It's interesting to note that the bare bones sites of Craig's List, Reddit and HN have some of the lowest costs and longest staying power. All content supplied by users and curated with care. (hello dang)
Tell HN: Thank you for being fast, almost ad-free and text-only
161–170 of 206 posts
Re: Tell HN: Thank you for being fast, almost ad-free and text-only
#162Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m reading this on a phone, right now, and it’s perfectly usable.
OK now try and upvote this comment without missing the arrow. If you do, you have a lot more dexerity than I do at least. Its usable but certain elements are a little too small where it makes me misclick.
Yeah, the arrows could be a bit bigger, and have more gutter. I agree.
Re: Tell HN: Thank you for being fast, almost ad-free and text-only
#163Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's an interesting question. It's true that HN doesn't earn revenue and that it could not stand on its own. But it's also true that YC is more valuable with HN than without it. I think you have to mark that in capitalism's column, even if it's a weird edge case. Maybe more companies should be more open to more weird edge cases and maybe that would make them richer and therefore more capitalist? I don't know.
My focus was on the word "straightforward" more so than trying to argue that HN isn't "capitalism". It's definitely capitalism, and arguably highly effective at that, I just don't think it's "straightforward" is all.
Ah ok. I agree!
Re: Tell HN: Thank you for being fast, almost ad-free and text-only
#164As others will be quick to point out, HN does have ads in the form of job postings for YCombinator startups that are delivered inline with the links on the front page. That said, it's relatively unobtrusive. And of course, the existence of HN is a large part of the marketing for YCombinator itself. Personally, I'll commend dang for doing a high-effort job at moderation, and tolerating all the dunking on Paul Graham t…
Not sure jobs are the only form of advertising. Sometimes I feel like some domain names like substack are pumped up
Re: Tell HN: Thank you for being fast, almost ad-free and text-only
#165Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's an interesting misconception of what capitalism is. I had not seen that one before. Thank you for sharing.
For what it's worth, I Googled "Define: capitalism" and when I saw: > an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit. I synthesized this to what I wrote above. If you disagree that's fine, but I think "for profit" is a critical aspect of capitalism, and while it's arguably true that HN provides YC with "a profit" it's an intangible and indirect one…
I'll admit I was a bit snarky but my thanks was genuine - I enjoy learning why people believe the things they do.
Anyways, my final argument is if an individual asset of a company doesn't directly generate revenue yet increases company profit, would it not be "un-capitalistic" if that company were to extinguish that asset? It seems to me that throwing away profit would be antithetical to that definition of capitalism.
The $30k espresso machine in the Google office does nothing to generate revenue, however it helps Google become more competitive in the labor market which (at least they think) increases profit. None of these situations are edge cases, they are just natural outcomes that exist when people are free to compete. If it is expected that a decision will lead to a profit, it seems straightforward that one would make that decision.
It was fun discussing this with you, I hope you have a good day.
Re: Tell HN: Thank you for being fast, almost ad-free and text-only
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
For what it's worth, I Googled "Define: capitalism" and when I saw: > an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit. I synthesized this to what I wrote above. If you disagree that's fine, but I think "for profit" is a critical aspect of capitalism, and while it's arguably true that HN provides YC with "a profit" it's an intangible and indirect one…
I'll admit I was a bit snarky but my thanks was genuine - I enjoy learning why people believe the things they do. Anyways, my final argument is if an individual asset of a company doesn't directly generate revenue yet increases company profit, would it not be "un-capitalistic" if that company were to extinguish that asset? It seems to me that throwing away profit would be antithetical to that definition of capitalism…
That sounds capitalistic, just not "straightforward" is all I was trying to say.
Re: Tell HN: Thank you for being fast, almost ad-free and text-only
#167The text-only / ad-free nature probably explains a fair bit of my own ... enthusiastic ... readership of HN (recent comment on which: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34490839 >). As for CSS tweaks, I've applied some modest changes to the basic style which are linked in my profile: Dred's HN CSS Madhackery: https://pastebin.com/gLXiqKyd > Dred's HN CSS Madhackery -- Dark Mode: https://pastebin.com/6PF3dCXH > Both…
Thanks for these helpful links and tweaks. Customization and code sharing -- both in keeping with true hacker ethos.
Got a good chuckle from the Stylus plugin privacy policy:
"Unlike other similar extensions, we don't find you to be all that interesting. Your questionable browsing history should remain between you and the NSA. Stylus collects nothing. Period."
Re: Tell HN: Thank you for being fast, almost ad-free and text-only
#168Earlier quoted context omitted.
How do you know this is true?
We don't know that it's true, but what kzrdude described is definitely part of the mental model (or, if you like, the DNA) of the site. https://hn.algolia.com/?query=silo%20by%3Adang&dateRange=all...
That was interesting, thank you. I had picked up some of that by osmosis of course, but not read all that you linked to.
Re: Tell HN: Thank you for being fast, almost ad-free and text-only
#169> My only ask is to revisit CSS a bit and make it mobile friendly. I.e slightly larger fonts and hit areas for expand/collapse. It’s too easy to hit the wrong button on a phone. There is a weird thing with the vote arrows on iPad in particular, if you tap the upvote arrow, the downvote arrow disappears first, then later the upvote arrow disappears. Always second guessing which arrow I've hit. Can only tell by looking…
If any newer folks are wondering “… what downvote arrow?” it only appears once your Karma is above a certain level (501+, I think?)
>=501. Coincidentally that's the exact number I'm on now, and just like GP said due to my fat thumb I'm always guessing whether I've up- or downvoted a comment.
Re: Tell HN: Thank you for being fast, almost ad-free and text-only
#170As others will be quick to point out, HN does have ads in the form of job postings for YCombinator startups that are delivered inline with the links on the front page. That said, it's relatively unobtrusive. And of course, the existence of HN is a large part of the marketing for YCombinator itself. Personally, I'll commend dang for doing a high-effort job at moderation, and tolerating all the dunking on Paul Graham t…
> As others will be quick to point out, HN does have ads in the form of job postings for YCombinator startups that are delivered inline with the links on the front page. The way all ads should be? :) Succinct, relevant and unobtrusive
The ads should be clearly marked as ads, in my opinion.
I hate when social media sites hide ads by making them look like regular posts. It’s a dark pattern.