If You Build It, They Will Come • Hacker News Board

Re: If You Build It, They Will Come

#31

Post by alwa » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 7:10 PM UTC

triprjt wrote: post #8

no offence but i dont know what is this article doing on hackernews. looks like a diary entry at best.

Sometimes when I feel that way, I take it as a sign that there must be something about it that I’m missing.

I try to take that feeling of “why is this here” as my cue not to reflexively kick the thing in front of me, but to reflect more deeply on what it is that the others are seeing in it.

Sometimes I figure out what that is, other times I stay puzzled. Sometimes I get it and it’s just not for me, but I can learn something from the way the others appreciate it. Sometimes it’s just not a room I want to be in.

But over my life I’ve learned by far the most—at least in terms of big coarse new ways of looking at things and of understanding other people—from the rooms I fit in least naturally, and from the phenomena whose appeal most confuses me at first glance.

YMMV, Chesterton’s Fence, etc.

Re: If You Build It, They Will Come

#32

Post by xyzelement » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 7:10 PM UTC

// Lots of people have a sort of consumer attitude towards their communities, where they take everything for granted. I saw things this way when I was young. A social scene is an automatic feature of the world that appears on its own, like a wild blueberry bush. It starts sprouting parties and dinners and conferences and reading groups as naturally as the bush sprouts berries

True in general. As a kid you think of things as bigger than you. Like whoever maintains a hiking trail or runs your towns diner is "big" compared to you.

As a grown up you hopefully realize that it's the other way - the work and effort to make and maintain those things is vulnerable and fragile.

I think about this whenever I see someone hop over the subway turnstile. The transit system is "for granted" - it's you and your few bucks that matters. But of enough ppl feel that way it all goes away via decay eventually.

Re: If You Build It, They Will Come

#33

Post by alwa » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 7:17 PM UTC

crab_galaxy wrote: post #7

You really have to do it for the love of the game. It can be surprisingly vulnerable to be the social fabric, and it’s super easy to fall into various toxic inner dialogs when you’re busy and others don’t pick up the slack, or if others don’t reciprocate the effort, or worst of all when others don’t include you for whatever reason.

What’s more, it’s precisely that genuine love of the game that makes your thing so appealing to the others. Authenticity’s hard to fake!

Re: If You Build It, They Will Come

#34

Post by raffael_de » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 7:25 PM UTC

NeutralForest wrote: post #4

sam_lowry_ wrote: post #2

Do not expect a reward, dude. I spent 15 years building a local community, I had 10,000 daily users once, people recognized me on the street, then everyone left on a whim when Facebook made it easier to hang in one's own echo chambers. I still think it was worth it. Once in a while, I bump into a stranger, and they tell me how the found their only true love because of me, or how they landed a job that made them loads…

Wasting Orval is the biggest sin of all.

There's a special rung in hell for people who waste good Orval.

Re: If You Build It, They Will Come

#35

Post by mhluongo » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 7:30 PM UTC

nefarious_ends wrote: post #20

triprjt wrote: post #8

no offence but i dont know what is this article doing on hackernews. looks like a diary entry at best.

I'm right there with you, pal. The quality and focus of this site has declined significantly. More often than not these days I regret opening the site at all.

Per the article, if you want to fix this... maybe start your own :P

Re: If You Build It, They Will Come

#36

Post by raffael_de » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 7:31 PM UTC

rvz wrote: post #15

In 2026: - If you build it (and it doesn't take off) then they won't come. - If you build it (and it does takes off) they will come and compete with you to build their own.

are you speaking from experience?

Re: If You Build It, They Will Come

#37

Post by fellowniusmonk » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 7:34 PM UTC

This is entirely about social friction.

Blaming the people trained by the smartest people on earth (with population level ad sales and a/b testing) to reject friction until they start to feel it as a poison isn't their fault.

We built a low friction co-working space that was mostly a social club after work hours, and by reducing that friction even the most intense introverts ended up integrated.

It's not difficult it's just hard.

Re: If You Build It, They Will Come

#38

Post by fellowniusmonk » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 7:56 PM UTC

mattmaroon wrote: post #3

“I’ve come to believe that part of today’s problem of social alienation is a problem of too many free riders.” I started planning street festivals a few years ago. It’s now a lucrative and growing business for me. The demand for events at all scales vastly outstrips supply, and I think growing social isolation is part of the reason. The free riders might seem like a problem to someone who just wants there to be event…

The real hack is that the events aren't the community, they serve the community, the process of working together to put these types of events on is what builds deep connection.

People don't actually get where the deep value lies, the event income or social credibility for those involved in putting it on just helps ensure there is enough fuel for the fire of the real community.

Re: If You Build It, They Will Come

#39

Post by Exoristos » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 8:00 PM UTC

America used to be awash with grassroots social institutions. I know an elderly gent who belonged to the Lions _and_ two similar organizations. When my mother was young, there were dances and dinners multiple nights a week. Which, for me, raises the question why weren't these things passed down? Why weren't the young a kind of apprentices to the old? That seems like the natural progression. But we see this generational rift in many areas of American life, including on the job training or something as practical as home cooking. It's like gazing into the past across a cataclysmic divide.

Re: If You Build It, They Will Come

#40

Post by ryandrake » Sat, Jul 18, 2026, 8:02 PM UTC

dominotw wrote: post #29

mattmaroon wrote: post #3

“I’ve come to believe that part of today’s problem of social alienation is a problem of too many free riders.” I started planning street festivals a few years ago. It’s now a lucrative and growing business for me. The demand for events at all scales vastly outstrips supply, and I think growing social isolation is part of the reason. The free riders might seem like a problem to someone who just wants there to be event…

we have tons of street festivals in chicago in summer but now they have lost been outsourced to festival companies and subsequently lost all charm and local feel. They are all copy paste of each other and outright scams. how do you make sure they have some charecter and dont turn into mc-festival

This is a huge problem with many cases of “just do something.” The minute it looks like a money making opportunity, or something that can be arbitraged, someone will inevitably turn it into a business and scale it up and now it’s no longer That Cool Community Thing. It’s yet another extractive business.