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Show HN: Search for a domain expert on Reddit

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Re: Show HN: Search for a domain expert on Reddit

#21

Post by fhood »

gepoch wrote: post #9
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #6

This tool is interesting but it is fundamentally an exercise in turd polishing because Reddit is a completely terrible place to get "expert" advice. It's designed to be a place for show and tell with commentary and false appearance of consensus. If you want expert advice you should be asking for it somewhere that's properly formatted for long form discussion. You should also seek out advice in a specialized community…

Calling people hipsters is the most hipster thing of all. Source: am a hipster.

I thought the most hipster thing was hating stuff that is popular.

Re: Show HN: Search for a domain expert on Reddit

#22

Post by iamdave »

fhood wrote: post #20
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #6

This tool is interesting but it is fundamentally an exercise in turd polishing because Reddit is a completely terrible place to get "expert" advice. It's designed to be a place for show and tell with commentary and false appearance of consensus. If you want expert advice you should be asking for it somewhere that's properly formatted for long form discussion. You should also seek out advice in a specialized community…

Sigh. Reddit is not a completely terrible place to get expert advice. Yes, there is a great deal of awful advice to be found there. But there are also a fair number of subreddits that are the primary gathering place for that community, and thus the best place to go for advice on that topic. When I google something non-programming related, the correct answer is very frequently found in a Reddit post. Reddit isn't usua…

But there are also a fair number of subreddits that are the primary gathering place for that community, and thus the best place to go for advice on that topic.

With absolutely no way to vet, verify or validate anyone who proclaims to be the expert they say they are outside of asking, and hoping what you get isn't a complete fabrication.

Re: Show HN: Search for a domain expert on Reddit

#23

Post by toomuchtodo »

iamdave wrote: post #22
fhood wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sigh. Reddit is not a completely terrible place to get expert advice. Yes, there is a great deal of awful advice to be found there. But there are also a fair number of subreddits that are the primary gathering place for that community, and thus the best place to go for advice on that topic. When I google something non-programming related, the correct answer is very frequently found in a Reddit post. Reddit isn't usua…

But there are also a fair number of subreddits that are the primary gathering place for that community, and thus the best place to go for advice on that topic. With absolutely no way to vet, verify or validate anyone who proclaims to be the expert they say they are outside of asking, and hoping what you get isn't a complete fabrication.

Could you not generate an "expert score" by comparing expert candidates with open data sources for domain expertise?

Re: Show HN: Search for a domain expert on Reddit

#24

Post by iamdave »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #23
iamdave wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But there are also a fair number of subreddits that are the primary gathering place for that community, and thus the best place to go for advice on that topic. With absolutely no way to vet, verify or validate anyone who proclaims to be the expert they say they are outside of asking, and hoping what you get isn't a complete fabrication.

Could you not generate an "expert score" by comparing expert candidates with open data sources for domain expertise?

That's a really good question, the closest thing to this I think is the 'delta' feature on /r/changemyview. How do you see something like that operating in the reddit ecosystem?

Re: Show HN: Search for a domain expert on Reddit

#25

Post by toomuchtodo »

Balero wrote: post #15
acconrad wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is anyone aware of a catalogue that houses all of the various forum domains? For example, if you want to seek fashion advice, probably better to head over to StyleForum instead of /r/malefashionadvice (or HypeBeast for streetwear). I know someone asked on here recently for investing forums and were pointed to Corner of Berkshire and Fairfax (as well as /r/securityanalysis) but that is indeed better than /r/investing…

I think r/wallstreetbest is supposed to be garbage, but with lots of in jokes.

/r/wallstreetbets is a bunch of intelligent investors pretending to be ignorant, and a bunch of ignorant investors pretending to be knowledgeable.

I made a tidy profit off of someone's SPY options play they offered up as a post yesterday in /r/wsb, and they showed their work (proper due diligence on the why). It's not all fun and laughs in there.

Re: Show HN: Search for a domain expert on Reddit

#26

Post by wenc »

fhood wrote: post #20
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #6

This tool is interesting but it is fundamentally an exercise in turd polishing because Reddit is a completely terrible place to get "expert" advice. It's designed to be a place for show and tell with commentary and false appearance of consensus. If you want expert advice you should be asking for it somewhere that's properly formatted for long form discussion. You should also seek out advice in a specialized community…

Sigh. Reddit is not a completely terrible place to get expert advice. Yes, there is a great deal of awful advice to be found there. But there are also a fair number of subreddits that are the primary gathering place for that community, and thus the best place to go for advice on that topic. When I google something non-programming related, the correct answer is very frequently found in a Reddit post. Reddit isn't usua…

I hang out on Reddit, and I sometimes come across surprisingly insightful commentary on technical subjects that I don't see on StackOverflow or Quora or even HN.

The experts are there. That said, Reddit does skew heavily to mediocre "bros", so the signal-to-noise ratio is low [1].

But for discussions on cities, neighborhoods and even certain technical topics, Reddit seems to be where knowledgeable people congregate.

[1] Some subreddits like r/bigdata are complete garbage filled with spammers and Dunning-Krugers.

Re: Show HN: Search for a domain expert on Reddit

#27

Post by PascLeRasc »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #6

This tool is interesting but it is fundamentally an exercise in turd polishing because Reddit is a completely terrible place to get "expert" advice. It's designed to be a place for show and tell with commentary and false appearance of consensus. If you want expert advice you should be asking for it somewhere that's properly formatted for long form discussion. You should also seek out advice in a specialized community…

Anecdata: I searched for "embedded" and found this guy who writes a lot of really great content that seems to go unnoticed: https://www.reddit.com/user/pinealservo

Re: Show HN: Search for a domain expert on Reddit

#29

Post by forgottenpass »

klohto wrote: post #5

Everyone I searched for have an unhappy mood...

Semantic analysis belongs to the third category in "lies, damn lies, and statistics."

I'm sure it's slightly better for Metacortex's real use case - which is an employee surveillance system - because people won't use strong language, hyperbole, share their real opinions, or talk about certain topics as much in professional communication. But I still find the whole domain to be a fraud with just enough signal in the noise to trick people.

Re: Show HN: Search for a domain expert on Reddit

#30

Post by PascLeRasc »

fhood wrote: post #20
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #6

This tool is interesting but it is fundamentally an exercise in turd polishing because Reddit is a completely terrible place to get "expert" advice. It's designed to be a place for show and tell with commentary and false appearance of consensus. If you want expert advice you should be asking for it somewhere that's properly formatted for long form discussion. You should also seek out advice in a specialized community…

Sigh. Reddit is not a completely terrible place to get expert advice. Yes, there is a great deal of awful advice to be found there. But there are also a fair number of subreddits that are the primary gathering place for that community, and thus the best place to go for advice on that topic. When I google something non-programming related, the correct answer is very frequently found in a Reddit post. Reddit isn't usua…

Reddit's the best way to get lots of real people's opinions of stuff. Search for "best Windows backup tool" and you get a pile of sponsored pages and fake recommendation sites, and probably some malware. Search for "best Windows backup tool site:reddit.com" and you get people posting in sysadmin communities having real discussion.
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