Live data from Hacker News

De-googling, so far

blog.nradk.com

171–180 of 197 posts

Re: De-googling, so far

#171
post #113
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN is not a replacement for Reddit in general though. Reddit is a collection of forums/communities with wildly varying topics. HN is just one specific forum. Some of the worst behaviors that are common in many Reddit subs are discouraged here in HN, and for that I'm thankful. But the topics aren't the same, so one cannot replace the other in general .

If the goal is to fill some time with something mildly educational, it replaces the dopamine/serotonin hit all the same.

What if the goal is not to fill some time?

Re: De-googling, so far

#172
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HN is not a replacement for Reddit in general though. Reddit is a collection of forums/communities with wildly varying topics. HN is just one specific forum. Some of the worst behaviors that are common in many Reddit subs are discouraged here in HN, and for that I'm thankful. But the topics aren't the same, so one cannot replace the other in general .

A farmers market has a narrower selection than a supermarket, but you’d be healthier in the long run only shopping at the farmers market than going to the grocery store and being bombarded by processed garbage, even if you try to stick to the good aisles. The problem with Reddit is that the worst of Reddit inevitably pollutes the best of Reddit. Better for your mental diet to avoid altogether.

Continuing the analogy, what if instead of groceries/vegetables you want to buy a car, or discuss a movie, or exchange ideas about watercolor techniques? What use is a farmers market then?

> The problem with Reddit is that the worst of Reddit inevitably pollutes the best of Reddit. Better for your mental diet to avoid altogether.

Reddit does attract some unsavory types, but on the other hand, HN has a very narrow focus while Reddit covers more topics I'm interested in. It wouldn't make sense to avoid it, or to claim HN is a way to de-reddit -- they don't cover the same niches!

And I don't go randomly browsing Reddit looking for subs to read; instead I seek out subs about specific topics I'm interested in. I would say it's HN that I browse randomly, without looking for anything in particular... HN is a "random news" portal for me.

Re: De-googling, so far

#173
post #148
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Every time I have gone there I find content that is literally optimized to use up and waste as much of my time as possible under the incentive of maximizing viewer minutes. Depends on what you're watching. I mean, everyone on YouTube is playing the algorithm game somewhat -- assuming they want to have their videos watched, and they do, or they wouldn't be there to begin with. Having said that, I watch a ton of YouT…

> I'm still upset about the recent trend of authors placing "sponsor segments" embedded in their videos […] ; I wish paying for Premium automatically skipped these segments too, but oh well. May I introduce you to SponsorBlock: https://sponsor.ajay.app/ >

Wow. Didn't know this existed. Will definitely try it, thanks!

Re: De-googling, so far

#174
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it crazy that someone will say "I still consume it more than any other type of video media" but somehow just paying for it isn't an option. You can pay to make YT ads go away. And the payments go to the video creators (eventually).

They by and large don't. Most creators on YouTube aren't even eligible to monetize, especially if they're making niche educational content. Google just pockets all the revenue if you have fewer than 4,000 "public watch hours". If you put together an a concise 4-minute DIY video, an average view time will probably hover around 1 minute, and you will need 240k views to qualify. Most videos on YouTube get under 1k views…

> Google just pockets all the revenue if you have fewer than 4,000 "public watch hours". If you put together an a concise 4-minute DIY video, an average view time will probably hover around 1 minute, and you will need 240k views to qualify. Most videos on YouTube get under 1k views.

With less than 4k public watch hours your channel has barely made any money. It is accumulated for your videos for the entire channel, that isn't per video.

And no, youtube isn't making money on those videos, it costs them more to store etc and most of them aren't getting any ads anyway. Instead you get free video upload on youtube, normally you pay for that.

Youtube makes their money from the big creators that draws in a lot of views per video, there efficiency of scale lets them get over the profitability hump.

Re: De-googling, so far

#175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is so wild to me. I only consume media there if I am sent a link. Every time I have gone there I find content that is literally optimized to use up and waste as much of my time as possible under the incentive of maximizing viewer minutes. I wonder what it would be like to spend a day in your shoes.

Mindlessly consuming the video feed is not the only way to use YouTube. If you are looking for something in particular, it is very hard to beat. Besides, at that point, is it really any different than TV, or other streaming services?

> it is very hard to beat

For any content I’m interested in, a blog post with pictures beats it. If it needs video then have it interspersed throughout the page.

