7 ms·

Ask HN: Hacker News is for tech, as X is for Y?

92 points by nullptr_deref 5y ago

Are there some forums or well moderated discussion groups for other interests and hobbies? Sure there are subreddits, but what else exists?

BitwiseFool 5y ago
If there is one for economics, please do share. I solemnly promise to lurk and not to comment for a full year after joining.
- going_ham 5y ago
  That would be nice! Despite being a CS major, I get so much information from Hackernews on implementation, hacks, industries, motivation. So I believe sites like these would definitely help newcomers get into a completely disparate interest!
  - sirl1on 5y ago
    Well, while I really enjoy the broad topics on HN, it does present all topics through the lens of technology and tech-work which can lead to the impression that this is all there is to it.
- ggm 5y ago
  Any decent economics HN is going to have to deal with amateurs kindly but also bluntly. (An amateur dilettante btw)
- toomuchtodo 5y ago
  /r/econmonitor
- ffwszgf 5y ago
  Econjobrumors.com
- notRobot 5y ago
  Great place to lurk: https://old.reddit.com/r/AskEconomics/ https://old.reddit.com/r/AskEconomics/
- biasedestimate 5y ago
  The place where academic economists hang out is econjobrumors. But it‘s anonymous and not heavily moderated and can be quite nasty.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
jjulius 5y ago
If you're into electronic music, WATMM is and always has been a pretty great forum. Only catch is there's a minimum $3/year membership fee to support the site, but it's way more than worth it IMO. https://watmm.com/ https://watmm.com/
ostenning 5y ago
Modwiggler for modular synthesizers
msmith 5y ago
as Bogleheads is for investors
notRobot 5y ago
https://lobse.rs https://lobse.rs for tech discussions Top level comments need to be sourced and verified and mod-approved on these, but great places to lurk and learn: History: https://old.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/ https://old.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/ – also has an amazing weekly newsletter that you can get DMed to you! Economics: https://old.reddit.com/r/AskEconomics/ https://old.reddit.com/r/AskEconomics/ Also, a subreddit exclusively for experienced devs, but nice to lurk for everyone: https://www.reddit.com/r/ExperiencedDevs/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ExperiencedDevs/
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- bsilvereagle 5y ago
  Minor typo in https://lobste.rs/ https://lobste.rs/
  - notRobot 5y ago
    Whoops, thanks!
- Claude_Shannon 5y ago
  I can't vouch enough for AskHistorians.
- gaws 5y ago
  > https://lobse.rs https://lobse.rs for tech discussions Thankfully, Lobsters is invite-only to post and comment. This filters out the usual garbage.
MisterSandman 5y ago
I mean, some might cringe, but Reddit can be pretty amazing. They tend to be more QnA based, but you can still learn a lot. /r/PersonalFinance for not-super-technical-finanace. I'm more familiar with PersonalFinanceCanada which has single-handeldy taught me how to think about money and finance. Can definitely get a bit toxic sometimes. /r/Guitar is surprisingly small but still fun, and /r/Frugal is another favourite of mine. I also frequent the many FIRE subreddits but I don't think those are as popular as other forums about FIRE. In a similar vein, Stack Exchange can be VERY interesting. I often casually sift through WorkplaceSE and TravelSE, though I supposed that is more entertainment than educational.
- shakezula 5y ago
  Reddit is good if you’re hyper specific about what you follow. It gets veered off course too easily otherwise.
  - rg111 5y ago
    The key is to have different accounts for different areas of interests in your life. When I used to use Reddit heavily, I had 5 different accounts, easily managed by the app and RES on Firefox. One was for Physics, Astronomy, and Math (earlier in life), one was for books subs only (suggestmeabook, books, etc.), one was for CS, programming, language subs, and so on, one was for everything else- i.e. memes, short videos, etc, and another one was for skills I was learning- piano, drawing, etc. This was, I had everything managed.
- silisili 5y ago
  IMO, the bigger the subreddit, the worse off you are. And like some other fora, you get 'expert' cultist like people who parrot terrible advice. Talking with actual workers in a field is super valuable...I think that's what makes HN great - most of us work in tech. With Reddit, you get tons of 'oh, I like guitars, I'll join that' people giving advice instead of say, professional musicians or luthiers. Note: I didn't mean to insult r/guitars, I've never been, just used it as an example.
  - 5y ago
mooreds 5y ago
I'm on some slacks that are pretty good for specific topics (mostly tech, though). Am on some mailing lists that are okay (some tech, some plants). My SO spends a lot of time on FB groups that are focused on her niche, so I'd look there. If you want live discussion/to meet real people, I haven't found anything as effective as meetup.com.
sydthrowaway 5y ago
Is there one which won't devolve into who gets paid the most?
dvogel 5y ago
As Cosmo magazine is to sex ed.
ko3us 5y ago
I’ve been wanting the same structure of hacker news but for other topics too. Im currently building one of fashion as it’s a huge interest of mine. I realised while I’m building this, the solution is not the tech but actually the community providing the posts abs the moderation. I love hacker news because of the highly safe space to be able to have great open discussions. I get more value from the discussion thread than the link that this shared.
letitbeirie 5y ago
This one is pretty esoteric but if you want to know anything about Mt. Whitney, good luck doing better than the Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board: http://www.mountwhitneyforum.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=1&page=1 http://www.mountwhitneyforum.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist...
s_c_r 5y ago
Brewing beer/cider/wine: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/ https://www.homebrewtalk.com/
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
MonaroVXR 5y ago
Discord for DevOps, Webdev, television, sound and my favourite, laptops.
ihateolives 5y ago
https://forum.language-learners.org/index.php https://forum.language-learners.org/index.php is the place for language learning. There are amazing people there with wealth of experience in any language you can possibly want.
docdeek 5y ago
/r/peloton for discussions of professional cycling. Generally high quality and informed discussions, well moderated, every year there is a Tour de France related influx of new users but the older users are kind and keen to educate.
- Doctor_Fegg 5y ago
  Yes - it’s one of the best-natured subreddits I’ve encountered, and the preview threads are as good or better than anything in the commercial cycling media.
tdeck 5y ago
Mudcat.org is a real gem of a community for discussions folk music or other types of traditional English language music (e.g. sea chanties).
anyfactor 5y ago
I would like to know if there are any public facebook groups that is a good place for anything.
fy20 5y ago
https://knx-user-forum.de/ https://knx-user-forum.de/ It's in German but this is a place for nerds to talk about home automation and lighting. By this I don't mean just getting an Alexa and calling it a day, actually automating your home using professional equipment like that used in commercial buildings. One of the big topics I'm following right now discusses a Chinese lighting manufacturer who makes high CRI tuneable white lights (think a professional version of Philips Hue), and the forum members have banded together to get a set (min order 1000 pieces) of custom lights made.
IceDane 5y ago
ksec 5y ago
>well moderated discussion Only if you can create a replica of Dang. As with other comments, there are plenty of well moderated forums, but most of them are very small and specific. When they are small, it lacks enough diversity. But when they are big or up to a certain size, moderation no longer works at all. HN is not perfect, but I have yet to find anything that is close to HN.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
fortran77 5y ago
...as Forbes (in 2022) is for Business
_8j50 5y ago
This gets asked all the time. HN is pretty special. Moderation is hard but it is the defining feature of a community. Subreddits don't allow enough control and regular forums are not news focused. I've heard loste.rs is similar though.

