6 ms·

So.. how much cost HN? :) And what/who pay for that?

by d0m 16y ago

jackowayed 16y ago
I'm pretty sure YC pays for it. It's one big server, so it's probably like $1k/month or something. But HN isn't anywhere near 8M active users, and it's pretty slow much of the time and has brief downtime often (multiple times per day, I think) so they can reboot the server to speed it back up.
tomjen3 16y ago
Very little compared to reddit. PG said recently that HN has 60K unique/day. Reddit has around 8Million. In addition to that, the software behind HN doesn't do nearly as much as the reddit software: there is no automatic checking of new messages, there are no sub reddits you need to work on, there are only so many votes to be processed, etc. I have no clue about who pays for what, but I guess PG pays.
- robryan 16y ago
  I would assume though it would be even easier here than on reddit to get people to donate towards server cost should the need ever arise.
  - rick888 16y ago
    The users of reddit are downright hostile toward anyone trying to make money. There was a thread last week about paid accounts. Out of 2000 comments, I think I only found one or two people supporting the idea. Most of the comments were somewhere along the lines of "paid accounts creates two classes of users and everyone should be equal" and "it's not my job to figure out how reddit makes money" (advertisements are actively blocked by 30% of users). When your userbase is filled with college kids and anti-capitalist, you are going to have a tough time making money,
    - zavulon 16y ago
      Yep. I think it's a valuable business lesson: unless you know what your plan to make money is, don't announce that your attitude is "ads are bad". Although I think they'll figure out how to make money, this situation could've been avoided if they ran ads from early on and weren't loudly against them.
    - Locke1689 16y ago
      Many of us are also gainfully employed/work in the "real world" ;)
    - saulhoward 16y ago
      There had been a donation drive the week prior to that, which was very well supported. I think people were saying that they thought the idea of 'paid accounts' just wasn't going to work as well as the donation drive had. The idea being that once people are paying for a actual service they expect more for their money. After all, they're aiming for 2% of the userbase subscribing. That's a large number when they're offering basically nothing of value in return. I know other 'freemium' business get 1-2% subscribers, but surely that's when they're offering a real improvement in the service, such as Dropbox's 2GB -> 20GB.
    - Super_Jambo 16y ago
      Being anti-advertising is no the same as being anti-capitalist. There is a good argument that advertising actively moves you away from the EMH which is one of the strongest arguments in favor of capitalism.
      - rick888 16y ago
        "There is a good argument that advertising actively moves you away from the EMH which is one of the strongest arguments in favor of capitalism." I said anti-capitalist because many people were against advertisements and the gold accounts. While there may be many people lurking on reddit that are not anti-capitalist, it's a sentiment I see in almost every topic related to making money on that site.
    - jasonlotito 16y ago
  - masklinn 16y ago
    You shouldn't. It probably isn't the case.

So.. how much cost HN? :) And what/who pay for that?

by d0m 16y ago

So.. how much cost HN? :) And what/who pay for that?

I'm pretty sure YC pays for it. It's one big server, so it's probably like $1k/month or something. But HN isn't anywhere near 8M active users, and it's pretty slow much of the time and has brief downtime often (multiple times per day, I think) so they can reboot the server to speed it back up.

tomjen3 16y ago

Very little compared to reddit. PG said recently that HN has 60K unique/day. Reddit has around 8Million. In addition to that, the software behind HN doesn't do nearly as much as the reddit software: there is no automatic checking of new messages, there are no sub reddits you need to work on, there are only so many votes to be processed, etc. I have no clue about who pays for what, but I guess PG pays.

robryan 16y ago
I would assume though it would be even easier here than on reddit to get people to donate towards server cost should the need ever arise.
- rick888 16y ago
  The users of reddit are downright hostile toward anyone trying to make money. There was a thread last week about paid accounts. Out of 2000 comments, I think I only found one or two people supporting the idea. Most of the comments were somewhere along the lines of "paid accounts creates two classes of users and everyone should be equal" and "it's not my job to figure out how reddit makes money" (advertisements are actively blocked by 30% of users). When your userbase is filled with college kids and anti-capitalist, you are going to have a tough time making money,
  - zavulon 16y ago
    Yep. I think it's a valuable business lesson: unless you know what your plan to make money is, don't announce that your attitude is "ads are bad". Although I think they'll figure out how to make money, this situation could've been avoided if they ran ads from early on and weren't loudly against them.
  - Locke1689 16y ago
    Many of us are also gainfully employed/work in the "real world" ;)
  - saulhoward 16y ago
    There had been a donation drive the week prior to that, which was very well supported. I think people were saying that they thought the idea of 'paid accounts' just wasn't going to work as well as the donation drive had. The idea being that once people are paying for a actual service they expect more for their money. After all, they're aiming for 2% of the userbase subscribing. That's a large number when they're offering basically nothing of value in return. I know other 'freemium' business get 1-2% subscribers, but surely that's when they're offering a real improvement in the service, such as Dropbox's 2GB -> 20GB.
  - Super_Jambo 16y ago
    Being anti-advertising is no the same as being anti-capitalist. There is a good argument that advertising actively moves you away from the EMH which is one of the strongest arguments in favor of capitalism.
    - rick888 16y ago
      "There is a good argument that advertising actively moves you away from the EMH which is one of the strongest arguments in favor of capitalism." I said anti-capitalist because many people were against advertisements and the gold accounts. While there may be many people lurking on reddit that are not anti-capitalist, it's a sentiment I see in almost every topic related to making money on that site.
  - jasonlotito 16y ago
- masklinn 16y ago
  You shouldn't. It probably isn't the case.