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However there are still plenty of people congregating But not in the same way. I used to know people's lives from IRC and ICQ. I remember chatting online for

by seiji 11y ago

However there are still plenty of people congregating But not in the same way. I used to know people's lives from IRC and ICQ. I remember chatting online for hours. I was interested in their lives and they were interested in mine, and not just in the current vapid "HN cares inordinately about young successful people and old rich people because it gets you in their good graces" sort of way. Now I can't get anybody to return a direct iMessage in less than 3 hours to 2 days and that's from people I already know. HN is kinda useless from a "developing friendships" point of view because it's topic hopping, not just open for daily rambling discussions. Reddit is even worse off because you can't have a meaningful community of 300 million people. We've definitely lost something. I think it'll come back, but we have to engineer it—the past won't circle back on its own with the current barrage of centralized-only, for-private-profit only, fast-flux, buzzfeed-adhd-driven discussion platforms being shoved down our keyboards.

Nadya 11y ago
>I used to know people's lives from IRC and ICQ. I remember chatting online for hours. I was interested in their lives and they were interested in mine, and not just in the current vapid "HN cares inordinately about young successful people and old rich people because it gets you in their good graces" sort of way. Now I can't get anybody to return a direct iMessage in less than 3 hours to 2 days and that's from people I already know. I still use IRC and don't have this problem at all. I've even been in the same IRC channels for nearly 5-6 years now. These random strangers from around the globe know more about me and my interests than my own family.
eropple 11y ago
> I used to know people's lives from IRC and ICQ. I still do. Not even holdover communities; I joined a new community about a year ago, and another two years before that. These folks are cool, I like them, I've met a bunch of them in person whenever they come to town for PAX or whatever. > Now I can't get anybody to return a direct iMessage in less than 3 hours to 2 days and that's from people I already know. That sounds like a friend-selection problem to me.
dTal 11y ago
>HN is kinda useless from a "developing friendships" point of view because it's topic hopping A much larger issue IMHO is the lack of any provision for private messaging (aside from email addresses in profiles).

by seiji 11y ago

Nadya 11y ago

>I used to know people's lives from IRC and ICQ. I remember chatting online for hours. I was interested in their lives and they were interested in mine, and not just in the current vapid "HN cares inordinately about young successful people and old rich people because it gets you in their good graces" sort of way. Now I can't get anybody to return a direct iMessage in less than 3 hours to 2 days and that's from people I already know. I still use IRC and don't have this problem at all. I've even been in the same IRC channels for nearly 5-6 years now. These random strangers from around the globe know more about me and my interests than my own family.

eropple 11y ago

> I used to know people's lives from IRC and ICQ. I still do. Not even holdover communities; I joined a new community about a year ago, and another two years before that. These folks are cool, I like them, I've met a bunch of them in person whenever they come to town for PAX or whatever. > Now I can't get anybody to return a direct iMessage in less than 3 hours to 2 days and that's from people I already know. That sounds like a friend-selection problem to me.

dTal 11y ago

>HN is kinda useless from a "developing friendships" point of view because it's topic hopping A much larger issue IMHO is the lack of any provision for private messaging (aside from email addresses in profiles).