92 points by nullptr_deref 5y ago

Are there some forums or well moderated discussion groups for other interests and hobbies? Sure there are subreddits, but what else exists?

BitwiseFool 5y ago

If there is one for economics, please do share. I solemnly promise to lurk and not to comment for a full year after joining.

going_ham 5y ago
That would be nice! Despite being a CS major, I get so much information from Hackernews on implementation, hacks, industries, motivation. So I believe sites like these would definitely help newcomers get into a completely disparate interest!
- sirl1on 5y ago
  Well, while I really enjoy the broad topics on HN, it does present all topics through the lens of technology and tech-work which can lead to the impression that this is all there is to it.
ggm 5y ago
Any decent economics HN is going to have to deal with amateurs kindly but also bluntly. (An amateur dilettante btw)
toomuchtodo 5y ago
/r/econmonitor
ffwszgf 5y ago
Econjobrumors.com
notRobot 5y ago
Great place to lurk: https://old.reddit.com/r/AskEconomics/ https://old.reddit.com/r/AskEconomics/
biasedestimate 5y ago
The place where academic economists hang out is econjobrumors. But it‘s anonymous and not heavily moderated and can be quite nasty.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

jjulius 5y ago

If you're into electronic music, WATMM is and always has been a pretty great forum. Only catch is there's a minimum $3/year membership fee to support the site, but it's way more than worth it IMO. https://watmm.com/ https://watmm.com/

ostenning 5y ago

Modwiggler for modular synthesizers

msmith 5y ago

as Bogleheads is for investors

notRobot 5y ago

https://lobse.rs https://lobse.rs for tech discussions Top level comments need to be sourced and verified and mod-approved on these, but great places to lurk and learn: History: https://old.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/ https://old.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/ – also has an amazing weekly newsletter that you can get DMed to you! Economics: https://old.reddit.com/r/AskEconomics/ https://old.reddit.com/r/AskEconomics/ Also, a subreddit exclusively for experienced devs, but nice to lurk for everyone: https://www.reddit.com/r/ExperiencedDevs/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ExperiencedDevs/

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
bsilvereagle 5y ago
Minor typo in https://lobste.rs/ https://lobste.rs/
- notRobot 5y ago
  Whoops, thanks!
Claude_Shannon 5y ago
I can't vouch enough for AskHistorians.
gaws 5y ago
> https://lobse.rs https://lobse.rs for tech discussions Thankfully, Lobsters is invite-only to post and comment. This filters out the usual garbage.

