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Ask HN: Forums with quality discourse
What other forums have the same quality of discourse as HN had (and on occasion, still has). The topic doesn't necessarily have to be start-ups. I want a site that has, like HN's guidelines state: "anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity".
Academic Hacker News had potential for a place for a good community. Arc Forum has good discussion, but I'm looking for something more general.
I read that, after the quality of HN fell heaps, some elite users left HN for some greener pastures. Where did they go?
- lunchbox 17y agoSimilar question: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=290733 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=290733 Also, http://lesswrong.com/ http://lesswrong.com/
- someperson 17y agoThanks for the link :D It has been discussed before, but 2 years ago is a long time on the internet - sites die but many more are born. Oh although lesswrong is awesome, I'd love to find a "lesswrong" on technical matters.
- jfarmer 17y agoQuora (http://quora.com http://quora.com)
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- mquander 17y agoFor high-volume general discussion about a broad range of topics, Metafilter is almost always still best, if you ask me.
- anigbrowl 17y agoSeconded. Best $5 you can spend on the internet (to be a member, reading is free).
- petercooper 17y agoI want a site that has, like HN's guidelines state: "anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity". MetaFilter - http://metafilter.com/ http://metafilter.com/ - meets this description, but the definition of "intellectual curiosity" is somewhat wider than on HN - that is, it's more literary and cultural and far less "techie." It's been going over 11 years though (disclaimer: I've been a member for 9). There's also the Joel on Software boards and the just-launched "Gravity" - http://www.gravity.com http://www.gravity.com - has some interesting discussions kicking off already. Other than that, the "programming" sub-Reddit isn't that bad: http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/ http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/
- nopassrecover 17y agoJoel on Software boards are closing. Closest thing I'm aware of now is StackOverflow but opinionative discourse is usually frowned upon there.
- jobenjo 17y agoFluther (http://www.fluther.com http://www.fluther.com)
- Ixiaus 17y agoI used to be a fervent seeker of intellectually stimulating "general" forums/communities too. I've found a few and two things are apparent to me because of the experiences: - without specific focus, you get overrun by people that desire "general" intellectual discussion because it's easier to be general than it is specific and generality always dilutes the culture of a group by introducing subjects that not all are interested in (contrast that with specificity, where a specific focus is shared as a common interest between the participants) - without specific focus, one is arbitrarily created by the."popular" contributors and shuts out any one (by creating a point of focus) that isn't in sync or interested. My advice: figure out what specifically it is that you want to have a dialectic exchange about and find a community for it. Any sort of off topic discussion will occur in their cafe or off topic areas where the same intellectuals will do some cognitive "offload" by talking about other things that are interesting. Philosophy, physics, mathematics, programming, DIY, electronics, space advocacy, psychology, etc... are all subject areas I can think of that have many (stimulating) communities built to serve the sole purpose of exploring and developing ideas and thought for the subject matter. Get specific!
- robk 17y agoI really enjoy flyertalk.com for travel and frequent flyer discussions. Their subdomains for particular programs are ripe with really detailed info how to maximize value from any miles you accumulate (even if you earn the miles through methods other than flying). This was the home of Pudding Guy, the miles hacker who collected yogurt tops and earned something like 10 million frequent flyer miles for < $2,000. That's a lot of free flying.
- revorad 17y agoCheck out http://overcomingbias.com http://overcomingbias.com and http://lesswrong.com http://lesswrong.com. There are some good discussions on Eliezer Yudkowsky's articles: http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~andwhay/postlist.html http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~andwhay/postlist.html.
- rrc 17y agoLambda the Ultimate (http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/ http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/)
- Tawheed 17y agoWhy not start your own?
- someperson 17y agoI'd rather join an already established community than spend a lot of time building up a culture.
- sendos 17y agoStraight Dope message board http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb is pretty good
- rakim 17y agoDude, internet forums will never be places of quality discourse so long as any random person off the street can post a comment.
- someperson 17y agoA read-only (invitation) forum with quality discussion would be fine too. I've heard the vast majority of forum users are lurkers anyway.