Ask HN: Do you tell other people about HN?

#1

Post by viggity » Sun, Nov 23, 2008, 3:39 PM UTC

I've been very hesitant to tell any of my friends about HN. I've seen the kind of content that gets generated when the community population explodes, and I'd really hate to see that happen here. It's not that I don't trust my friend's content, I don't trust their friend's content.

I know the HN has generally rebuffed off-topic material, but at the same time it still shows up. Should the broken window theory or a video of a meteor really be on the front page today? Its not that I don't enjoy that content, but allowing some of it is a slippery slope and before you know it we could be seeing posts that stipulate that Karl Rove eats deep fried baby flesh.

So HN, what do you think?

Re: Ask HN: Do you tell other people about HN?

#2

Post by beaudeal » Sun, Nov 23, 2008, 4:11 PM UTC

As far as telling other people goes, I find that HN comes up most often when I tell my friends about the interesting stories I find here. The reaction from non-technical people is usually something to the effect of: "Where the hell do you find this stuff??" The reaction from technical people is usually something like: "Yeah, I already read that on HN." With regards to the first group, it seems that they always find the stories interesting, but never show any signs that they'll make HN one of their news sources, and I'm fine with that.

For me, things such as the meteor video or an article about the Broken Windows Theory are fine, and I don't foresee any "Karl Rove eats deep fried baby flesh" articles soon, but I'd like to keep it that way. The community at HN is the root of the reason I keep coming back.

Re: Ask HN: Do you tell other people about HN?

#3

Post by WarTheatre » Sun, Nov 23, 2008, 4:23 PM UTC

I'm also cautious about writing about HN on various communities I visit simply because I fear it would attract the wrong crowds, e.g. spammers, trolls and your average eternal septemberists.

Right now HN is a great community for startups, Internet businesses, developers, designers, and entrepreneurs. The signal to noise ratio is very high and discussions are relevant, mostly civil and very interesting. Heck, I can't name another site with so much relevant content for Internet businesses.

Furthermore, I think it's perfectly fine that HN remains a relatively small and focus community, not every site must be like Digg or Slashdot in size.

Regards, WarTheatre

Re: Ask HN: Do you tell other people about HN?

#4

Post by jsmcgd » Sun, Nov 23, 2008, 4:24 PM UTC

I tell people about it but most people aren't interested. I think they're happy to let me be their geek news filter, or perhaps they're just humoring me. Either way I think the aesthetics of the site go a long way to keep out wrong people.

Re: Ask HN: Do you tell other people about HN?

#5

Post by pg » Sun, Nov 23, 2008, 4:39 PM UTC

Yes, I tell smart people. If their friends' friends submit stuff that's offtopic, the editors just kill it. Though in fact I think our strongest defense against idiots is to look boring to them.

Incidentally, the broken windows story isn't offtopic. News.YC isn't just about hacking, because good hackers aren't only interested in hacking.

Re: Ask HN: Do you tell other people about HN?

#6

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Nov 23, 2008, 4:51 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Do you tell other people about HN?

#7

Post by Alex3917 » Sun, Nov 23, 2008, 4:56 PM UTC

None of my friends would like it. As unscientific as the Meyers-Briggs test is, I really do think this site appeals mostly to a small subset of XNTPs. And there aren't that many of those around.

Re: Ask HN: Do you tell other people about HN?

#8

Post by ig1 » Sun, Nov 23, 2008, 5:01 PM UTC

Have a look at the comments on the broken window theory post, a lot of them are about the applicability of the theory to online social sites, something which is very on-topic on HN. Just because an article isn't inherently startupish, it doesn't mean that it's not relevent to HN.

Re: Ask HN: Do you tell other people about HN?

#9

Post by MaysonL » Sun, Nov 23, 2008, 5:16 PM UTC

Alex3917 wrote: post #7

None of my friends would like it. As unscientific as the Meyers-Briggs test is, I really do think this site appeals mostly to a small subset of XNTPs. And there aren't that many of those around.

We INTPs also enjoy it :<)

Re: Ask HN: Do you tell other people about HN?

#10

Post by pavelludiq » Sun, Nov 23, 2008, 5:20 PM UTC

Conversation with a friend:

friend: "You don't look good, whats wrong"-

I: "I haven't slept that well, i was up all night"

friend: "WTF were you doing all night"

I: "Lurking on HN of course, and reading the old Dilbert strips"

Maybe i should try this "noprocrast" feature, but i don't know what to do about Dilbert though. :D

You people are great, i read reddit to find cool articles, but i don't bother to read the comments, but here, i read mostly the comments, they are more valuable than the original articles sometimes.