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I don't think the internet has quite figured out _prestige_. Twitter, BuzzFeed, Quora, Reddit, and even HN have certainly figured out popularity, network effect
by dluan 11y ago
I don't think the internet has quite figured out _prestige_. Twitter, BuzzFeed, Quora, Reddit, and even HN have certainly figured out popularity, network effects, and buzz, but I don't think social networks can develop prestige, because there's so much elasticity about your social network presence and where you spend your time.
Prestige is such an interesting phenomena, in that it's a weird mix of purchasable brandname and non-purchasable exclusivity. I'm not even sure what the most prestigious website on the internet would be: wikipedia?
- petra 11y agoWhy not ? at least before eternal september , wasn't the HN karma system pretty good ?
- dluan 11y agoIMO voting based networks have some pretty big flaws, beyond obvious ones of gaming and a bias towards recency. Prestige partly works because it's technically hard to game or fake.
- laxatives 11y agoBarrier to entry is pretty tightly coupled (or at least correlated) to exclusivity. I'm sure it depends on the context, but in terms of knowledge based domains, universities/labs/peer reviewed journals are generally going to be the most prestigious. Occasionally a private company might have something exciting and new, but either way its not going to be something readily digestible or accessible. MOOC's service everyone else, who can't digest or access the "prestigious" stuff. At least by this definition of "prestige".