3 ms·

A lot of people check hacker news daily. Good content gets upvoted and spam is removed. Also HN is a place for rational discussions not trolls

brudgers 10y ago
I was wondering how you think Hacker News achieves those things. Why do people keep coming back? Why is there rational discussion [at least sometimes]? Why is there good content? What prompted my question was the survey asking about tags. It seemed premised on the idea that tags are a useful feature. But Hacker News does not have them.
- bemmu 10y ago
  The community was seeded from people who found out about it through either Paul Graham's essays or Y Combinator. After that deterioration was prevented by strongly discouraging low quality discussion.
  - cookiecaper 10y ago
    Yes, the high caliber of HN participants is what really sets it apart, and the great moderation by dang et al that stops it from descending below a pretty high bar has prevented the normal attrition-for-attention that drives the best users away. I think the spartan design has also helped keep out people who aren't committed to a high level of online discourse. Most platforms are going to have a chicken and egg problem. HN didn't because this guy who had millions of dollars told the people he gives it to to use HN. Pretty effective way of seeding a community. IMO the absolute best thing about HN is that when we're discussing a news event, often the newsmakers will materialize in the thread. Spontaneous stuff like the Alan Kay AMA just happens. That is what really makes HN invaluable, and it only happens because we're able to maintain the type of community that those people want to hang around in.
  - AstroJetson 10y ago
    Yes, started with a good core that has a group set to be nice, thoughtful, and post smart things. Moderation by deng is pretty amazing, I seldom things go off the rails. Nice place to visit!!
- pvsukale3 10y ago
  I personally don't know how hacker news achieved these things. will have look deeper into its history and moderation , ranking mechanisms.I personally think that tagging should be allowed on HN. Tags can be very limited in number but will be helpful for its audience to separate out interesting links. The reason HN still managed to do good without tags is the culture itself.The hacker culture is not limited to any domain (tag). What stimulates a human brain to think becomes part of HN discussion.
  - jswrenn 10y ago
    Have you seen https://lobste.rs/ https://lobste.rs/ ? I think they get tagging basically right.
    - Kiro 10y ago
      How is their tagging different from any other tagging?
    - pvsukale3 10y ago
      yeah .I wonder why it requires an invite to sign-up.
  - skewart 10y ago
    Are there any popular HN clients that support tagging? It seems like something a good number of people want. Maybe it could be added on top of HN by a third party if a client app/site had enough people to support it. It's never been something I've wanted, but I can see the appeal.
- swampthinker 10y ago
  Focus and good moderation. It's better to think of HN as a mid-sized, well moderated subreddit, than a comparison to Reddit as a website. You'll see that as subreddit grow bigger and become "default", content quality often slides. This can often be stemmed by good moderation, but they only have so much power with the limited tools Reddit gives them. HN's moderators are also the programmers of this website, so if they need a new tool? Bam, new tool.
- witty_username 10y ago
  I think it's because of how the discussion already is influences new participants. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory) For example, I have posted ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) on Reddit (and it is often upvoted), but I wouldn't do so on HN. The cultures are different.
- Springtime 10y ago
  The quality of experience, technical knowledge, curiosity, moderation, and general conflict-free discussion along with a style of site that intentionally dissuades a mainstream audience [1] is what I've always seen as setting HN apart. Frequently HN will be the source of many unique insights into stories, personal anecdotes from those familiar with companies mentioned, and other tidbits that often can't be found elsewhere. Low quality posts on the other hand such as fluff replies, memes, or the odd rude post will get downvoted or simply not upvoted to demonstrate to others it's not something the community wants to see, with more thoughtful posts especially from those with experience in a topic rising to the top and sparking engaging discussions and questions. I appreciate that all users until they reach a certain karma level don't see a downvote button. Rather than downvote something to influence the order of comments most users will upvote ones they like, which is subtly a more positive system. Over time all these things cultivate a certain culture that spreads and attracts other like minded users. All this and the community has still managed to not become generally snarky, patronizing, or too insular itself. The life experience, focus on more technical topics, along with still retaining some humor helps. [1] Paul Graham: "So the most important thing a community site can do is attract the kind of people it wants. A site trying to be as big as possible wants to attract everyone. But a site aiming at a particular subset of users has to attract just those—and just as importantly, repel everyone else. I've made a conscious effort to do this on HN. The graphic design is as plain as possible, and the site rules discourage dramatic link titles. The goal is that the only thing to interest someone arriving at HN for the first time should be the ideas expressed there." http://paulgraham.com/hackernews.html http://paulgraham.com/hackernews.html
CodeWriter23 10y ago
> Also HN is a place for rational discussions not trolls This forum is however subject to groupthink. I have witnessed participants being downvoted and hellbanned simply for having a dissenting opinion. Unless by "troll" you mean anyone who disagrees with the popular views on this forum.

