Where do you discuss computer related stuff now?

Post by thefz » Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 7:27 AM UTC

NoPicklez wrote: post #5

For me the mainspace for discussing computer related stuff is still Reddit. /r/pcmasterrace still has 8 million members and /r/buildapc has 6 million. The viewer counts for these subreddits have only increased even in recent months. HN still has excellent discussions whether its Ask HN or links Was there a problem that begged asking the question in the first place?

Post by _hypx » Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 7:50 AM UTC

intended wrote: post #51

_hypx wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Centralized social media is the reason why we're in the mess we're in right now. Eventually, someone will come up with an effective way to navigate decentralized social media. It will likely mirror what Google did for Web 1.0.

All federated systems will be centralized. Once you get a way to navigate federated things, the navigation becomes the core of the experience. The crux of the internet experience is that Quantity is a quality in itself. Once the navigation window becomes core, and handles the highest volumes, it’s easier to streamline monetary rewards to a single place. Federated communities that work better with whatever navigator/w…

Post by kaba0 » Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 7:57 AM UTC

hhjinks wrote: post #88

lmm wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Too many HN comments nowadays are a) dumb jokes b) disinformation that it would take too much effort to correct kindly. In the old days those comments were corrected harshly and that kept the community quality high (both because it kept the discussion more accurate at first order, and because it drove away users who couldn't take their lumps). Nowadays they are not corrected at all.

This is the problem with voting based social media. A demographic can be entirely supplanted by another really quickly. All you need is for the new demographic to upvote themselves, and the pre-existing demographic to not downvote the other demographic. Pre-existing users will start leaving when they see the content they originally came there for being outcompeted by the content the new demographic has introduced, ca…

Post by nnurmanov » Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 8:20 AM UTC

vouaobrasil wrote: post #42

> So where do you go when you want to geek out? This may be a pessimistic take, but computer stuff I believe has lost the allure that it once had, and here is why I think so: At one point, computer stuff meant being a hacker, having the hacker ethic, which personally to me translated into figuring out how stuff worked and putting it together to do something useful. And, "something useful" to me meant creating somethi…

Post by oska » Wed, Jul 26, 2023, 9:21 AM UTC

Karrot_Kream wrote: post #56

lmm wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's an activity level issue. When dang took over he made an explicit shift to prioritizing kindness, with predictable results.

dang has a different style than pg did but I really don't think that's the issue. The site is big now and has absorbed a lot of people fleeing Reddit and Twitter and they've brought that culture with them. dang's moderation has continuously been evenhanded and well applied. The site has changed despite his efforts, IMO.