all whatsoever to do with hacking (rolls eyes)

Re: Would this community prefer to be under the radar?

#22

Post by aquarin »

SwellJoe wrote: post #8

It'll grow regardless. And, the kind of people that will actually stick around tend to be the kind of people we want to be here. The rest will wander off...back to digg, over to reddit, whatever. Thanks for asking, though. Now it's pg's job to figure out how to programmatically maintain the high quality of results. I still want one down-vote per week for stories...sometimes a story shows up that makes me feel ill to…

How about spending karma points as votes?

Re: Would this community prefer to be under the radar?

#24

Post by ROFISH »

aquarin wrote: post #22
SwellJoe wrote: post #8

It'll grow regardless. And, the kind of people that will actually stick around tend to be the kind of people we want to be here. The rest will wander off...back to digg, over to reddit, whatever. Thanks for asking, though. Now it's pg's job to figure out how to programmatically maintain the high quality of results. I still want one down-vote per week for stories...sometimes a story shows up that makes me feel ill to…

How about spending karma points as votes?

No. I've had experiences where people gain 'karma' by being nice, only so they can troll some more. ('But I'll be nice this time, I promise!')

Re: Would this community prefer to be under the radar?

#25

Post by moog »

I don't think a site like this can remain occult forever. When you consider the name is 'Hacker News' it's surprising it hasn't been swamped already with spam and adolescent comments. Perhaps a high quality community forum like this has a limited life span. It's a depressing thought, but I know if anyone can fix it, then pg can!

Re: Would this community prefer to be under the radar?

#26

Post by murrayh »

derefr wrote: post #20
murrayh wrote: post #12

Security by obscurity is not really security at all. Perhaps the TechCrunch exposure has hurt the site in the short term, but if Hacker News can get through these growing pains it will be presumably better off in the long run. The problem as I see it is not the size of the community but the concentration of thinkers. It doesn't really matter what articles make it to the front page; if the comments start filling up wi…

When it comes to so-called "public knowledge," obscurity (and more largely, apathy) is the only kind of security there is. All websites eventually die (or, at least, all that I have observed); you can't "keep a community alive" so much as you can just let it die peacefully, leaving its children (perhaps under the same ownership!) to continue its legacy.

It is irrelevant whether or not obscurity is the only kind of protection available; obscurity is temporary and only needs to be defeated once. Furthermore, obscurity is not the only kind of security there is: Benevolent moderation is another form of protecting a community. And even if obscurity was the only kind of security available, we could simply invent a new kind of security.

I am unaware of any websites that have "died". I assume you refer to the digg.com and reddit.com exoduses that are so often brought up. Comparing those two sites to Hacker News is not comparing apples to apples. The commercial purpose of those sites is to sell advertisement space to advertisers, so trading a small group of thinkers in favor of a large group of more advertisement friendly users makes commercial sense. Hacker News, on the other hand, probably has the commercial purpose of driving business to YCombinator. It is in Hacker News' best interest to keep the small group of thinkers in favour of the larger population. So there is good reason to believe that Hacker News will be able to overcome these growing pains and be a community for the thinkers for awhile yet.

Re: Would this community prefer to be under the radar?

#27

Post by jsjenkins168 »

jeremiah wrote: post #23

I think it is somewhat presumptuous of techcrunch to consider themselves as determining what is under or over the radar, as the metaphor goes. Techcrunch has less influence that it supposes.

It may seem presumptuous, but it is undeniable techcrunch has considerable influence.

My only concern is that knowing certain important people from TC now read HN, there might be an influx of spam from people looking for attention. Especially now that everyone knows it is possible get TC coverage by posting here.

This would only be a bad thing though if the "hey look at me!" spam really got out of hand. Otherwise, I really like reading about peoples startup projects (as I'm sure Arrington and others do too), as long as the intent is genuine.

Re: Would this community prefer to be under the radar?

#29

Post by troppo »

ROFISH wrote: post #24
aquarin wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about spending karma points as votes?

No. I've had experiences where people gain 'karma' by being nice, only so they can troll some more. ('But I'll be nice this time, I promise!')

This is also known as the "Slashdot game".

Re: Would this community prefer to be under the radar?

#30

Post by samwise »

pg wrote: post #3
Raphael wrote: post #2

How do we know you're the real Techcrunch? Well, it's too late anyway. The cat is out of the bag. Besides, if no one had talked about it, I never would have found it, so you have my blessing.

It's the real TechCrunch. I don't mind. Traffic had been growing pretty constantly at about 5x per year anway, so we'd have had to deal with this problem eventually.

I find it odd that you even consider it's a problem. It's odd to hear a founder consider a site growing a problem.

The metrics to handle the "problem" should have been addressed during the conception stage of the site. I would be surprised if simple administration could fix the trend.

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