No, I feel that this website shouldn't follow reddit, but instead maybe try something diffrent
Great point, we should do something uniquely HN.
Poll: Would HN benefit from Reddit's AMA-style posts from technologists?
111–120 of 187 posts
Re: Poll: Would HN benefit from Reddit's AMA-style posts from technologists?
#112AMAs are absolutely worthless. The POTUS did one on reddit and it was a dose of Valium for all involved.
Re: Poll: Would HN benefit from Reddit's AMA-style posts from technologists?
#113Whenever there's an AMA on reddit from someone interesting, the scum floats to the top. Occasionally, you get something interesting but most of the time the AMAs are vapid. When a politician does an AMA, people upvote questions about weed or posts complaining that the US is a police state. When Paul Krugman did an AMA, libertarians raided the thread, downvoted all of the other questions, and upvoted stupid shit like questions about the legitimacy of Austrian economics.
Re: Poll: Would HN benefit from Reddit's AMA-style posts from technologists?
#114Earlier 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.
>>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…
Though there is often hive mind behavior based on who posts. There are some 'HN celebrities' that certainly deserve the respect they get - they are knowledgable people with great opinions - the problem is they are not always right, nor are they always adding to the discussion in a useful way - yet they get upvoted to the top immediately even when a far better contribution to the post disappears further down.
Re: Poll: Would HN benefit from Reddit's AMA-style posts from technologists?
#115There is something natural about HN. Something in the way that it has grown, slow and organically.
I can not imagine that a handful of threads started by celebrities would increase the value of HN significantly.
But I could see a handful of celebrity threads bringing in large groups of new users, which I think could threaten the community's standards of comment quality.
I've never successfully grown a community, but my personal theory is start with a quality base, and slowly trickle in new users so that they are able to naturally recognize the expectations of the community through existing comments. If you have a big influx of new users, you have a big influx of new comments with no understanding of what a good comment is.
Re: Poll: Would HN benefit from Reddit's AMA-style posts from technologists?
#116Why 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. :)
HN AMAs would fill a niche that doesn't really exist elsewhere: the opportunity to have questions asked by an audience focussed on tech and entrepreneurship. Reddit's too mainstream to get questions about the things HNers tend to care about upvoted. I'd certainly appreciate the flavour that HN would bring to an AMA.
Re: Poll: Would HN benefit from Reddit's AMA-style posts from technologists?
#117Why 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.
AMAs still have to get upvoted and have questions posted. If J. Random Whoareyouagain posts an AMA, it'll either die in "new" with 2 points, or fall off the front page with 10 points and two comments.
Re: Poll: Would HN benefit from Reddit's AMA-style posts from technologists?
#118HN is more about topic, not personality.
I like Bill Shatner just fine, but I think we should leave him to Reddit. (Unless he shows up here on his own... Doing any startups, Bill?)
I prefer it the way it is, when something will be posted and suddenly founder or community leader(s) X will pop up with a comment:
Additionally... | I remember when... | We're excited... | Hey, didn't expect this... | "Under construction"... | It's coming... | The dog ate my homework, and two days later...
Followed by 'I/We'll be around for awhile [on this thread], in case any of you have questions or feedback.'
Re: Poll: Would HN benefit from Reddit's AMA-style posts from technologists?
#119tricky bastard haha. this is the AMA!
Re: Poll: Would HN benefit from Reddit's AMA-style posts from technologists?
#120Isn't that what Quora was made for? To have longer Q&A style discussions with other HNers and (legitimate) technology celebrities? Edit: I guess the downvotes mean I'm wrong?
I think the down votes mean (some) people really hate Quora. E.g. Recently: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5217052