MisterSandman 5y ago

I mean, some might cringe, but Reddit can be pretty amazing. They tend to be more QnA based, but you can still learn a lot. /r/PersonalFinance for not-super-technical-finanace. I'm more familiar with PersonalFinanceCanada which has single-handeldy taught me how to think about money and finance. Can definitely get a bit toxic sometimes. /r/Guitar is surprisingly small but still fun, and /r/Frugal is another favourite of mine. I also frequent the many FIRE subreddits but I don't think those are as popular as other forums about FIRE. In a similar vein, Stack Exchange can be VERY interesting. I often casually sift through WorkplaceSE and TravelSE, though I supposed that is more entertainment than educational.

shakezula 5y ago
Reddit is good if you’re hyper specific about what you follow. It gets veered off course too easily otherwise.
- rg111 5y ago
  The key is to have different accounts for different areas of interests in your life. When I used to use Reddit heavily, I had 5 different accounts, easily managed by the app and RES on Firefox. One was for Physics, Astronomy, and Math (earlier in life), one was for books subs only (suggestmeabook, books, etc.), one was for CS, programming, language subs, and so on, one was for everything else- i.e. memes, short videos, etc, and another one was for skills I was learning- piano, drawing, etc. This was, I had everything managed.
silisili 5y ago
IMO, the bigger the subreddit, the worse off you are. And like some other fora, you get 'expert' cultist like people who parrot terrible advice. Talking with actual workers in a field is super valuable...I think that's what makes HN great - most of us work in tech. With Reddit, you get tons of 'oh, I like guitars, I'll join that' people giving advice instead of say, professional musicians or luthiers. Note: I didn't mean to insult r/guitars, I've never been, just used it as an example.
- 5y ago

mooreds 5y ago

I'm on some slacks that are pretty good for specific topics (mostly tech, though). Am on some mailing lists that are okay (some tech, some plants). My SO spends a lot of time on FB groups that are focused on her niche, so I'd look there. If you want live discussion/to meet real people, I haven't found anything as effective as meetup.com.

sydthrowaway 5y ago

Is there one which won't devolve into who gets paid the most?

dvogel 5y ago

As Cosmo magazine is to sex ed.

ko3us 5y ago

I’ve been wanting the same structure of hacker news but for other topics too. Im currently building one of fashion as it’s a huge interest of mine. I realised while I’m building this, the solution is not the tech but actually the community providing the posts abs the moderation. I love hacker news because of the highly safe space to be able to have great open discussions. I get more value from the discussion thread than the link that this shared.

letitbeirie 5y ago

This one is pretty esoteric but if you want to know anything about Mt. Whitney, good luck doing better than the Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board: http://www.mountwhitneyforum.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist&Board=1&page=1 http://www.mountwhitneyforum.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=postlist...

s_c_r 5y ago

Brewing beer/cider/wine: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/ https://www.homebrewtalk.com/

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

MonaroVXR 5y ago

Discord for DevOps, Webdev, television, sound and my favourite, laptops.

ihateolives 5y ago

https://forum.language-learners.org/index.php https://forum.language-learners.org/index.php is the place for language learning. There are amazing people there with wealth of experience in any language you can possibly want.

docdeek 5y ago

/r/peloton for discussions of professional cycling. Generally high quality and informed discussions, well moderated, every year there is a Tour de France related influx of new users but the older users are kind and keen to educate.

Doctor_Fegg 5y ago
Yes - it’s one of the best-natured subreddits I’ve encountered, and the preview threads are as good or better than anything in the commercial cycling media.

tdeck 5y ago

Mudcat.org is a real gem of a community for discussions folk music or other types of traditional English language music (e.g. sea chanties).

anyfactor 5y ago

I would like to know if there are any public facebook groups that is a good place for anything.

fy20 5y ago

https://knx-user-forum.de/ https://knx-user-forum.de/ It's in German but this is a place for nerds to talk about home automation and lighting. By this I don't mean just getting an Alexa and calling it a day, actually automating your home using professional equipment like that used in commercial buildings. One of the big topics I'm following right now discusses a Chinese lighting manufacturer who makes high CRI tuneable white lights (think a professional version of Philips Hue), and the forum members have banded together to get a set (min order 1000 pieces) of custom lights made.

IceDane 5y ago

ksec 5y ago

>well moderated discussion Only if you can create a replica of Dang. As with other comments, there are plenty of well moderated forums, but most of them are very small and specific. When they are small, it lacks enough diversity. But when they are big or up to a certain size, moderation no longer works at all. HN is not perfect, but I have yet to find anything that is close to HN.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

fortran77 5y ago

...as Forbes (in 2022) is for Business

_8j50 5y ago

This gets asked all the time. HN is pretty special. Moderation is hard but it is the defining feature of a community. Subreddits don't allow enough control and regular forums are not news focused. I've heard loste.rs is similar though.