This website isn't even designed to be addictive.
Ask HN: How can HN be more addictive than Reddit?
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Re: Ask HN: How can HN be more addictive than Reddit?
#2Why? Why make it addictive? Why abuse human nature on what is a website run by adults, for adults, and is doing fine without being turned into a raging nest of wasps?
Go away.
Edit: we have lives to live. I personally avoid addictive shit with vengeance.
I quit smoking, I quit alcohol. I quit facebook. I would quit HN if it ever became “addictive” or anything other than the technology safe harbor i find it to currently be.
Yes, I feel strongly about this.
Re: Ask HN: How can HN be more addictive than Reddit?
#3Why do you think it is more addictive ? From my experience Reddit's open voting system is much more addicting.
Re: Ask HN: How can HN be more addictive than Reddit?
#4Why? Why make it addictive? Why abuse human nature on what is a website run by adults, for adults, and is doing fine without being turned into a raging nest of wasps? Go away. Edit: we have lives to live. I personally avoid addictive shit with vengeance. I quit smoking, I quit alcohol. I quit facebook. I would quit HN if it ever became “addictive” or anything other than the technology safe harbor i find it to current…
The OP is not requesting that HN be more addictive. They're asking why it is already.
Re: Ask HN: How can HN be more addictive than Reddit?
#5Any website that employs a karma system uses a positive feedback loop to encourage continual engagement. That, plus the cultural distaste many here have for the "mainstream", particularly social media, leads some to use HN as their primary, if not only, source for both news and online social interaction.
Re: Ask HN: How can HN be more addictive than Reddit?
#6I wouldn't consider either HN or Reddit to be addictive.
I guess it depends on a persons mental state though and if they've anything else going on. Lack of friends in 'real' life etc might lead people to over compensate on platforms like this.
A good read on what makes a product addictive is Hooked: A Guide to Building Habit-Forming Products ( https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hooked-Guide-Building-Habit-Forming... )
Re: Ask HN: How can HN be more addictive than Reddit?
#7I think it’s because FOMO is rampant in tech and HN is the most relevant source for it. It offers the best of all the technology, programming and science subreddits combined with high quality news outlets, and it does so with better moderation.
The thing about Facebook, Reddit and other social media’s is that they aren’t all that interesting. You can only look at so many videos of cats before it gets boring, well maybe not cats, but I think you get my meaning. I think we get used to the SoMe news feed, and unless it does something that is actually relevant, it grows stale.
HN does something relevant, or at least something that feels relevant. I’m not sure it’s really build to be less addictive, because adrenaline is a hell of a drug, but it may not be intentionally addictive.
I see a lot of the same on LinkedIn, which is really, really popular among managers. Or twitter and journalists. FOMO is just an amazing way to keep users coming back, even if it isn’t necessarily a positive experience.
Re: Ask HN: How can HN be more addictive than Reddit?
#8Why? Why make it addictive? Why abuse human nature on what is a website run by adults, for adults, and is doing fine without being turned into a raging nest of wasps? Go away. Edit: we have lives to live. I personally avoid addictive shit with vengeance. I quit smoking, I quit alcohol. I quit facebook. I would quit HN if it ever became “addictive” or anything other than the technology safe harbor i find it to current…
The OP is not requesting that HN be more addictive. They're asking why it is already.
Elizer once said in a blogpost don't click on the link that goes to HN to not create another internet addiction: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/cyzXoCv7nagDWCMNS/you-re-cal... and that was 10 years ago. Looking back on what I've done all year seems like I sent hours and hours on reddit and HN basically doing nothing.
Re: Ask HN: How can HN be more addictive than Reddit?
#9I think it’s because FOMO is rampant in tech and HN is the most relevant source for it. It offers the best of all the technology, programming and science subreddits combined with high quality news outlets, and it does so with better moderation. The thing about Facebook, Reddit and other social media’s is that they aren’t all that interesting. You can only look at so many videos of cats before it gets boring, well may…
Well, HN does do something, it's currently the highest level of discourse I know of on the internet today. The greatest pearl to muck ratio one could say. I agree the quality has declined in recent years, as these things do with popularity, but the fact remains. Until something better comes along, I'll keep scanning here to find the pearls among the muck. And contribute my own when I can.
Re: Ask HN: How can HN be more addictive than Reddit?
#10Any website that employs a karma system uses a positive feedback loop to encourage continual engagement. That, plus the cultural distaste many here have for the "mainstream", particularly social media, leads some to use HN as their primary, if not only, source for both news and online social interaction.
Or It will create a culture of the single thought.
It happened to me for not being nice with the U.S. while bad talks about EU is widely accepted
After two years I'm still shadowbanned for no real reason...