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I feel this is a common trend for any social media. I feel similarly as you regarding how Reddit has changed, and while some of that was due to changes to the w

by rsaz 4y ago

I feel this is a common trend for any social media. I feel similarly as you regarding how Reddit has changed, and while some of that was due to changes to the website, I'd attribute most of it to an increase in overall popularity. Reddit used to be a collection of fairly niche forums, but has really ballooned into almost Facebook levels of social media. It seems like that's just how the internet works, and eventually new, more niche places for people to discuss will pop up and the cycle will continue. There probably aren't fewer smart/interesting people on HN than there used to be, but its possible they're just less likely to be seen often or voted to the top. Of course I say all this as someone who started spending time here relatively recently, so its pure speculation on my part.

cykros 4y ago
In my experience, the best solution is have a core group of people come to a decision to use a platform that is just inconvenient enough that it doesn't become too popular, be that an irc channel, usenet, xmpp, etc. The old war of AOL vs. the rest of the Internet is still very much alive and well; it's just that it turns out, AOL wasn't the real enemy -- it was just one head of the hydra. The beast itself was user-friendly platforms in general. And as anyone who's received the gospel according to BOfH knows, users are nothing worth being friendly to. That HN isn't as bad as reddit is likely due to the minimalist site design in the first place. Throw a few rounded corners around the place and perhaps some pretentious cartoon characters and we could get there in a heartbeat.