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HN is Becoming 2005 Slashdot

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Re: HN is Becoming 2005 Slashdot

#31

Post by zalew »

anigbrowl wrote: post #4

Some of this is because the HN demographic is young enough that many readers have never seen anything like this before, and thus think it's the Worst Thing Ever. I base this on the numerous counterfactual statements showing a lack of historical awareness in discussions on contentious topics. Of course, I think this is partly the result of not teaching civics in schools.

> Of course, I think this is partly the result of not teaching civics in schools.

We have civics at high school (of course not in the Finland sense, sadly), and I somehow fail to see the correlation.

Re: HN is Becoming 2005 Slashdot

#32

Post by rayiner »

nerfhammer wrote: post #29
rayiner wrote: post #20

As far as I can tell, this is the third major shift in the tone of the site. When it first started out there was a lot more technology discussion, but quickly the whole VC/fundraising aspect became very prominent. Recently, legal issues have become very prominent. I think this reflects a real-world trend in what's relevant to "hackers" right now. The financial aspect of the whole technology industry really seemed to…

The problem for me is that the political stuff has perfect substitutes that I can easily go to, but I don't know of any alternatives for the skeptical, intelligent tech+business discussion.

That's an interesting way of putting it. I first came on here to learn about Arc. It was just tech. Then it became tech+business. What you're seeing is simply that at scale, politics is inextricable from tech+business, just as, at scale, business is inextricable from tech.

Re: HN is Becoming 2005 Slashdot

#33

Post by WestCoastJustin »

guizzy wrote: post #27

It is official; Alexa now confirms: Hacker News is dying One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered Hacker News community when Google confirmed that Hacker News market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all web traffic. Coming close on the heels of a recent Alexa survey which plainly states that Hacker News has lost more market share, this news serves to reinfo…

Hope you are right, I hope that HN does reduce market share, and head back to its roots, as a niche site for hackers.

Re: HN is Becoming 2005 Slashdot

#34

Post by taproot »

lsc wrote: post #17
taproot wrote: post #6

Im tired of sentiment like this. I havent been here long but ive had the same feelings about multiple communities as they mature. Its part of them growing up and has a lot to do with the members growing up. In this situation however i get the feeling it has more to do with the industry than anything else. I dont think tech can be what it was or at least ever will ever again. On the sidelines you see the news changing…

>Tech computers and internet going mainstream is exactly what we all aimed to do. Do you remember the first dot-com boom? In 1999, it sure seemed like we were going mainstream. Nerds were cool! Of course, once the money stopped, we were thrown aside like a sticky sock.

I was a) too young and b) too sheltered from it we were only just getting consumer dial up in homes about that time in our country. But as i understand it yes although that was more like a gold rush in peoples living rooms. Unlike what we have today, a multibillion dollar industry walking around in peoples pockets every minute of the day. Dont gete wrong the desktop isnt going anywhere soon we just have a new poster child while the old one has mostly sorted all its teething problems out.

Re: HN is Becoming 2005 Slashdot

#35

Post by zalew »

nerfhammer wrote: post #29
rayiner wrote: post #20

As far as I can tell, this is the third major shift in the tone of the site. When it first started out there was a lot more technology discussion, but quickly the whole VC/fundraising aspect became very prominent. Recently, legal issues have become very prominent. I think this reflects a real-world trend in what's relevant to "hackers" right now. The financial aspect of the whole technology industry really seemed to…

The problem for me is that the political stuff has perfect substitutes that I can easily go to, but I don't know of any alternatives for the skeptical, intelligent tech+business discussion.

HN needs tagging or even general categories, so we can filter topics out.

Re: HN is Becoming 2005 Slashdot

#36

Post by JoshTriplett »

In fairness, at least it isn't becoming 2013 Slashdot.

HN has always had a small smattering of political stories upvoted and discussed, with a specific focus on those that actually matter to hackers. Recent events have increased the proportion of political stories that get upvotes and discussion, but not across the board: there's a specific focus on NSA/surveillance stories, and in the absence of those I think the political content has not dramatically increased. Thus, I wouldn't conclude that the HN audience has become more political, but rather that HN has a higher threshold for wanting to talk about politics and recent stories pass that threshold far too often for comfort.

Politics on Slashdot has so little impact, because it shows up far too often. Politics on HN tends to focus on the most important issues, filtering out the noise. And the recent NSA stories are by far the most important news in tech politics in years. As long as the political stories remain confined to issues of that level of importance, and leave out the daily sources of new outrage, I wouldn't fear for the future of HN. (It also helps that HN doesn't have Slashdot's blatant editorialization to stir up those types of stories.)

HN may be an island away from real-world news, but that island still carries tsunami warning stories.

Re: HN is Becoming 2005 Slashdot

#38

Post by jdminhbg »

Snowden/NSA articles frequently contain impassioned defenses about how relevant they are to the tech community at large, and I agree, but the problem with their proliferation is the topic bleed they lead to. Once political discussions feel normal, you get things like this completely pointless rehashing of "socialism" vs "Randianism" this afternoon: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6156035

I have generally come down on the side of considering complaints about the downward slide of the site as mostly rosy-painted nostalgia, but I do think an article as blatantly off-topic and political as that would have quickly been flagged as recently as 3 or 4 months ago.

Re: HN is Becoming 2005 Slashdot

#39

Post by makomk »

WestCoastJustin wrote: post #33
guizzy wrote: post #27

It is official; Alexa now confirms: Hacker News is dying One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered Hacker News community when Google confirmed that Hacker News market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all web traffic. Coming close on the heels of a recent Alexa survey which plainly states that Hacker News has lost more market share, this news serves to reinfo…

Hope you are right, I hope that HN does reduce market share, and head back to its roots, as a niche site for hackers.

Whoosh.

Re: HN is Becoming 2005 Slashdot

#40

Post by mikeg8 »

Osmium wrote: post #12

One suggestion is to reduce the influx of new users. Maybe keep new registrations closed except for a few days every month or so. It allows older users time to help the new users adjust to the community, and prevents opportunistic/anonymous-trollish comments. Just an idea.

I kind of like this idea although a lot of people will probably disagree with it. My variation: instead of restricting new users from signing up, maybe just restrict their ability to comment. An account must be x months old to contribute to the discussion.
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