Cool, I was thinking about one for a while, but I see one problem. Harlem Biospace doesn't really scream "Hacker News for Biotech". Not intended to offend the Manhattan based incubator that charges $1k for a desk/month.
We Built a Hacker News for Biotech
51–60 of 86 posts
Re: We Built a Hacker News for Biotech
#52Really, there is a huge field waiting! Hacker News for Astrophysics!
Re: We Built a Hacker News for Biotech
#53No idea how influencial harlembiospace is, but with all those "HN Clones" these days it's worth pointing out that to build an "HN Clone" one should start with being a major player in the respective industry. Compared to that, putting up a forum software is nothing. In the early days HN felt absolutely hardcore to me. Comments were clearly part of an extended (or future) Y-Combinator application (and last time I check…
Changing this comment, the [Pending] thing is stupid.
Back to /r/programming it is then.
Re: We Built a Hacker News for Biotech
#54I think the biggest problem with the homebrew biotech world right now is that even with the labs opening up, there's still such a barrier to entry. There's a "hello world" to biotech, no doubt; extract some DNA from strawberries or explore the tiny world with a consumer microscope. But then what? There doesn't seem to be much potential mid-tier work to be done in biotech. In contrast with software where there is a ve…
I think your points are good ones, and that today's landscape basically requires access to a lab if a biotech product isn't software or a medical device. So for "homebrewers", as you say, it can be challenging to get started.
But there is still a desire to develop biological therapies and tools and businesses around them; I think it stems from the close ties --almost symbiotic ties -- between biotech and academia. It reminds me of the earlier days of computing, where those with big ideas were either working at an academic institution or closely associated with it in some way.
If you are affiliated with an institution, the barrier to start working on something "homebrewed" can be quite low. There has been a great upswing of biotech incubator spaces in the past 5-10 years; I presume this has to be partly driven by demand.
Re: We Built a Hacker News for Biotech
#55This is great! Can anyone suggest a place where coders can reach out to people in non-tech industries and solve real problems for a change?
https://solvers.io Here is the one my team posted if you are interested: https://solvers.io/projects/R4Gr5vQTC8srHktEe
Great that solvers.io is seeing some activity, it's such a good idea.
Re: We Built a Hacker News for Biotech
#56Cool, I was thinking about one for a while, but I see one problem. Harlem Biospace doesn't really scream "Hacker News for Biotech". Not intended to offend the Manhattan based incubator that charges $1k for a desk/month.
Pricing aside, I disagree: YC is in part a startup incubator, no? Those driven to work in an incubator space are precisely the kinds of people who can benefit from a "Hacker News for..." site.
That said, there are many biotech incubators across the country, so perhaps this isn't my/your favorite. But even so, I commend them for getting the site off the ground.
Re: We Built a Hacker News for Biotech
#57Ah, the weekly "hacker news for X".
Remember when it used to be "Digg for X"? I kinda thought subreddits took a lot of the wind out of those sails.
I think there is something about the HN layout that makes it feel more "homegrown", which has no ads or images at all. Kind of reminds me of an old-timey newspaper, or the WSJ "What's News."
Not saying it can't be improved.
Re: We Built a Hacker News for Biotech
#58Cool, I was thinking about one for a while, but I see one problem. Harlem Biospace doesn't really scream "Hacker News for Biotech". Not intended to offend the Manhattan based incubator that charges $1k for a desk/month.
Pricing aside, I disagree: YC is in part a startup incubator, no? Those driven to work in an incubator space are precisely the kinds of people who can benefit from a "Hacker News for..." site. That said, there are many biotech incubators across the country, so perhaps this isn't my/your favorite. But even so, I commend them for getting the site off the ground.
As mentioned in another comment[1], the reason HN grew and got off the ground was because of who was behind the incubator/site. PG was well known in the scene when it started. I certainly commend them for getting the site off the ground, and if it gains traction, major props to them.
However, reading the team, I haven't really found any names I instantly recognize for doing something big/memorable for the industry. I'm not saying they're not qualified, they certainly are. (I'm in the biotech/biomed scene)
Re: We Built a Hacker News for Biotech
#59We see 1 or 2 of these "Hacker News for X" sites a month. Have any of you succeeded and developed a community beyond the spike of interest you received making the HN frontpage?
https://cryptanalys.is is my recently launched HN clone dedicated to cryptocurrencies, cryptography, privacy and security.
My original submission was a complete dud without a single upvote ~23 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7339368
I went to sleep feeling defeated after 2 months of work and went back to the drawing board in the morning.
I've been experimenting with various forms of advertising over the last few weeks since a one markmassie submit this to moderate traction ~19 days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7364288
Unfortunately I was completely unaware of markmassie's submission (I was under the impression that it was impossible to submit the same URL twice to HN) trending on HN and was only able to defend my site and encourage adoption of it about 14 hours after the submission had made the front page and trickled down to the 3rd or 4th page on HN.
So no, I wouldn't say I have "succeeded" yet, but readership and commenting is slowly building: https://cryptanalys.is/newcomments.php
And we seem to have peaked some interests in india apparently: http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/cryptanalys.is
Re: We Built a Hacker News for Biotech
#60TL;DR: For those asking, "WHY?" : It's about control.
Background: Every time there's a new forum site, people often ask, "why not just create a subreddit or facebook group, etc". That would save much code, debugging, & traffic/marketing.
However, the reason people still create 3rd party forum sites is not out of foolishness. Rather, they are trying to control the community, & harvest the benefits of the community over time (by either influencing the community, or selling to the community, or both or more).
I like HN because it's better quality. The harvesting/controlling forces are very benign, & the community here is great at keeping things relevant.
It is a huge challenge, though, to build up a quality community anywhere.