4 ms·

The number of readers of forum comment decays exponentially over time. Is anyone reading years old forum comments looking for insights?

• saagarjha 7y ago
  Yes.
• dredmorbius 7y ago
  It happens rarely, but it happens. The first Usenet posts of Linus regarding Linux, or of Mike Godwin's coinage of Godwin's Law come to mind. The question of how to determine cultural relevance is a hard one. Ordinarily, say, social utterances or discussions wouldn't qualify. If a participant or subject of that discussion ends up in a socially-significant role (high office, head of a major company, etc.), that might change. Contexts vary, and can change over time. At the same time, records are lost with time, there is a forgetting curve, and a few high-water marks stand out, though even those crumble in time. Looking at HN's top-ever stories is an interesting exercise (either Lists or Algolia's search w/o any terms should give this).
• whereistimbo 7y ago
  Yes! It's so frustrating searching on Google, clicking a reddit thread just to find out the important post is already deleted.
• deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
• monort 7y ago
  I read old HN comments quite regularly. When I need insight about some topic, my first search is always through HN comments.