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… and yet here we all are.

• johnchristopher 11y ago
  Does HN fall into the social network category ?
  • rm_-rf_slash 11y ago
    Every human network is a social network. Whether you're on YouTube or Hacker News or a neighborhood book club, your experiences will be shaped by the people in your network. That being said, some platforms are inherently better than others, depending on your definition of "better". The New York Times can be occasionally stringent when reviewing comments but at least it keeps the drivel out. Likewise, HN is a great community because the people here have an expectation that statements of fact require evidence to be taken seriously.
  • rootbear 11y ago
    I don't think so. The signal to noise ratio here is much higher than on typical social media. It's self policing and there are rewards (karma) for good behavior that are absent on most social media. HN to me feels more like early Usenet newsgroups than it does something like Facebook.
    • elcapitan 11y ago
      I appreciate that the ego-factor is very low here. No profiles, no avatars, no 'mentioning' of other people, just the author name of a comment, that's it. Also - hn doesn't center around people, but around topics. That changes the whole thing.