5 ms·

What purpose does this serve? Maybe you could explain to me why someone would do this? What is the benefit of using several different domains instead of subdoma

by hooande 16y ago

What purpose does this serve? Maybe you could explain to me why someone would do this? What is the benefit of using several different domains instead of subdomains or subfolders on the general site?

mikerhoads 16y ago
Would HN be better or worse if it were just a category on Digg? The specialized domain/community allows users to get into much more detailed discussions about their topics and it helps filter out contributors with just a passing interest. This increases the reliability of the information shared and the quality of the discussions.
Jasber 16y ago
For the same reason StackExchange breaks up their Q/A sites into niches. It's a better experience for the user. It creates a community around the niche. A brand. It builds momentum faster. What if StackOverflow, MathOverflow and Startups were all part of the same general site? It would get messy. It would lose a lot of its value from being domain specific. Also it's better for advertisers. It's a good idea. There's nothing wrong with what Mahalo is doing here.
tzs 16y ago
"Hey Bob! I found the answer to that Star Wars question we were discussing at lunch yesterday on this great site, generalsite.com/topics/starwars". A couple days later, Bob wants to go there to check out another Star Wars question. All Bob remembers is "starwars", and fails to find the site. Compare to "Hey Bob! I found the answer to that Star Wars question we were discussing at lunch yesterday on this great site, starwarsanswers.com". A couple days later, Bob wants to go there to check out another Star Wars question. Bob has a good chance of remembering "starwarsanswers". Separate domains for different topics is more friendly to users. That's probably why Google has no problem with it--as the Google guy said, its impact on users they care about.
- mvandemar 16y ago
  There are 14 questions on a site with 308 indexed pages, such as: http://www.starwarsanswers.com/travel-how-tos http://www.starwarsanswers.com/travel-how-tos http://www.starwarsanswers.com/language-how-tos http://www.starwarsanswers.com/language-how-tos http://www.starwarsanswers.com/health-how-tos http://www.starwarsanswers.com/health-how-tos http://www.starwarsanswers.com/home-garden-how-tos http://www.starwarsanswers.com/home-garden-how-tos http://www.starwarsanswers.com/wedding-how-tos http://www.starwarsanswers.com/wedding-how-tos http://www.starwarsanswers.com/dance-how-tos http://www.starwarsanswers.com/dance-how-tos http://www.starwarsanswers.com/black-belt-test http://www.starwarsanswers.com/black-belt-test http://www.starwarsanswers.com/mahalo-profile http://www.starwarsanswers.com/mahalo-profile
  - Isofarro 16y ago
    These are all empty pages. They look characteristic to pages that were not designed to be there or linked to. A bug rather than a feature. How do you navigate to these pages from the starwarsanswers.com homepage? I don't see any of those listed on the right hand margin. Sure, they may have been exposed because of a deployment error early on that has now been fixed. Looks to be a basic website error than something attributable to malice.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]

by hooande 16y ago

What purpose does this serve? Maybe you could explain to me why someone would do this? What is the benefit of using several different domains instead of subdomains or subfolders on the general site?

mikerhoads 16y ago

Would HN be better or worse if it were just a category on Digg? The specialized domain/community allows users to get into much more detailed discussions about their topics and it helps filter out contributors with just a passing interest. This increases the reliability of the information shared and the quality of the discussions.

Jasber 16y ago

For the same reason StackExchange breaks up their Q/A sites into niches. It's a better experience for the user. It creates a community around the niche. A brand. It builds momentum faster. What if StackOverflow, MathOverflow and Startups were all part of the same general site? It would get messy. It would lose a lot of its value from being domain specific. Also it's better for advertisers. It's a good idea. There's nothing wrong with what Mahalo is doing here.

tzs 16y ago

"Hey Bob! I found the answer to that Star Wars question we were discussing at lunch yesterday on this great site, generalsite.com/topics/starwars". A couple days later, Bob wants to go there to check out another Star Wars question. All Bob remembers is "starwars", and fails to find the site. Compare to "Hey Bob! I found the answer to that Star Wars question we were discussing at lunch yesterday on this great site, starwarsanswers.com". A couple days later, Bob wants to go there to check out another Star Wars question. Bob has a good chance of remembering "starwarsanswers". Separate domains for different topics is more friendly to users. That's probably why Google has no problem with it--as the Google guy said, its impact on users they care about.

mvandemar 16y ago
There are 14 questions on a site with 308 indexed pages, such as: http://www.starwarsanswers.com/travel-how-tos http://www.starwarsanswers.com/travel-how-tos http://www.starwarsanswers.com/language-how-tos http://www.starwarsanswers.com/language-how-tos http://www.starwarsanswers.com/health-how-tos http://www.starwarsanswers.com/health-how-tos http://www.starwarsanswers.com/home-garden-how-tos http://www.starwarsanswers.com/home-garden-how-tos http://www.starwarsanswers.com/wedding-how-tos http://www.starwarsanswers.com/wedding-how-tos http://www.starwarsanswers.com/dance-how-tos http://www.starwarsanswers.com/dance-how-tos http://www.starwarsanswers.com/black-belt-test http://www.starwarsanswers.com/black-belt-test http://www.starwarsanswers.com/mahalo-profile http://www.starwarsanswers.com/mahalo-profile
- Isofarro 16y ago
  These are all empty pages. They look characteristic to pages that were not designed to be there or linked to. A bug rather than a feature. How do you navigate to these pages from the starwarsanswers.com homepage? I don't see any of those listed on the right hand margin. Sure, they may have been exposed because of a deployment error early on that has now been fixed. Looks to be a basic website error than something attributable to malice.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]