brudgers 10y ago

I was wondering how you think Hacker News achieves those things. Why do people keep coming back? Why is there rational discussion [at least sometimes]? Why is there good content? What prompted my question was the survey asking about tags. It seemed premised on the idea that tags are a useful feature. But Hacker News does not have them.

bemmu 10y ago
The community was seeded from people who found out about it through either Paul Graham's essays or Y Combinator. After that deterioration was prevented by strongly discouraging low quality discussion.
- cookiecaper 10y ago
  Yes, the high caliber of HN participants is what really sets it apart, and the great moderation by dang et al that stops it from descending below a pretty high bar has prevented the normal attrition-for-attention that drives the best users away. I think the spartan design has also helped keep out people who aren't committed to a high level of online discourse. Most platforms are going to have a chicken and egg problem. HN didn't because this guy who had millions of dollars told the people he gives it to to use HN. Pretty effective way of seeding a community. IMO the absolute best thing about HN is that when we're discussing a news event, often the newsmakers will materialize in the thread. Spontaneous stuff like the Alan Kay AMA just happens. That is what really makes HN invaluable, and it only happens because we're able to maintain the type of community that those people want to hang around in.
- AstroJetson 10y ago
  Yes, started with a good core that has a group set to be nice, thoughtful, and post smart things. Moderation by deng is pretty amazing, I seldom things go off the rails. Nice place to visit!!
pvsukale3 10y ago
I personally don't know how hacker news achieved these things. will have look deeper into its history and moderation , ranking mechanisms.I personally think that tagging should be allowed on HN. Tags can be very limited in number but will be helpful for its audience to separate out interesting links. The reason HN still managed to do good without tags is the culture itself.The hacker culture is not limited to any domain (tag). What stimulates a human brain to think becomes part of HN discussion.
- jswrenn 10y ago
  Have you seen https://lobste.rs/ https://lobste.rs/ ? I think they get tagging basically right.
  - Kiro 10y ago
    How is their tagging different from any other tagging?
  - pvsukale3 10y ago
    yeah .I wonder why it requires an invite to sign-up.
- skewart 10y ago
  Are there any popular HN clients that support tagging? It seems like something a good number of people want. Maybe it could be added on top of HN by a third party if a client app/site had enough people to support it. It's never been something I've wanted, but I can see the appeal.
swampthinker 10y ago
Focus and good moderation. It's better to think of HN as a mid-sized, well moderated subreddit, than a comparison to Reddit as a website. You'll see that as subreddit grow bigger and become "default", content quality often slides. This can often be stemmed by good moderation, but they only have so much power with the limited tools Reddit gives them. HN's moderators are also the programmers of this website, so if they need a new tool? Bam, new tool.
witty_username 10y ago
I think it's because of how the discussion already is influences new participants. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory) For example, I have posted ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) on Reddit (and it is often upvoted), but I wouldn't do so on HN. The cultures are different.
Springtime 10y ago
The quality of experience, technical knowledge, curiosity, moderation, and general conflict-free discussion along with a style of site that intentionally dissuades a mainstream audience [1] is what I've always seen as setting HN apart. Frequently HN will be the source of many unique insights into stories, personal anecdotes from those familiar with companies mentioned, and other tidbits that often can't be found elsewhere. Low quality posts on the other hand such as fluff replies, memes, or the odd rude post will get downvoted or simply not upvoted to demonstrate to others it's not something the community wants to see, with more thoughtful posts especially from those with experience in a topic rising to the top and sparking engaging discussions and questions. I appreciate that all users until they reach a certain karma level don't see a downvote button. Rather than downvote something to influence the order of comments most users will upvote ones they like, which is subtly a more positive system. Over time all these things cultivate a certain culture that spreads and attracts other like minded users. All this and the community has still managed to not become generally snarky, patronizing, or too insular itself. The life experience, focus on more technical topics, along with still retaining some humor helps. [1] Paul Graham: "So the most important thing a community site can do is attract the kind of people it wants. A site trying to be as big as possible wants to attract everyone. But a site aiming at a particular subset of users has to attract just those—and just as importantly, repel everyone else. I've made a conscious effort to do this on HN. The graphic design is as plain as possible, and the site rules discourage dramatic link titles. The goal is that the only thing to interest someone arriving at HN for the first time should be the ideas expressed there." http://paulgraham.com/hackernews.html http://paulgraham.com/hackernews.html

CodeWriter23 10y ago

> Also HN is a place for rational discussions not trolls This forum is however subject to groupthink. I have witnessed participants being downvoted and hellbanned simply for having a dissenting opinion. Unless by "troll" you mean anyone who disagrees with the popular views on this forum.