How to Build a Community: Starting with “Why?” • Hacker News Board

Re: How to Build a Community: Starting with “Why?”

#31

Post by chiefalchemist » Sat, Mar 06, 2021, 4:25 PM UTC

vector_spaces wrote: post #21

chiefalchemist wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes and no. Rule #1 for starting a community - and starting is not the same as later - is to establish a strong and tight knit core.* That's more important than trying to appeal to _everyone_. Is that elitist? Or smart? Religious beliefs aside (read: it's simply an example), look at Christianity. One guy and twelve disciples. I'm not a preacher but I don't think Jesus was elitist :) * The same can be said of product.…

Elitism and differentiation aren't the same, and in particular the latter doesn't imply the former (and likewise for elitism and exclusivity). You are right about exclusivity and differentiation being effective strategies and gave good examples for how they are useful. I am usually impressed by the ability of folks on HN to disagree while keeping the conversation civil & interesting, especially when compared with oth…

Fair play. Riff raff was a quick lazy choice. That said, one trip to Yahoo Answers - or whatever it was called - or similar and riff raff might be too kind. :)

Maybe we describe others as "less thorough and more emotional"?

To your point about HN, there's definitely - at least on some topics - a very narrow view; plenty of group think. Plenty of times, I've been down voted for not staying in line. Not for being wrong, or adversarial, etc. But for not thinking with the group.

Re: How to Build a Community: Starting with “Why?”

#32

Post by darig » Sat, Mar 06, 2021, 4:37 PM UTC

As in, "Why" aren't you calling it what it really is, a Cult.

We already have a community. It's called Earth. Stop trying to exploit us.

Re: How to Build a Community: Starting with “Why?”

#33

Post by Firehawke » Sat, Mar 06, 2021, 7:05 PM UTC

vector_spaces wrote: post #15

chiefalchemist wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect it was something along the lines of: "There no place for people like us, to discuss thing we like to discuss, in a (civil facts-based) way that appeals to us (but not the riff raff we see elsewhere).

This feels a bit elitist to me. I also doubt that there's a single unifying narrative that applies to every user of this forum. For me, browsing HN is a low effort way to get exposed to tech stuff I might not otherwise, and read industry news and interesting takes on that news. There's nothing particularly high minded about my usage. Don't get me wrong, the high quality discussion is pretty special, but the "riff raf…

If you view it from the perspective of people who watched Slashdot fall apart, it seems a lot less elitist and more pragmatic about SNR.

Re: How to Build a Community: Starting with “Why?”

#34

Post by hoi234 » Sat, Mar 06, 2021, 9:07 PM UTC

rectang wrote: post #14

hoi234 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The assumption that learning to program is an unalloyed good pervades the world, especially the USA. I never see any analysis that concludes "programming takes lots of work, requires skill sets that not everyone possesses in equal measure, and often can't justify the ROI". I'd like to see an article on why you should not learn to program.

I've actually seen plenty of "not everyone needs to learn to program" articles. https://www.google.com/search?q=not+everyone+needs+to+learn+... I'd like to see analogous skeptical articles about community building.

Short of writing your own, you'll have to wait until the shrillness of "OMG you have to learn community-building NOW or else you'll be sleeping in a cardboard box on the streets" reaches the same levels as learning programming so that sufficient numbers call out the BS in such hype.

Re: How to Build a Community: Starting with “Why?”

#35

Post by EarthLaunch » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 10:18 PM UTC

bflies wrote: post #12

EarthLaunch wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a community without video and livestreaming in 2021. Especially amongst long term usernames. Multiplayer game communities - not the watchers but the players - are also one. I enjoyed the article but realized reading it there are different types of community. The form discussed there is more business/promotional, which is different from HN or MMOs.

Successful communities without any video exposure started ages before 2021, eg HN.

There are plenty that started in 2020. I cannot recommend any of them to you.