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I agree with your larger point but in a different way — Hacker News is not defined by UI, but community. I’m sure that there is a Hacker News for auto out there

I agree with your larger point but in a different way — Hacker News is not defined by UI, but community. I’m sure that there is a Hacker News for auto out there already, I’d guess it’s a myBB forum.

godelski 6y ago
Part of HackerNews's community is because you can load the page on a potato. I remember someone mentioning that they frequent HN from the middle of the ocean.
- sss111 6y ago
  Yep, I frequent HN on my spinach
- regextegrity 6y ago
  I frequent HN from soviet gulag
- walrus01 6y ago
  HN certainly does seem like one of the things that you might want to try to use in the middle of an ocean, if you're paying per megabyte of data transferred over an Inmarsta or Iridium based service.
lethologica 6y ago
That's an interesting thought though; does the UI of HN help to foster this community in any way? I would argue it absolutely does given the amount of people I see (myself included) that hate designs like the new Reddit, for example. I would then argue that the UI of HN does indeed play an important role in defining it.
- ehnto 6y ago
  I know I wouldn't be here if the site had a design like "New Reddit". Part of the appeal of the community is what it finds important, and one of those things is respecting it's users.
- panxyh 6y ago
  I strongly believe so, and am almost surprised that this is debated at all.
systemvoltage 6y ago
HN design and its spartan interface is an overwhelmingly and the primary reason for its success (of course content, people, moderation, etc as well). If it were a phpBB board, or a discourse forum, it just wouldn't be the same. People are addicted to this site for its usability and simplicity. We've seen mass exodus from Digg and Reddit. The inflection point is always design, 2008 when they messed up the Digg UX with promoted posts, the whole website went down in a dumpster fire. Reddit has been the same but inflection point was carried out through a couple of years as they went to a new design. Still, old.reddit.com is popular. Reddit has too much influx of new users, high churn rate to keep it from burning down. Design is the reason for IBM. It is why Apple exists, Nike, Stripe, etc. Sure, a company can be successful without good design, but the ones that are built with design as a cornerstone of its foundation, are easy to spot - HN is one of those IMO.
- NalNezumi 6y ago
  >HN design and its spartan interface is an overwhelmingly and the primary reason for its success I don't think so, even considering the paranthesis cases. People are addicted to its consistency. It stays the same, the way it worked, and stick to the principles of "don't fix if it aint broke". A forum is primary a forum, where people share ideas. Trying to force in the industrial design principles of "best design" in to a forum is mixing up the true intention of "best design" thinking. No such thing as "best design", there's just "different" design. Better design is the excuse producer give consumer to sell something similar yet different, implementing planned obsolecense through deisgn by making the consumer reaching for the "new" design. works for Apple, Nike, Stripe you name it because they constantly want to sell new products, that competes with their old product. To make a profit, the design becomes design for the sake of design. That principle goes against what a forum is supposed to be.
- onion2k 6y ago
  People are addicted to this site for its usability and simplicity. What this website looks like, how fast it loads, and how simple it is are not reasons to post here. People post to contribute their thoughts to the community. There are people here who we want to discuss things with. There are topics we're interested in that we have opinions about. We each want to be seen to be curious or knowledgeable about tech things. The design of HN is good because it lowers the barrier to posting. It's simple and obvious how to use it[1]. Those are good things but they're not enough to keep people here. That comes from the links and the comments. Good design isn't enough to make people here stay on a website. Bad design is enough for people to leave. [1] Apart from all the stuff new users don't understand like the black bar, the username colors, why comments turn grey, why you can or can't vote etc. Those bits are less good design.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
chrisandchris 6y ago
Not true at all. A huge part of HN is - as others mentioned - that is‘s so lightweight and the UI is so clean. There are a lot of people here that have slower bandwith than a pigeon, and they are very very happy that the HN staff tries to save every bit and byte.
mrzool 6y ago
> Hacker News is not defined by UI The HN community is of course fundamental, but HN is very much defined by its UI.

godelski 6y ago

Part of HackerNews's community is because you can load the page on a potato. I remember someone mentioning that they frequent HN from the middle of the ocean.

sss111 6y ago
Yep, I frequent HN on my spinach
regextegrity 6y ago
I frequent HN from soviet gulag
walrus01 6y ago
HN certainly does seem like one of the things that you might want to try to use in the middle of an ocean, if you're paying per megabyte of data transferred over an Inmarsta or Iridium based service.

lethologica 6y ago

That's an interesting thought though; does the UI of HN help to foster this community in any way? I would argue it absolutely does given the amount of people I see (myself included) that hate designs like the new Reddit, for example. I would then argue that the UI of HN does indeed play an important role in defining it.

ehnto 6y ago
I know I wouldn't be here if the site had a design like "New Reddit". Part of the appeal of the community is what it finds important, and one of those things is respecting it's users.
panxyh 6y ago
I strongly believe so, and am almost surprised that this is debated at all.

systemvoltage 6y ago

HN design and its spartan interface is an overwhelmingly and the primary reason for its success (of course content, people, moderation, etc as well). If it were a phpBB board, or a discourse forum, it just wouldn't be the same. People are addicted to this site for its usability and simplicity. We've seen mass exodus from Digg and Reddit. The inflection point is always design, 2008 when they messed up the Digg UX with promoted posts, the whole website went down in a dumpster fire. Reddit has been the same but inflection point was carried out through a couple of years as they went to a new design. Still, old.reddit.com is popular. Reddit has too much influx of new users, high churn rate to keep it from burning down. Design is the reason for IBM. It is why Apple exists, Nike, Stripe, etc. Sure, a company can be successful without good design, but the ones that are built with design as a cornerstone of its foundation, are easy to spot - HN is one of those IMO.

NalNezumi 6y ago
>HN design and its spartan interface is an overwhelmingly and the primary reason for its success I don't think so, even considering the paranthesis cases. People are addicted to its consistency. It stays the same, the way it worked, and stick to the principles of "don't fix if it aint broke". A forum is primary a forum, where people share ideas. Trying to force in the industrial design principles of "best design" in to a forum is mixing up the true intention of "best design" thinking. No such thing as "best design", there's just "different" design. Better design is the excuse producer give consumer to sell something similar yet different, implementing planned obsolecense through deisgn by making the consumer reaching for the "new" design. works for Apple, Nike, Stripe you name it because they constantly want to sell new products, that competes with their old product. To make a profit, the design becomes design for the sake of design. That principle goes against what a forum is supposed to be.
onion2k 6y ago
People are addicted to this site for its usability and simplicity. What this website looks like, how fast it loads, and how simple it is are not reasons to post here. People post to contribute their thoughts to the community. There are people here who we want to discuss things with. There are topics we're interested in that we have opinions about. We each want to be seen to be curious or knowledgeable about tech things. The design of HN is good because it lowers the barrier to posting. It's simple and obvious how to use it[1]. Those are good things but they're not enough to keep people here. That comes from the links and the comments. Good design isn't enough to make people here stay on a website. Bad design is enough for people to leave. [1] Apart from all the stuff new users don't understand like the black bar, the username colors, why comments turn grey, why you can or can't vote etc. Those bits are less good design.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

chrisandchris 6y ago

Not true at all. A huge part of HN is - as others mentioned - that is‘s so lightweight and the UI is so clean. There are a lot of people here that have slower bandwith than a pigeon, and they are very very happy that the HN staff tries to save every bit and byte.

mrzool 6y ago

> Hacker News is not defined by UI The HN community is of course fundamental, but HN is very much defined by its UI.