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Your question presupposes HN is a community. To the extent that community is “a group of people with shared interests,” I don’t know how you would define that a

Your question presupposes HN is a community. To the extent that community is “a group of people with shared interests,” I don’t know how you would define that as healthy or not - health refers to fitness for function, and there’s no inherent function in “common interests.” The bar there is essentially, “does the community impede bullshitting and sharing links of interest?” No, it doesn’t, cool, it must be healthy. But I think most anthropologists define community as traditionally involving shared resources and problems. Traditionally this entailed a geographic proximity, but it didn’t have to (e.g., the HIV activist community in the 80s and 90s). Given that geography isn’t actually a requirement, you might ask a fair question: what proportion of online “communities” are communities at all, and does that relate to their “health”, however you define it. In that instance, you might refer to health as the ability to marshal resources to effectively manage those problems. By that definition, HN isn’t a community at all - it marshals no resources, tackles no problems, and has no common set of either. Health is orthogonal.

sankalpb 7y ago
Thanks for raising this point on whether or not 'community' can be reasonably used here, as it's an important one. Admittedly, I did not push deeper on the term 'community' at first, though I notice that the HN Welcome tab refers to this space as a 'community site'. That may well just be a descriptor for the site, but that doesn't adequately address your point. I haven't trained as an anthropologist, so the aspect about 'shared resources and problems' is helpful for me see here. Would you say, 'community' can be multiple in its definition by different members of a group? Would you say that any or all all members of a group must collectively agree on the status of their group as a 'community' to in fact be considered a community?
- joveian 7y ago
  The word community can be used in a huge variety of ways. The aiksaurus headings are simulation, town meeting, sharing, society, body. In many uses it just means place. In some sense pushing back against any particular usage of a word with such a range of meanings is not a particularly useful task. On the other hand, community is often used as a positive term and it is useful to unpack it in more detail in that circumstance since it is often abused in its generality for marketing or political purposes. One aspect to consider is why the word community is used in a particular situation rather than some other word. I think it is more useful when looking deeper to consider to what extent particular aspects of community could be applied in a particular case and how different people might use the term rather than "community? yes or no". Often the word community can relate to how people relate to each other in terms of providing daily needs. From that perspective the term is including the regular and excluding the occasional. Many people do interact with HN regularly over extended periods. In another sense it can relate to personal rather than professional or impersonal contact with others. Personally I find it a bit jarring in the context of HN being described as a community to see people talking about how it would be healthier if people didn't try to have personal conversations. But it is a feature of HN to generally discourage personal conversations and at the same time many commenters do know each other outside HN for various reasons. Additionally, most topics get very limited attention after the first 12 hours or so so it is common for later comments to be more personal. In another sense it can refer to more vital connections, at least in a wider sense of long term importance and not just necessary to survive but also not including any casual connections. I think this would vary quite a bit among readers and participants on HN. It can also imply a bidirectional influence even if not a balanced influence. I think the term would generally exclude anyone without some form of presence in the community, even if very minor. Anyway, the word community can be used to start any length of writing so I'll stop there. How does your class define community?

sankalpb 7y ago

Thanks for raising this point on whether or not 'community' can be reasonably used here, as it's an important one. Admittedly, I did not push deeper on the term 'community' at first, though I notice that the HN Welcome tab refers to this space as a 'community site'. That may well just be a descriptor for the site, but that doesn't adequately address your point. I haven't trained as an anthropologist, so the aspect about 'shared resources and problems' is helpful for me see here. Would you say, 'community' can be multiple in its definition by different members of a group? Would you say that any or all all members of a group must collectively agree on the status of their group as a 'community' to in fact be considered a community?

joveian 7y ago
The word community can be used in a huge variety of ways. The aiksaurus headings are simulation, town meeting, sharing, society, body. In many uses it just means place. In some sense pushing back against any particular usage of a word with such a range of meanings is not a particularly useful task. On the other hand, community is often used as a positive term and it is useful to unpack it in more detail in that circumstance since it is often abused in its generality for marketing or political purposes. One aspect to consider is why the word community is used in a particular situation rather than some other word. I think it is more useful when looking deeper to consider to what extent particular aspects of community could be applied in a particular case and how different people might use the term rather than "community? yes or no". Often the word community can relate to how people relate to each other in terms of providing daily needs. From that perspective the term is including the regular and excluding the occasional. Many people do interact with HN regularly over extended periods. In another sense it can relate to personal rather than professional or impersonal contact with others. Personally I find it a bit jarring in the context of HN being described as a community to see people talking about how it would be healthier if people didn't try to have personal conversations. But it is a feature of HN to generally discourage personal conversations and at the same time many commenters do know each other outside HN for various reasons. Additionally, most topics get very limited attention after the first 12 hours or so so it is common for later comments to be more personal. In another sense it can refer to more vital connections, at least in a wider sense of long term importance and not just necessary to survive but also not including any casual connections. I think this would vary quite a bit among readers and participants on HN. It can also imply a bidirectional influence even if not a balanced influence. I think the term would generally exclude anyone without some form of presence in the community, even if very minor. Anyway, the word community can be used to start any length of writing so I'll stop there. How does your class define community?