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I'm interested in almost every item on the hn front page from 3 years ago. Now I'm usually interested in only about 25% of them. I wonder what's changed, me o

by edw519 17y ago

I'm interested in almost every item on the hn front page from 3 years ago. Now I'm usually interested in only about 25% of them. I wonder what's changed, me or hn?

winter_blue 17y ago
It's sad that HN had lost so much of its former quality. Makes me yearn for the good old days.
philh 17y ago
If you're comparing your current interest in two iterations of hn, presumably it's hn that's changed. For myself, if anything I'm more interested in today's front page, but there's not much in it. And I'm more into the hacking aspect than startups specifically, which might be relevant.
iamwil 17y ago
Probably half and half. I read less than half of the stuff on HN now. Part of it is a lot of it is not new now. I've read a lot about the lean startups, or joel's ben and jerry vs amazon, or mel the programmer, or the 500 mile email. I've been here long enough to have seen repeats of the same themes. As you grow, the less things surprise you, and hence perhaps less interesting. And the other part is that I don't really care for the apple gossip, or a picture of woz, or the lighter stuff, but then again, I've only sporatically submitted stuff too. I've noticed you've submitted less stuff and don't participate as much. The edw519 era has gone, where you submitted stuff and commented. Nowadays, it's the patio11 era, where he submits his own stuff and comments.
- iamwil 17y ago
  Then again, glancing at the front page, there are still interesting things. Perhaps I just have less time to read it all and this is a compromise.
- edw519 17y ago
  The edw519 era has gone Oh I sure hope not. I love building things. I love hacker news. And I love talking about building things on hacker news. It just seems that lately, I've been doing a whole lot more building than talking. Whenever I take my hn breaks, not much on the front page jumps out at me, so I just get right back to work. (This is a good thing). It's probably just another phase. For the edw519 era to be truly gone, they'd have to pry my keyboard from my OCD hands. [Ditto on patio11. Great stuff.]
  - yan 17y ago
    http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9357 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9357 :)
  - iamwil 17y ago
    Haha, great! I just notice that you've been posting less. And where the heck is nickb? He also disappeared off the leader board, so I have my suspicions. :) hrm.
    - philwelch 17y ago
      A lot of people whose karma otherwise rate leaderboard status have been manually removed (especially pg). In nickb's case, it's likely because his account has been dormant for almost a year. He may have passed away (http://markenomics.com/item?id=395 http://markenomics.com/item?id=395) but it's also likely he just decided to take his leave of Hacker News and a number of other online communities.
- sophacles 17y ago
  When I first found HN I would eat up every design and technical story. I was all "w00t new knowledge!". Now I look at half the stories and go "bah, I bet that guy just discovered closures" or whatever. Amusingly, at that time I had been looking for a new "way technical" community to learn from, and now I'm here going "man, either HN sucks or i need to level-up". Looking at the 3 years ago page, I realized I need to go level-up. tl;dr -- anecdotal evidence of iamwill's point.
tptacek 17y ago
Apart from the Apple stories, the lists look pretty similar to me.
- alexgartrell 17y ago
  Less the Apple stories, it's certainly not "harder" news than we have today. 2. "I'm addicted to YC News" 23. "Worst Company Names" 24. "How to Kung-Fu Battle with investors" FWIW, I've seen no discernible drop in quality since I registered here about a year ago.
  - chaostheory 17y ago
    > FWIW, I've seen no discernible drop in quality since I registered here about a year ago. It already changed by the time you joined. News.yc used to be primarily about subjects that interested entrepreneurial programmers. It still is to a degree but now it's mainly another variant of Slashdot.
    - alexgartrell 17y ago
      I don't disagree that the entrepreneurship has taken a backseat. It just never bothered me, because I'm not an entrepreneur. HN has changed, absolutely, but that doesn't make it any worse than it was.
      - chaostheory 17y ago
        Like I said, the changes were already in effect when you first joined so I'm not surprised that you feel that way. I think this discussion is more relevant for users that have been here for at least 3 years.
    - tptacek 17y ago
      A search on Slashdot for "lean startup" returns zero relevant results. Maybe Slashdot's search is just busted, but I suspect your comparison is a tad hyperbolic.
dhimes 17y ago
I even feel like upvoting some of the comments. Edit: doesn't work btw
chaostheory 17y ago
IMO The changes in content probably stems to new.yc's name change from "Startup News" into "Hacker News". I should start changing the content that I post.
bradgessler 17y ago
I found the % of interesting stories the same as is today.

