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Ask HN: Longer Discussions in HN?

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Re: Ask HN: Longer Discussions in HN?

#131

Post by lolinder »

marojejian wrote: post #130
lolinder wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YC and dang's approach to HN seems to be more or less this: "Somehow we stumbled upon a system that really works. We don't know why it does, but it does, and so we don't want to change things too much too fast lest we break it." And honestly, I love that approach. In my time on HN features have rolled out slowly, and you can tell that they were selected very carefully as being important quality of life improvements t…

This may be true. But I think the greater value of HN is in fact the community: the set of people who use it and the norms that have emerged, more than the features. I think encouraging more "slow" conversation would improve this community, and it would not be too risky to test out more default comments notification. I use HN replies (and RSS)... but very few others do, so the the change of getting a reply to this co…

Hi! I don't use HN replies, but I do go back and check my less-than-day-old comments.

When I say a system, I'm including everything, including the community. It's not any one part of HN, it's the way all the parts interact. Seemingly small changes can have a dramatic impact on the way the system operates, which includes the community. Suddenly different voices become amplified while others feel marginalized, and it's hard to predict if that will be a good outcome.

I'm not saying that it would for sure be a problem, but I sympathize with dang wanting to be very careful before introducing something like that.

Re: Ask HN: Longer Discussions in HN?

#132

Post by 1123581321 »

college_physics wrote: post #82

This points to a more general problem with all online discussion forums: The signal to noise varies (and may on occasionally be zero) but in the end all the signal is lost / buried deep into some archive (like tears in rain if you want to be melodramatic about it). Think about those millions of people, interacting for billions of hours online over almost two decades now. What is there to show for it at the end of the…

Google (and now Open AI, I suppose) are excellent at surfacing those old discussions.

Forum software like Discourse also reliably brings them up in an effort to avoid deduplication of discussion.

The best discussions are also springboards for articles, books, and sometimes whole companies.

Re: Ask HN: Longer Discussions in HN?

#133

Post by marymkearney »

I understand the sentiment also. It's the flip side of high-quality focused attention on the topic of the day: The resurrection of our high-quality focused attention on the topic of yore.

Past HN threads on evergreen topics do have a very long tail. I'm still getting inquiries in my area of expertise* about items I posted on HN 5 years ago. I really appreciate this and my inquirers do too.

H/T to dang for curating all this. Thank you.

*US extraordinary-ability visas for engineers / tech industry.

Re: Ask HN: Longer Discussions in HN?

#134

Post by ravagat »

I get the sentiment. And I think you should feel encouraged to repost the thing that interested you. That's one of the things I've found good about HN. Some really old, obscure posts/topics get reposted and I get to discover/re-discover them. Another way to tackle this is possibly write a blog post around your topic of interest then link it here. In one way you invite longer discussion while allowing rediscovery for any previous commenters. You should try it

Re: Ask HN: Longer Discussions in HN?

#135

Post by ravagat »

marymkearney wrote: post #133

I understand the sentiment also. It's the flip side of high-quality focused attention on the topic of the day: The resurrection of our high-quality focused attention on the topic of yore. Past HN threads on evergreen topics do have a very long tail. I'm still getting inquiries in my area of expertise* about items I posted on HN 5 years ago. I really appreciate this and my inquirers do too. H/T to dang for curating al…

Hi Mary! Good to see you active here. You're website has been a huge help for me, thanks for sharing the right information

Re: Ask HN: Longer Discussions in HN?

#136

Post by college_physics »

1123581321 wrote: post #132
college_physics wrote: post #82

This points to a more general problem with all online discussion forums: The signal to noise varies (and may on occasionally be zero) but in the end all the signal is lost / buried deep into some archive (like tears in rain if you want to be melodramatic about it). Think about those millions of people, interacting for billions of hours online over almost two decades now. What is there to show for it at the end of the…

Google (and now Open AI, I suppose) are excellent at surfacing those old discussions. Forum software like Discourse also reliably brings them up in an effort to avoid deduplication of discussion. The best discussions are also springboards for articles, books, and sometimes whole companies.

Search is indeed the only tool we have now to salvage all this body of content, but it is limited: you need to have a 'prompt' (using modern terminology :-).

It is closer to a book index than a table of contents (to use older information technology tools) but one where the whole index is not accessible.

Re: Ask HN: Longer Discussions in HN?

#138

Post by bhaak »

tsol wrote: post #127
avemg wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As Raylan Givens once said: If you ran into an asshole in the morning, well, you ran into an asshole. Keep running into assholes all day, you're the asshole. I've been on reddit since before subreddits existed and I've never been banned. Now I'm sure you've had your run-ins with some unhinged mods now and then but to be banned 100 times, you should probably take an honest look at your own behavior.

>As Raylan Givens once said: If you ran into an asshole in the morning, well, you ran into an asshole. Keep running into assholes all day, you're the asshole. Has this person never been around a group of assholes for more than a few hours at a time? Some places are toxic and attract toxic personalities. Reddit is one of those places(the internet as a whole, really)

If you are in a place full of assholes how likely are the chances that you aren't also one?

Re: Ask HN: Longer Discussions in HN?

#139

Post by arp242 »

mancerayder wrote: post #129
Tycho wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use the word Reddit as a pejorative. “I stopped watching after the second season. The writing had become so reddit.” “The steak itself was good but this sauce is a bit reddit.” “Rose Street is a good night out but Raeburn Place is completely reddit.”

I just invented one: "Redditsplain" v. "To make confident, even angry assertions about facts without a strong backing, but in a literary and well-reasoned style. To make bold statements about a subject where one is still a dilettante."

This is hardly unique to Reddit, and happens on HN as well.
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