Live data from Hacker News

Solving The Hacker News Problem

al3x.net

121–130 of 284 posts

Re: Solving The Hacker News Problem

#121
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that HN hasn't been overrun by marketing zombies is why I'm not too worried about its direction. If linkbait titles are the big complaint about submissions, it's a good sign.

But it's a slippery slope, right? It's easier to worry now BEFORE marketing zomboids etc. arrive and bombard us.

[deleted]

Re: Solving The Hacker News Problem

#122
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of that sampling, it hit the apex for me with Jan 2009 page. The Mar 2009 page is when there was an influx, and we started posting Erlang stories as a joke to stem the flow.

That Erlamg screenshot is hilarious. Only one story on the front page didn't have Erlang in the title, why HN had been slow...was it due to the amount of Erlang submissions?

The slowdown and Erlangfest was because of a big new influx of users, see pg's post here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=512145

And pg's appeal for sanity: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=512280

Re: Solving The Hacker News Problem

#123
post #91
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It strikes me that a logical step to prevent #2 is "allow only new contributing members that have been vouched for by n old members". Yes, I'm that elitist. And yes, I'm well aware I probably wouldn't get voted in :) But here's the other part - keep the site open for reading . That means it (hopefully) self-selects for quality, and other people can observe a high-quality discussion.

Do you have any examples of a site where treehousing has improved things?

Metafilter is often cited. They have a $5 fee for accounts.

Then again, Something Awful is $10...

Re: Solving The Hacker News Problem

#124
post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any examples of a site where treehousing has improved things?

Metafilter is often cited. They have a $5 fee for accounts. Then again, Something Awful is $10...

That's clubhousing, not treehousing. Treehousing would be putting social barriers on entry. Clubhousing would be financial.

These terms are 100% arbitrary and invented an hour ago, but these seem like good definitions.

Re: Solving The Hacker News Problem

#125
post #7

IMO, a tag system like StackOverflow or Quora seems a good way to go.

Tags concede defeat, fragmenting one dysfunctional community into a whole spectrum of subcommunities. How will we handle the tag for "good enough for '08 Hacker News"?

No, what Reddit does is fragmenting community. How much does the tag system in StackOverflow or Quora fragment them? Tags helped people to somehow filter their already overwhelmed input stream, focus on what they really interest in, and more importantly, ban the items they genuinely don't like to see.

Re: Solving The Hacker News Problem

#126
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Metafilter is often cited. They have a $5 fee for accounts. Then again, Something Awful is $10...

That's clubhousing, not treehousing. Treehousing would be putting social barriers on entry. Clubhousing would be financial. These terms are 100% arbitrary and invented an hour ago, but these seem like good definitions.

Dribbble, then.

Re: Solving The Hacker News Problem

#127
post #49
post #24

I think if we could see random frontpages from days a few years ago, we'd find that the top stories weren't that different, and that there was the same "jack of all trades, master of none" aspect to the site that Alex complains about. It may be that a site whose design spec is to satisfy hackers' intellectual curiosity would necessarily feel that way. Maybe I'll write something to regenerate past front pages, so we c…

It may be that a site whose design spec is to satisfy hackers' intellectual curiosity would necessarily feel that way. As the infamous "How to Become A Hacker" states "The world is full of fascinating problems waiting to be solved"[1]. There is no mention of those problems having to be "deeply technical". I certainly see the tremendous variety of topics that make the homepage of HN as an asset in keeping with the tru…

The non-technical questions on HN have poor associated discussions though. As OPs go further from tech/startups (and towards econ and policy), commenters display a poorer understanding of basic concepts.

Bottom line: sure, hackers care about many problems. But that doesn't make up for the poor discussion quality surrounding many non-tech articles here.

Re: Solving The Hacker News Problem

#128
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's clubhousing, not treehousing. Treehousing would be putting social barriers on entry. Clubhousing would be financial. These terms are 100% arbitrary and invented an hour ago, but these seem like good definitions.

Dribbble, then.

It'll be interesting to see how that model holds up to another 2-3 years. The few invite-based communities I've been a part of started to degrade as the social graph grew out and started to pick up the occasional undesirable.

It was harder to get rid of them because they knew someone who knew someone, and trying to push them out had a network effect. It might be obvious to someone removed by 3+ levels that a bad element is bad, but the person who invited them might not see it.

Re: Solving The Hacker News Problem

#129
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A diff of past front pages would be interesting. Some historical front page entries: 2007AUG15 ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/1119991071/ 2008FEB08 ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/2250089864/ 2009JAN18 ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/3205568708/ 2009MAR12 ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/3347109733/ 2010JUN24 ~ http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/4728476663

Of that sampling, it hit the apex for me with Jan 2009 page. The Mar 2009 page is when there was an influx, and we started posting Erlang stories as a joke to stem the flow.

http://news.ycombinator.com//item?id=512145

Re: Solving The Hacker News Problem

#130
Everyone here has seen this same lifecycle play out at just about every online community there ever was. Doesn't matter whether it was open or closed. It's a fact of life.

The solutions offered are top-down culture modification and just plain don't work. Adapt, and wait for the next HN to come along. You can't stop the train.

Post reply on HN