where is he? why is he not posting here? is dang even real? maybe dang is just the acronym for the AI system of a new startup being incubated at YC
He is very much real.
https://blog.ycombinator.com/meet-the-people-taking-over-hac...
Tell HN: Thank You Dang
181–190 of 260 posts
Re: Tell HN: Thank You Dang
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are no communities like this because of Eternal September like phenomena. If HN acquires a million readers tomorrow, it'll be unrecognizable very soon. Nicheness on its own creates valuable communities. Another contributing factor is the 'appalling' UI. I love it, everyone else on HN loves it but an outsider is immediately repelled
I would be interested to know how many active users HN has, maybe it's because I'm in the bubble but I certainly feel like most people I meet who are "online" already know about it. I have certainly noticed "ebbs" of an Eternal September vibe here too, but they quickly dispel and the types of comments that come from it get downvoted anyway, so it's not as noticeable. Regardless, I am so grateful to have a place of me…
You are certainly in a bubble. I've never met another person who knows what HN is, and I'm a data scientist.
Re: Tell HN: Thank You Dang
#183I'm a lurker, just made an account the other day, but have to say - you do awesome work dang - Thank you!
Re: Tell HN: Thank You Dang
#184Thank you dang! In all my years here I needed only once to get in touch with the mod team and it was one of the most pleasant chats I had with any kind of community moderation so far.
Thanks for enforcing the standards of this community through the years, I believe HN might have grown a lot in userbase but the side-effects of that have been pretty minimal so far. This is not an easy task for any online community.
Re: Tell HN: Thank You Dang
#185I once reached out to dang to have a comment deleted and he suggested I keep it because it was constructive and contributed to the community. I was so surprised to suddenly be engaged with a thoughtful and positive person. Thanks dang, that kind of interaction matters. I still appreciate that.
Re: Tell HN: Thank You Dang
#186Impressive how patient and kind dang can stay whilst explaining a tangent.
Dankjewel dang!
Re: Tell HN: Thank You Dang
#187Re: Tell HN: Thank You Dang
#188I'd pitch YC on how to scale dang.
Re: Tell HN: Thank You Dang
#189Thanks Dang!
Re: Tell HN: Thank You Dang
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why aren’t there more of these communities, and if there is I’d like to know.
It is extremely tiring moderating a forum. PG even said it is worst than doing a Startup. And if you have done any sort of public forum moderation, you will know you could get burn out very quickly .
From ~14 to 23, I volunteer moderated some gaming forums (~300k+ user size).
By and large, it wasn't terrible. Most people are nice and some have bad days.
What it did convince me of was the immense value of (a) down-featuring new users & (b) temp-banning.
Most of the trouble stemmed from either new users (by definition, uncultured) or a small subset of toxic users.
Because ultimately, communities are like biological systems, with far too many processes and independent entities going on to be controlled. In environments like that, toxic behavior can be cancerous by convincing others it's acceptable. And by the time you've found the source, multiple people are already acting like that too. Hate breeds hate.
Burn out is real though, mostly because it's a never ending job, and you tend to see a stream of people at their worst.
So thanks, dang et al. I appreciate you on the job, and I appreciate you more staying on the job.