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Few people grasp the amount of effort Daniel Gackle expends running HN (2020)

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Re: Few people grasp the amount of effort Daniel Gackle expends running HN (2020)

#11

Post by touisteur »

samizdis wrote: post #5

I'd like to think that more than a few people grasp this. He's some kind of machine - in the best, complimentary way. His replies to emails are succinct, helpful, educational, and still personable. No idea how he retains his equanimity across hundreds/thousands of interactions, mostly with strangers. IMO it's a worthwhile lesson (and a free one) to peruse his comment history: https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=d…

I like to think he's some kind of monk, a zen master of human forums, and a genuinely good person. At least any exchange I had with him or observed with all kinds of people have been full of humanity, while firm in his mission. I don't know how he does it, and I wish we'd celebrate him and people like him far more.

Re: Few people grasp the amount of effort Daniel Gackle expends running HN (2020)

#13

Post by civilized »

Despite the haters and imperfections, I think HN is about as humane as a large, public, globally accessible online community could possibly be. It seems like one of those things that couldn't possibly last forever because it bucks the statistics of human nature too much.

A key move, and an utterly unique one to my knowledge, was having an extraordinary full time employee tending to it constantly.

Here's hoping it all lasts for as long as possible. Thanks dang.

Re: Few people grasp the amount of effort Daniel Gackle expends running HN (2020)

#14

Post by samizdis »

paulcole wrote: post #6

Is this a volunteer role or a full-time job?

As far as I can tell from this article [1] - The lonely work of moderating Hacker News (2019) - it's a full-time job. The article was discussed at length on HN [2].

[1] https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-silicon-valley/th...

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20643052

Re: Few people grasp the amount of effort Daniel Gackle expends running HN (2020)

#16

Post by masswerk »

srvmshr wrote: post #4

I wonder how does dang manage it everyday. HN moderation can be so tiring. There is multitude of comment types: insightful, accusatory, snarky etc. And dang does point out the egregious ones every time.

Also, does dang ever sleep?

Re: Few people grasp the amount of effort Daniel Gackle expends running HN (2020)

#17

Post by nimbius »

I just find it comically ironic that the same community infamous for sleuthing and demanding the full root cause of failure from their favourite faang darlings and various digital feudal estates has been so quiet, forgiving, and reflective about the HN outage and its cause. am I missing something? does anyone know what caused the failure?

Re: Few people grasp the amount of effort Daniel Gackle expends running HN (2020)

#20

Post by O__________O »

Already thanked Dang here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32026736

But it’s worth noting per Dang that sctb played role in building the data recovery system before it was needed — and mthurman helped deploy HN to AWS. Thanks sctb & mthurman!!

Dang’s comment:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32031158

For who sctb & mthurman are, see:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32033413

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