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I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore

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Re: I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore

#331

Post by dchuk »

dchuk wrote: post #27
foolofatom wrote: post #13

I think the internet is less fun now -- I can't decide if its from maturation of technology or maturation of people though. (Has anyone else felt like things became less fun as they got older?) I felt a greater sense of community 10 years ago when I mostly used IRC and PHP BBs. The communities were smaller, and it was fun even if you disliked people. Flame wars and trolling were mostly for the audience's amusement, b…

I’ve actually been thinking about this recently, as I was also a heavy forum user back in the day. Why don’t we just start a forum for the HN crowd? Not a new interpretation of the forum model or anything like that, literally any instance of vbulletin or phpbb or something comparable and “traditional”. If people are genuinely interested in this, I would be up for spinning something up over the weekend.

UPDATE: Got something up and running here: https://hackerforums.co/

I've tweaked it a bunch, but I'm sure there's a lot more to do. Please take a look if you're still following this HN thread...I'll post a Show HN in the morning for this.

I also have a post with my notes from setting this thing up...suffice to say that DigitalOcean's 1 click installer requires a few more clicks...

Re: I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore

#332

Post by dchuk »

pbowyer wrote: post #152
dchuk wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN is quite different from forums because of the temporal nature of the content, the voting, and the threaded comments. Forums can foster very long running discussions, HN isn't really meant for that. Also, there are all the components of user profiles/messaging/signatures/etc that HN completely omits (which is totally fine, but something forums are known for that HN probably will never have).

> Forums can foster very long running discussions This. This is the element the 'modern web' has forgotten in its rush to 'new', 'realtime' and 'current' content. Just because a conversation happened weeks (or months, or years) ago doesn't mean it's not relevant now. Google search results appear to favour 'fresh' over 'stale'; yet it doesn't say the content is any better, or more useful to me. Hacker news has some aw…

Just so you know, I setup a site here for this experiment: https://hackerforums.co

I'll get a Show HN going tomorrow!

Re: I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore

#333

Post by dchuk »

dougmwne wrote: post #262
dchuk wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve actually been thinking about this recently, as I was also a heavy forum user back in the day. Why don’t we just start a forum for the HN crowd? Not a new interpretation of the forum model or anything like that, literally any instance of vbulletin or phpbb or something comparable and “traditional”. If people are genuinely interested in this, I would be up for spinning something up over the weekend.

I really wish we could get this set up, maybe even with some official ycombinator promotion. In my mind HN is the last really great group of strangers on the internet. I have learned so much from these comments sections and I've frequently read someone's post and connected with it to the point where I wish I could sit down for a cup of coffee or a beer. Unfortunately, without community features it feels like slipping…

Just so you know, I setup a site here for this experiment: https://hackerforums.co

I'll get a Show HN going tomorrow!

Re: I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore

#334

Post by dchuk »

CalRobert wrote: post #284
dchuk wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve actually been thinking about this recently, as I was also a heavy forum user back in the day. Why don’t we just start a forum for the HN crowd? Not a new interpretation of the forum model or anything like that, literally any instance of vbulletin or phpbb or something comparable and “traditional”. If people are genuinely interested in this, I would be up for spinning something up over the weekend.

Is there anywhere we can see this progress? I suppose I'll see this comment of mine when I look in HN (I do often) but would love to know when anything is up and running. BTW, I'd strongly, strongly discourage vBulletin.

Here you go! I'm sure it still needs tweaks, but it's a start: https://hackerforums.co

Re: I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore

#335

Post by dchuk »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #30
dchuk wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve actually been thinking about this recently, as I was also a heavy forum user back in the day. Why don’t we just start a forum for the HN crowd? Not a new interpretation of the forum model or anything like that, literally any instance of vbulletin or phpbb or something comparable and “traditional”. If people are genuinely interested in this, I would be up for spinning something up over the weekend.

That could be interesting.

