We'll just follow dang wherever he goes :P
YC could train a dangGPT to auto-moderate. I don't see HN disappearing. It is niche enough and YC likely uses it.
Ask HN: Should we plan for a life after HN?
21–30 of 75 posts
Re: Ask HN: Should we plan for a life after HN?
#22I worry about this myself. I feel like HN is the last refuge of what the old Internet was supposed to be like. I'm not sure it can be replicated. The future of the Internet seems to me to be small private "hidden" communities and mega platforms filled with garbage. No room for a middle Maybe a paid platform?
As much as I like my Internet free as in beer, I do think that in order to transition from ad-supported content platforms, some form of micropayment or subscription model works best to support creators and bastions of intelligent discourse. I don't mind chipping in for content, (ie independent reporters on substack, local NPR station, Wikipedia), the value exchange is positive for me.
Don't worry, existing entrenched tech giants will kill this idea before it could take root: this week Facebook started offering a subscription in the EU instead of using your data for ads. They however ask for 10 EUR (and 5000 HUF in Hungary which is 13 EUR) which is far , far more than what anyone sane wants to pay for FB. So they can go back to the regulators and say, see, no one wants to pay for this.
Re: Ask HN: Should we plan for a life after HN?
#23If HN goes away it's because it's replaced by something else.
Something that meets users needs better.
What's there to plan for, except if you intend to make that new thing to supplant HN?
Re: Ask HN: Should we plan for a life after HN?
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
> the last refuge of what the old Internet was supposed to be like. What, how? HN is one of the most squeaky clean - corpo - heavily moderated sites with a extreme bubble centered around SV tech. Its basically the exact opposite of the old internet.
It’s primarily filled with intelligent people interested in technology. Before smartphones, that was the primary population of many (most?) websites.
> intelligent people [...] was the primary population of many (most?) websites.
Oh sweet summer child.
Re: Ask HN: Should we plan for a life after HN?
#25I think I joined the first month HN was introduced or around there. It really hasn't lost too much of its "feel" to me since then. Seems like it's pretty active with no plans to change, but who knows?
Re: Ask HN: Should we plan for a life after HN?
#26Should we plan for a life after HN? There is no need to wait for such an event. In my opinion what makes this site unique is how it is run rather than the tech. One could make note(s) of how Daniel manages this site and try their hand at mimicking the patterns on existing sites. People could attempt to replicate something close to his methodology, guidelines and levels of engagement on their own self hosted Postmill,…
Calling up Dang actually points out the one major weakness of this site from the outside. I don't know what his succession plan looks like, but if he gets hit by a bus, this site could change dramatically (for the worse) and almost immediately.
When one person is your linchpin, you have one major, and guaranteed source of failures unless you take steps to mitigate. So it would be interesting to know what kind of succession plan there is, I guess.
Re: Ask HN: Should we plan for a life after HN?
#27Should we plan for a life after HN? There is no need to wait for such an event. In my opinion what makes this site unique is how it is run rather than the tech. One could make note(s) of how Daniel manages this site and try their hand at mimicking the patterns on existing sites. People could attempt to replicate something close to his methodology, guidelines and levels of engagement on their own self hosted Postmill,…
"People could attempt to replicate something close to his methodology, guidelines and levels of engagement" I wonder how close are we to getting an AI to do this kind of work? Pretty far I would guess?
Managing a community requires the uncountable efforts of the human soul. As of the current date, large language models do not possess one.
Re: Ask HN: Should we plan for a life after HN?
#28For HN we should have a full blown desktop client and server tools for the p2p distribution of the archives. Then build the stuff to resurrect the front page and recent posts when they become unavailable. Eventually the hn server does nothing but sign postings and count scores. Users who've accumulated to many points can sign their postings themselves until such privilege is revoked.
Re: Ask HN: Should we plan for a life after HN?
#29Re: Ask HN: Should we plan for a life after HN?
#30Necessity is the mother of invention.