LLM summarisers are the only thing that make YouTube usable for me in that I can still get the content without wasting time.

Re: De-googling, so far

#176
post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A farmers market has a narrower selection than a supermarket, but you’d be healthier in the long run only shopping at the farmers market than going to the grocery store and being bombarded by processed garbage, even if you try to stick to the good aisles. The problem with Reddit is that the worst of Reddit inevitably pollutes the best of Reddit. Better for your mental diet to avoid altogether.

Continuing the analogy, what if instead of groceries/vegetables you want to buy a car, or discuss a movie, or exchange ideas about watercolor techniques? What use is a farmers market then? > The problem with Reddit is that the worst of Reddit inevitably pollutes the best of Reddit. Better for your mental diet to avoid altogether. Reddit does attract some unsavory types, but on the other hand, HN has a very narrow foc…

I still use Reddit in the way you’re suggesting, which is when I occasionally have a specific use.

What I meant was that I don’t visit Reddit by instinct anymore when I’m bored - even “good” subreddits. The general user base is not high quality. Even for topics I’m interested in, I really can’t stand the Reddit vibe that inevitably seeps through. It’s incredibly predictable.

Re: De-googling, so far

#177

I can appreciate the hesitancy because you need an account, but Kagi is such a great search engine. Their incentives align much better with their actual users and because of that they support tons of customization/filtering options Google just can't (read: won't).

I tried Kagi once and never really felt like it was good enough to make me want to pay for it. Search is like air. Very important, but available everywhere for free. Pretty hard for me to justify adding another subscription to the already extant mountain.

Re: De-googling, so far

#178
post #138
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mind all ads. They rob you of your most precious and nonrenewable resource without consent. Ads are cancer and should be excised at every opportunity. Ad companies should be destroyed. Ad tech workers should be blackballed. Shilling is shameful.

I’ll agree in some capacity that ads are a scourge today, but what’s your alternative? You can’t just burn down the world ave start fresh, there has to be a better way and a plan to transition. Those who would just burn the world down are not mature. This applies to just parts of the world, too, such as “advertising must burn” or “let Y country burn because of X problem” (paraphrasing). I cannot agree on blackballing…

It’s possible to survive doing things that aren’t shameful and destructive. If we don’t shame and blackball people for their freely taken adult decisions about how to spend their time and direct their effort, what can we shame or blackball people for?

It should be hazardous to your career to engage in certain types of business. Mass murder, advertising, spyware, spam, network abuse (DDoS), or conspiracy to commit same should always make people think twice about hiring you.

Re: De-googling, so far

#179
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mind all ads. They rob you of your most precious and nonrenewable resource without consent. Ads are cancer and should be excised at every opportunity. Ad companies should be destroyed. Ad tech workers should be blackballed. Shilling is shameful.

This entire forum is an advertisement for an investment firm. Many posts are advertisements for startups.

Not really. HN would still be excellent and useful and valuable even if pg and yc ceased to exist.

Re: De-googling, so far

#180
These de-Googling or un-Googling submissions always seem to follow the same pattern: try to find a "replacement" for every company Google has acquired.

What I never see is someone who proposes "de-Googling" and foregoing a replacement.

Consider the following generic example.

Google acquires some company that intermediates some task that people perform using a computer. Now Google collects data about its users.

A hypothetical computer user makes use of this intermediary "service" as well as others offered by Google. Eventually user decides he wants to stop giving away data to Google.

User then publishes to the web the idea of ceasing to use Google-owned intermediaries by using other, "equivalent" intermediaries for each and _every_ service. Or he tries to replicate role of the intermediary himself through "self-hosting".

But he never considers that in some cases using an intermediary is itself a problem, or may be unnecessary, irrespective of whether it is Google or some other entity. Why does he need to preserve each and _every_ Google acquisition by finding a replacement.

The use of an intermediary allows data collection and in almost all cases that's why someone started a so-called "tech" company. They saw opportunity to profit from being an intermediary (middleman).

The attempt to find a replacement for _every_ Google-owned intermediary seems rather brainless. As if every Google acquisition is something that must exist and must be used.

Certainly there is an arguable privacy benefit from using disparate third parties for different tasks instead of using the same one for every task. However there is also a benefit from not using a third party at all, or even from not performing the task via a server (self-hosting).

Post reply on HN