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Poll: Would HN benefit from Reddit's AMA-style posts from technologists?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Poll: Would HN benefit from Reddit's AMA-style posts from technologists?

#41

Post by DanielBMarkham »

SCdF wrote: post #38

So the thing that struck me when I first started reading HN was that this place is a constant AMA with famous people ! Real people, real hackers, who've done impressive stuff, who aren't random bored teenagers in their boxers pretending to know about what they're waxing on about, comment here! People from Google, and MS, People who actually built the startup we're discussing, or are at the heart of the story that bro…

Yeah and I want to say this the right way, but I probably won't.

I don't give a shit who you are on HN. I'm here to collect useful stuff for the people I'm trying to help in my startups, not to get autographs. If you have something useful to contribute, thank you. I'll try to do the same. Otherwise? Who you are, how much you make, how much you sold out for, all of that? Not so much.

This is just an awful, terrible, bad idea. Instead of us old-timers saying "Dang site! Turning into Reddit!" Now we're going to actively start trying to copy Reddit? WTF?

Re: Poll: Would HN benefit from Reddit's AMA-style posts from technologists?

#42

Post by fudged71 »

I was recently wondering if "Moronic Mondays" (as featured in /r/Android and such) would be useful here. It's a good way to shed your ego and say "I have a question that I know seems stupid and simple, but I just can't wrap my head around it". Coincidentally, I implemented the IAmA star verification system years ago which seemed to popularize the entire IAmA community.

Re: Poll: Would HN benefit from Reddit's AMA-style posts from technologists?

#44

Post by d0m »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #31

Why don't we let Reddit be Reddit, and HN be HN? Why would I want HN to be a megaphone for Famous Joe Blow X when I'd much rather have him actively participating and helping out in the threads with the rest of us? This is a very bad idea in my opinion. Since I have no clue how to run a busy site, that means it'll probably happen. :)

It can be both. An AMA is "Ask me anything" which is more focused on somebody (Or something that happened).. which is very different than the same person posting a meaningful comment on a discussion. As far as I know, PG regularly comments on HN and there are often links to his essay or interviews. An AMA isn't so much different than an interview...

Re: Poll: Would HN benefit from Reddit's AMA-style posts from technologists?

#45

Post by nolok »

charlieok wrote: post #40

Was Reddit's AMA feature a result of paving the cowpaths? I'm thinking of it as something that organically sprouted from the community, and then became an institution. Kinda like hashtags and @-mentions on twitter. If people post AMA submissions on Hacker News and they do well, great. That's a sign the users would like more of it. Or are these being actively discouraged by admins (e.g. by editing “AMA” out of titles)…

AMAs where just post on /r/AskReddit for a long time until starting to grow on its own and becoming what it is now.

Re: Poll: Would HN benefit from Reddit's AMA-style posts from technologists?

#46

Post by andymoe »

I'm not sure you could do better than what Andrew Warner has done with http://mixergy.com

I know a lot of the older ones are behind a paywall now but there are 100s of interesting folks he has interviewed over the last few years.

Edit: Over 800 interviews. Truly impressive.

Re: Poll: Would HN benefit from Reddit's AMA-style posts from technologists?

#47

Post by enraged_camel »

lmm wrote: post #32
enraged_camel wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Problem is that it's not immediately obvious who they are just from their usernames. So it's easy to skip over their contributions.

That can enhance the discussion. I remember making a spirited reply to Yudkowsky and only noticing who he was when he replied back - but I think my not being intimidated lead to a far more productive thread than if I had seen in the first place. Posts should rise or fall on their own merits, not who has made them.

>>Posts should rise or fall on their own merits, not who has made them.

Not necessarily. On a site like this, where everyone has strong opinions on something, credibility matters. For example, I have only a rudimentary knowledge of programming, so when I read a post about JavaScript or something, I want to be able to quickly know whether the person is talking out of their ass or whether their opinion is backed up by experience and accomplishment.

Re: Poll: Would HN benefit from Reddit's AMA-style posts from technologists?

#48

Post by antirez »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #31

Why don't we let Reddit be Reddit, and HN be HN? Why would I want HN to be a megaphone for Famous Joe Blow X when I'd much rather have him actively participating and helping out in the threads with the rest of us? This is a very bad idea in my opinion. Since I have no clue how to run a busy site, that means it'll probably happen. :)

Many AMAs are not about famous people, but just people that are in a position you would love to ask them questions, in general or because of some specific news / event in the world or alike. With that I don't want to say that AMAs are necessarily good for HN.

Re: Poll: Would HN benefit from Reddit's AMA-style posts from technologists?

#49

Post by EwanToo »

switz wrote: post #37
lmm wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That can enhance the discussion. I remember making a spirited reply to Yudkowsky and only noticing who he was when he replied back - but I think my not being intimidated lead to a far more productive thread than if I had seen in the first place. Posts should rise or fall on their own merits, not who has made them.

This is my favorite recent example of someone not being recognized http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5228841

That is a good one - I liked this one a lot

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5210880

Re: Poll: Would HN benefit from Reddit's AMA-style posts from technologists?

#50

Post by SCdF »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #41
SCdF wrote: post #38

So the thing that struck me when I first started reading HN was that this place is a constant AMA with famous people ! Real people, real hackers, who've done impressive stuff, who aren't random bored teenagers in their boxers pretending to know about what they're waxing on about, comment here! People from Google, and MS, People who actually built the startup we're discussing, or are at the heart of the story that bro…

Yeah and I want to say this the right way, but I probably won't. I don't give a shit who you are on HN . I'm here to collect useful stuff for the people I'm trying to help in my startups, not to get autographs. If you have something useful to contribute, thank you. I'll try to do the same. Otherwise? Who you are, how much you make, how much you sold out for, all of that? Not so much. This is just an awful, terrible,…

In case it's not obvious from the juxtaposition of our two posts, I completely agree.

Having "tech famous" people on HN is great not because they're tech famous, but because they can provide the sorts of information that made them tech famous (as in, they're smart / knowledgeable). It's not important that they're famous, it's important that they can often provide insight into what we're talking about, because they were / are involved.

Reddit AMAs, when they're about a specific person (as opposed to a profession) seem to mostly be "You're awesome, I just wanted to ask, how did you get so awesome?" and variants.

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