Check it out! https://hackerforums.co/

Re: I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore

#336

Post by dchuk »

handsomechad wrote: post #160
dchuk wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve actually been thinking about this recently, as I was also a heavy forum user back in the day. Why don’t we just start a forum for the HN crowd? Not a new interpretation of the forum model or anything like that, literally any instance of vbulletin or phpbb or something comparable and “traditional”. If people are genuinely interested in this, I would be up for spinning something up over the weekend.

I think it's a really good idea. At least the spirit of it is correct - HN is a unique community which really helps me crowdsource a lot of wisdom and knowledge, and I think the pseudonymity and ephemerality is a feature more than a bug, but , it would be great to have longer running discussions that aren't swiftly superseded by the next days hot posts, and to have the freedom to post things/quesetions without the fe…

Check it out here! https://hackerforums.co/

Re: I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore

#337

Post by dchuk »

tluyben2 wrote: post #104
dchuk wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think to kick things off it will be best to allow anyone to sign up and potentially lock it down in the future if things get out of hand. Usually forums have features like limiting new thread creation to users with enough karma/comments, so that can help a bit in keeping quality up.

Drop me an email if you need help anyway. I tried many existing options and have not found any good so far.

Here it is! https://hackerforums.co/

Re: I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore

#338

Post by sneak »

pmoriarty wrote: post #40
cityzen wrote: post #6

I have been saying I've "reached the end of the internet" for awhile now. I am 44 and have been working on the web since mid 90s. I remember so much cool stuff from then. Trying to get a 56k modem to work, dealing with the fact that you couldn't always get online or if you did you could get kicked off at any time. I remember streaming the Tibetan Freedom Concert with realplayer back in '98. The first mp3 i got, napst…

"Now it just seems like every website online is trying to steal and sell your data." I remember the days before the Morris Worm, the days before we were all drowning in malware, before you had to worry about your bank account being hacked in to, before your personal data stood a good chance of being leaked, stolen, or held for ransom, before the corporate/government gold rush for profit, spying, and control. Spam and…

> Maybe I'm just remembering the past through rose-colored nostalgia glasses, but it seemed back in those days the internet was a mostly positive place -- or at least not a hostile one where you had to constantly watch your back and pretend to be who you weren't lest records of your past come back to haunt you.

It's because back then the internet came with built-in socioeconomic, gender, and racial barriers, due to the expense and location of network access.

These types of things are going to happen whenever you put billions of people on a network. The early internet was not a cake slice; it was basically just rich white dudes with graduate degrees.

We have to deal with the crap that humanity generates regardless; it's not an issue of growth. Within a generation every human alive will be on the network. Let's plan and build for that future.

Re: I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore

#339

Post by gsich »

kuschku wrote: post #328
gsich wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok, so normal gaming experience in those kind of games. Take Dota, which wastes the time (40+ mins, compared to the 20-30) of 4 players if one is an idiot. Of course you'll get flamed for it.

Sure, but it leads to a community that gets very quickly very angry at tiny things (because of the expectation that the person will ruin their day), and as a result those who don’t want to deal with that leave the community. Left is a group of people that react very angry very quickly, even out of the game.

I don't think that the majority of those players get angry outside the game.

Re: I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore

#340

Post by whoaminow »

dpark wrote: post #273
pmlnr wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Internet data connection might be mainstream, but Internet, as in websites, blogs, genuine, independent content, is really not. There are places where the internet is Facebook. I remember times when the internet was a blue E on the desktop, but at least that really did take people to the internet, and not a walled garden.

The idea that the Internet is just Facebook for most people is absurd. Yes, there exist people who essentially only use Facebook, but this is not the norm. Google is worth 755 billion dollars, and they didn’t get there just by being the easiest way to find Facebook. Pinterest has amassed a 12 billion dollar valuation just for managing to insert themselves between Google search results and a the billion blogs you thin…

Actually it's not that absurd, Facebook has deals with mobile carriers which gives the users cheaper or even free access to Facebook compare to other "normal websites and apps".
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