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HN is the newsfeed of Ycombinator -- it's right there in the URL -- which is a start-up incubator. They've got a vested interest in promoting their start-ups,

HN is the newsfeed of Ycombinator -- it's right there in the URL -- which is a start-up incubator. They've got a vested interest in promoting their start-ups, and keeping discussions about their former startups as positive as possible. Like, if they're not making money from adds or in-app purchases (aka reddit gold), then their value is in shaping consensus. So assume everything on here has some freakin HUGE biases.

dang 7y ago
This comment misunderstands the basics of how we manage HN to benefit YC. People naturally assume the worst, but it's important to know how HN actually works, because we're luckier than that here. The way to maximize HN's value for YC is to have HN be as good as possible, where 'good' means gratifying intellectual curiosity. That's what makes the community happy, and the community is what's valuable about HN. Since a happy-community HN is the most valuable-to-YC HN, that's all we try to optimize for. HN is in an odd sort of sweet spot on the internet where the way it can best serve the business interests of its owner is simply by being as good as possible. We don't have to juice engagement, pump numbers up, and so on. We can just be 'bookish', something pg used to say he wanted for this place. Like I said, we're lucky that way. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20yc%20business%20interests&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20curiosity%20optimiz&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... So no, we don't focus on promoting startups or keeping discussions about YC startups as positive as possible. (There are plenty of negative ones. Just look in on any Airbnb thread.) The community wouldn't be happy if we did that, nor would it be good for intellectual curiosity, so we don't. We do use moderation as a counterweight against predictable indignation in general (on any topic). But we do that kind of moderation thing less, not more, when YC or YC startups are involved—see https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20moderate%20less%20not%20more%20yc&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu.... There are three formal things that HN does do for YC: job ads for YC startups (which appear on the front page and then https://news.ycombinator.com/jobs https://news.ycombinator.com/jobs), Launch HNs for YC startups (which appear on the front page and then https://news.ycombinator.com/launches https://news.ycombinator.com/launches), and usernames of YC alumni appearing in orange to other YC alumni. Those are definitely special privileges. We do that as a way of giving back to YC in exchange for funding HN. But we keep them very delimited and explicit. I really need to add this to the FAQ.

dang 7y ago

This comment misunderstands the basics of how we manage HN to benefit YC. People naturally assume the worst, but it's important to know how HN actually works, because we're luckier than that here. The way to maximize HN's value for YC is to have HN be as good as possible, where 'good' means gratifying intellectual curiosity. That's what makes the community happy, and the community is what's valuable about HN. Since a happy-community HN is the most valuable-to-YC HN, that's all we try to optimize for. HN is in an odd sort of sweet spot on the internet where the way it can best serve the business interests of its owner is simply by being as good as possible. We don't have to juice engagement, pump numbers up, and so on. We can just be 'bookish', something pg used to say he wanted for this place. Like I said, we're lucky that way. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20yc%20business%20interests&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20curiosity%20optimiz&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... So no, we don't focus on promoting startups or keeping discussions about YC startups as positive as possible. (There are plenty of negative ones. Just look in on any Airbnb thread.) The community wouldn't be happy if we did that, nor would it be good for intellectual curiosity, so we don't. We do use moderation as a counterweight against predictable indignation in general (on any topic). But we do that kind of moderation thing less, not more, when YC or YC startups are involved—see https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20moderate%20less%20not%20more%20yc&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu.... There are three formal things that HN does do for YC: job ads for YC startups (which appear on the front page and then https://news.ycombinator.com/jobs https://news.ycombinator.com/jobs), Launch HNs for YC startups (which appear on the front page and then https://news.ycombinator.com/launches https://news.ycombinator.com/launches), and usernames of YC alumni appearing in orange to other YC alumni. Those are definitely special privileges. We do that as a way of giving back to YC in exchange for funding HN. But we keep them very delimited and explicit. I really need to add this to the FAQ.