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

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

#101

Post by greendestiny »

_delirium wrote: post #95
achompas wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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? Because the odds of getting Famous Joe Blow X to run a HN AMA are much, much higher than getting him to become an active HNer. We're talking about a one-time commitment versus extended involvement in our community. Look at the roster of AMA guests on Redd…

> by participating in AMAs, they enrich Reddit's community That's the part I'm skeptical of, at least keeping in mind what community means in the HN sense. They don't really seem to be part of the Reddit community at all; they're more like the "content" that the Reddit community is discussing any given day. What's more interesting about the HN community to me is that some pretty accomplished people are actually part…

I agree, I think the fuzzy feeling sums it up. Celebrity AMA's are some of the most unenlightening things I've ever read. You get some obvious questions about obvious subjects and the answer is usually some variation of 'yeah that was great'. It should be no surprise either - its a conversation started with no premise. If someone consequential to an issue decides to comment on that issue it can be very very interesting. Hackernews still has that to some degree. Even if its gone, can we not resurrect it as this zombie?

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

#105

Post by pbiggar »

kjackson2012 wrote: post #51

No, because HN doesn't have a good way to manage comments the way Reddit can. In Reddit, it's easy to close an entire thread if you're not interested in it, but HN natively does not have this facility. I've seen some hacks that allow this, but if it were available natively on HN, it would make perusing the comments a lot easier.

I dont think this will be added in the near future, so you might enjoy the HN enhancement suite: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/bappiabcodbpphnojd...

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

#107

Post by daniel-cussen »

scythe wrote: post #90

Cheap content attracts cheap commenters. The comments and questions in AMAs rarely express novel insight -- usually, someone pipes up with a popular sentiment, like asking President Obama to stop using drone strikes. Commenting in such threads, which are inevitably mobbed, gives you the illusion of significance ("Wow, X answered my question!") or worse yet they give you actual significance ("Wow, it's X, he did an AM…

What if you required a certain amount of points or more to ask a question?

HN already has good software to deal with voting rings, so we shouldn't get too much karma whoring in response. Plus, people would have to invest in karma, because once the AMA is announced for the following day, or for right then, it's too late to get 300 (say) more points. I think it's workable.

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

#109

Post by uglytom »

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. :)

I agree. Even with my short time I have spent on HN, I find the place to be much more civil and information with less clutter than Reddit. Keep HN's identity strong and don't try to "copy" Reddit. I would think that if you allow a few AMAs it will quickly devolve as everyone would want to do an AMA.

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

#110

Post by Jplenbrook »

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. :)

Having the greatest technologists of our time answer our questions would be a huge distraction from the arguments over which language is better.
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