by edw519 17y ago

I'm interested in almost every item on the hn front page from 3 years ago. Now I'm usually interested in only about 25% of them. I wonder what's changed, me or hn?

winter_blue 17y ago

It's sad that HN had lost so much of its former quality. Makes me yearn for the good old days.

philh 17y ago

If you're comparing your current interest in two iterations of hn, presumably it's hn that's changed. For myself, if anything I'm more interested in today's front page, but there's not much in it. And I'm more into the hacking aspect than startups specifically, which might be relevant.

iamwil 17y ago

Probably half and half. I read less than half of the stuff on HN now. Part of it is a lot of it is not new now. I've read a lot about the lean startups, or joel's ben and jerry vs amazon, or mel the programmer, or the 500 mile email. I've been here long enough to have seen repeats of the same themes. As you grow, the less things surprise you, and hence perhaps less interesting. And the other part is that I don't really care for the apple gossip, or a picture of woz, or the lighter stuff, but then again, I've only sporatically submitted stuff too. I've noticed you've submitted less stuff and don't participate as much. The edw519 era has gone, where you submitted stuff and commented. Nowadays, it's the patio11 era, where he submits his own stuff and comments.

iamwil 17y ago
Then again, glancing at the front page, there are still interesting things. Perhaps I just have less time to read it all and this is a compromise.
edw519 17y ago
The edw519 era has gone Oh I sure hope not. I love building things. I love hacker news. And I love talking about building things on hacker news. It just seems that lately, I've been doing a whole lot more building than talking. Whenever I take my hn breaks, not much on the front page jumps out at me, so I just get right back to work. (This is a good thing). It's probably just another phase. For the edw519 era to be truly gone, they'd have to pry my keyboard from my OCD hands. [Ditto on patio11. Great stuff.]
- yan 17y ago
  http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9357 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9357 :)
- iamwil 17y ago
  Haha, great! I just notice that you've been posting less. And where the heck is nickb? He also disappeared off the leader board, so I have my suspicions. :) hrm.
  - philwelch 17y ago
    A lot of people whose karma otherwise rate leaderboard status have been manually removed (especially pg). In nickb's case, it's likely because his account has been dormant for almost a year. He may have passed away (http://markenomics.com/item?id=395 http://markenomics.com/item?id=395) but it's also likely he just decided to take his leave of Hacker News and a number of other online communities.
sophacles 17y ago
When I first found HN I would eat up every design and technical story. I was all "w00t new knowledge!". Now I look at half the stories and go "bah, I bet that guy just discovered closures" or whatever. Amusingly, at that time I had been looking for a new "way technical" community to learn from, and now I'm here going "man, either HN sucks or i need to level-up". Looking at the 3 years ago page, I realized I need to go level-up. tl;dr -- anecdotal evidence of iamwill's point.

tptacek 17y ago

Apart from the Apple stories, the lists look pretty similar to me.

alexgartrell 17y ago
Less the Apple stories, it's certainly not "harder" news than we have today. 2. "I'm addicted to YC News" 23. "Worst Company Names" 24. "How to Kung-Fu Battle with investors" FWIW, I've seen no discernible drop in quality since I registered here about a year ago.
- chaostheory 17y ago
  > FWIW, I've seen no discernible drop in quality since I registered here about a year ago. It already changed by the time you joined. News.yc used to be primarily about subjects that interested entrepreneurial programmers. It still is to a degree but now it's mainly another variant of Slashdot.
  - alexgartrell 17y ago
    I don't disagree that the entrepreneurship has taken a backseat. It just never bothered me, because I'm not an entrepreneur. HN has changed, absolutely, but that doesn't make it any worse than it was.
    - chaostheory 17y ago
      Like I said, the changes were already in effect when you first joined so I'm not surprised that you feel that way. I think this discussion is more relevant for users that have been here for at least 3 years.
  - tptacek 17y ago
    A search on Slashdot for "lean startup" returns zero relevant results. Maybe Slashdot's search is just busted, but I suspect your comparison is a tad hyperbolic.

dhimes 17y ago

I even feel like upvoting some of the comments. Edit: doesn't work btw

chaostheory 17y ago

IMO The changes in content probably stems to new.yc's name change from "Startup News" into "Hacker News". I should start changing the content that I post.

bradgessler 17y ago

I found the % of interesting stories the same as is today.