Why I stopped reading HN (2010) • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I stopped reading HN (2010)

#51

Post by harryf » Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 9:19 AM UTC

RubenvanE wrote: post #32

These sentiments are quite familiar to me. That's why I've been building my own HN copy ( https://hackerdaily.io ). It shows all posts per day, which has a few benefits: 1. It doesn't become an addictive slot machine that updates every minute. 2. The conversations have already happened, which makes it easier to see which threads are interesting and informative and which are not. It also uses an outline.com like style…

Gotta say Hackerdaily is impressive. Where you pre-load the article for some sites, is that RSS you're using or something else?

Also any chance you'd share the source for this?

Re: Why I stopped reading HN (2010)

#52

Post by eightails » Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 9:20 AM UTC

It's interesting reading this because I've recently been trying to wean myself off Reddit for the similar reasons, and one of the communities I have used to replace it has been HN -- because (in my experience) HN generally tends to avoid the issues in the way discussions play out characterised by this article.

It's worth remembering that a forum completely devoid of 'bad arguments' is realistically never going to happen. I guess (as the author notes) it's a matter of 'personal thresholds'.

Re: Why I stopped reading HN (2010)

#53

Post by greggman3 » Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 9:20 AM UTC

harryf wrote: post #43

kstenerud wrote: post #33

All forums ossify after enough time has passed and the initial population has been crowded out. People come to these places for various reasons: - To debate - To learn - To engage intellectually with other people - To be heard/validated - To gain social standing The problem is (like all human forums) that as the included population rises, you need to make a bigger and bigger splash to be heard, and that means that af…

> the initial population has been crowded out I'm going to dare say it but Hackernews is no longer really populated by hackers, or at least it's not bleeding edge when it comes to programming. One example... the number of posts like "Show HN: Here's a thing I made" ... where the first comments is "Here's a link to a product that has been out for 10+ years that does what you just built and 100 times more" My gut feeli…

I'm not sure what your point was? It sounds like you want to see links to stuff like

"Show HN: Here's my first program"

    10 PRINT "My Name"
    20 GOTO 10

I guess I always assumed Hacker "News" means it's something semi news worthy. A "Show HN" that's some new programmer implementing their first version of X even though X has been around for years isn't "news" unless they have some novel approach.

Re: Why I stopped reading HN (2010)

#54

Post by RubenvanE » Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 9:20 AM UTC

rane wrote: post #44

RubenvanE wrote: post #32

These sentiments are quite familiar to me. That's why I've been building my own HN copy ( https://hackerdaily.io ). It shows all posts per day, which has a few benefits: 1. It doesn't become an addictive slot machine that updates every minute. 2. The conversations have already happened, which makes it easier to see which threads are interesting and informative and which are not. It also uses an outline.com like style…

The second point is great one. Occasionally I have to stop reading HN and leave the tab open for a day because I want to read the conversation in full instead of rereading again later trying to figure out which comments are new.

I had the exact same problem. There are a lot of interesting discussions, but its way easier to distinguish the interesting from the useless discussions when they're done instead of ongoing. I find that I read more carefully and focused when the discussion are already crystallized, instead of just browsing the latest discussions for some dopamine.

Re: Why I stopped reading HN (2010)

#55

Post by CharlesMerriam2 » Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 9:20 AM UTC

Stories need to be good, and that's a problem. Right now, the HN community is voting up more "pop science" to drive people to paywalls. I don't know if its a troll farm or a side revenue, but the number of nytimes.com, businessinsider.com, etc. stories keeps rising.

Re: Why I stopped reading HN (2010)

#56

Post by RubenvanE » Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 9:22 AM UTC

harryf wrote: post #51

RubenvanE wrote: post #32

These sentiments are quite familiar to me. That's why I've been building my own HN copy ( https://hackerdaily.io ). It shows all posts per day, which has a few benefits: 1. It doesn't become an addictive slot machine that updates every minute. 2. The conversations have already happened, which makes it easier to see which threads are interesting and informative and which are not. It also uses an outline.com like style…

Gotta say Hackerdaily is impressive. Where you pre-load the article for some sites, is that RSS you're using or something else? Also any chance you'd share the source for this?

Thank you! I mainly build it to learn GraphQL and Postgres for myself. But if people are interested, I could share the source in the future.

Re: Why I stopped reading HN (2010)

#57

Post by rntksi » Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 9:22 AM UTC

The author is actually still reading HN: https://sealedabstract.com/posts/metapolitics/

Re: Why I stopped reading HN (2010)

#58

Post by elorant » Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 9:22 AM UTC

benjaminjosephw wrote: post #46

I think it's pretty clear that increasing scale is the driver for the degradation of thoughtful connections between users. The past 20 years of the internet has been one big experiment in human communities where interactions are faceless and it has becoming increasingly difficult to imagine who you're speaking to. It's also often impossible to guess how many people will see what you post and much much harder to guess…

On the other hand, it's the diversity of the users that make HN so much interesting. I've happened upon comments made from neurosurgeons, experts in carpeting, electrical engineers, naval architects, aerospace engineers etc. Where else on the Internet can you find such a diversified group of knowledgeable individuals where you can talk in a civilized manner? For me HN is the most significant place on the web and we must cherish it for what it offers.

Re: Why I stopped reading HN (2010)

#59

Post by doublesCs » Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 9:23 AM UTC

He's right. I'm done here. Good bye.

Re: Why I stopped reading HN (2010)

#60

Post by DyslexicAtheist » Thu, Oct 08, 2020, 9:24 AM UTC

gherkinnn wrote: post #15

LeCow wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ditto. On Reddit even a percieved differing opinion results in hate mail, insulting and shouting. It's one of the reasons I never signed up to Twitter.

Twitter has to be the worst major platform. It is a rollercoaster of misery, disgust, and annoyance. And there isn’t even a proverbial nugget in the turd to make it worth it.

I got rid of twitter for exactly the reasons you mentioned and the for what it did to my inner well-being. There are some accounts that I've enjoyed following and even after leaving the platform I still use the RSS feed of nitter.net for these to browse these posts. No doubt that if I'd sign up again even with an intention not to post myself and only to lurk, I'd get sucked into toxic discussions within less than a week. nitter gives me the distance I need to consume the content (on my terms) without risking addiction or potentially contributing to the toxicity myself.