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Clicking through the usernames on the oldest threads, basically no one there then still posts on HN, most seemed to have dropped off around 2014 or before. I w

Clicking through the usernames on the oldest threads, basically no one there then still posts on HN, most seemed to have dropped off around 2014 or before. I wonder what they're up to? Just lurking and not posting? Gave up on "the lifestyle"? Burnout? Forgot their password and created a new account?

marincounty 4y ago
bloqs 4y ago
I perpeturally wonder things like this.
neilv 4y ago
One possible explanation is that people often just move on between techie online communities after awhile. I've done it several times. Or, a lot of HN activity seems to be by people in hustle mode. Maybe a lot of them finally made their fortunes, and are now spending their time with their kids, or windsurfing. Then there's wasting time while stuck in-office all day. Less a problem with WFH, when you can go do dishes while you're waiting for that build or someone to respond. And WFH means less of a need to kill time at your desk before it's socially acceptable to go home (or get a train/shuttle), even if you put in a solid day and you're at a good stopping point before a busy day tomorrow.
aamoscodes 4y ago
A bit macabre but some non-zero number are dead. I've frequently wondered if there will be a way to scrub/compile my online activity (within reason) for my family and friends to review after it's all said and done, otherwise I'll just live in a database forever.
- ant6n 4y ago
  It’ll probably deleted. Then again, conversations are usually deleted the moment they happen, in the sense that they don’t get stored.
  - mixmastamyk 4y ago
    Roughly nothing has been deleted since 2005 or so, with limited exceptions.
    - aamoscodes 4y ago
      My forever-lost Myspace content begs to differ (I am somewhat kidding, and very salty about it)
      - mixmastamyk 4y ago
        It was sold to the highest bidder, not deleted. A related issue.
rongopo 4y ago
I could not care less: every time I reach 100 karma points I feel I need a new account to project my renewed self...
- pvg 4y ago
  this seems like way more work than the established best practice of two joints at every ten thousand points.
  - rongopo 4y ago
    Indeed it is. What matters for me here is to stay fresh and growing, while being able to be truly transparent and anonymous.
Eiriksmal 4y ago
Definitely some are lurking out of sheer addictive habit. But there's fewer reasons to leave comments because a) the community grew and there's already someone who articulated your point, so no sense in repeating it and b) the hivemind has moved in a different direction and it's more challenging to have reasonable discourse here without it feeling like you're "debating" 14-year-olds on Reddit.
- Goronmon 4y ago
  ...the hivemind has moved in a different direction... This is definitely a big one. The focus did use to be a lot more specific to startups with all the good and the bad that came with it. Things like a less negative view of "dark patterns" and more marketing related topics were definitely a part of a community back then. Questions like "Should I be tracking as much data about my users as possible" would have been answered with "Yes, absolutely, the more data the better." much more often than you would ever see nowadays.
- bugfix-66 4y ago
  There is evidence that a large fraction of Hacker News readers are early in their programming journey. Presumably people migrate elsewhere as they mature? I don't know of another forum like Hacker News, so where are they going? To understand the level of programming skill on Hacker News, consider that less than 5% of Hacker News readers succeed in adjusting a loop iteration variable to avoid unsigned overflow (despite repeatedly attempting to do so): https://bugfix-66.com/8617f16fa68e021b656b1856f94afebf7a31175d42060ca253a9af7513346851 https://bugfix-66.com/8617f16fa68e021b656b1856f94afebf7a3117... This is an empirical observation and not an attack (please don't flag/downvote this comment). It tells us something about the population of users on the forum, and where they are on the developmental timeline as programmers. It seems like more senior programmers move on, maybe.
  - bee_rider 4y ago
    Well, it tells us about the Go programmers on the forum. One possibility is that as Go has become more mainstream, Go programmers have become less competent on average.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
jspash 4y ago
That's almost 10 years ago. Maybe they're all gainfully employed with their hard-won knowledge in programming? Albeit a tad prematurely...
- oh_sigh 4y ago
  I mean...I've been gainfully employed the entire time but am still here :) I was on HN long before I registered this username - in fact, I only registered this user after I noticed the quality of comments degrading (hence the name). Maybe I'm different than other earlier people who were drawn here - I'm just interested in tech and never really thought of doing the startup route. I've made a few millions of dollars in total comp in that time, but I do wonder where I would be if I took a step out of my comfortable FANG-type job 15 years ago.
cortesoft 4y ago
I clicked on the older post, and then the first couple of comments... and one of them has commented within the last few months. Not sure what the exact turnover rate is, but it seems pretty normal that there would be some turnover over 15 years.
roflyear 4y ago
HN has changed.
dang 4y ago
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33290805 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33290805.

marincounty 4y ago

bloqs 4y ago

I perpeturally wonder things like this.

neilv 4y ago

One possible explanation is that people often just move on between techie online communities after awhile. I've done it several times. Or, a lot of HN activity seems to be by people in hustle mode. Maybe a lot of them finally made their fortunes, and are now spending their time with their kids, or windsurfing. Then there's wasting time while stuck in-office all day. Less a problem with WFH, when you can go do dishes while you're waiting for that build or someone to respond. And WFH means less of a need to kill time at your desk before it's socially acceptable to go home (or get a train/shuttle), even if you put in a solid day and you're at a good stopping point before a busy day tomorrow.

aamoscodes 4y ago

A bit macabre but some non-zero number are dead. I've frequently wondered if there will be a way to scrub/compile my online activity (within reason) for my family and friends to review after it's all said and done, otherwise I'll just live in a database forever.

ant6n 4y ago
It’ll probably deleted. Then again, conversations are usually deleted the moment they happen, in the sense that they don’t get stored.
- mixmastamyk 4y ago
  Roughly nothing has been deleted since 2005 or so, with limited exceptions.
  - aamoscodes 4y ago
    My forever-lost Myspace content begs to differ (I am somewhat kidding, and very salty about it)
    - mixmastamyk 4y ago
      It was sold to the highest bidder, not deleted. A related issue.

rongopo 4y ago

I could not care less: every time I reach 100 karma points I feel I need a new account to project my renewed self...

pvg 4y ago
this seems like way more work than the established best practice of two joints at every ten thousand points.
- rongopo 4y ago
  Indeed it is. What matters for me here is to stay fresh and growing, while being able to be truly transparent and anonymous.

Eiriksmal 4y ago

Definitely some are lurking out of sheer addictive habit. But there's fewer reasons to leave comments because a) the community grew and there's already someone who articulated your point, so no sense in repeating it and b) the hivemind has moved in a different direction and it's more challenging to have reasonable discourse here without it feeling like you're "debating" 14-year-olds on Reddit.

Goronmon 4y ago
...the hivemind has moved in a different direction... This is definitely a big one. The focus did use to be a lot more specific to startups with all the good and the bad that came with it. Things like a less negative view of "dark patterns" and more marketing related topics were definitely a part of a community back then. Questions like "Should I be tracking as much data about my users as possible" would have been answered with "Yes, absolutely, the more data the better." much more often than you would ever see nowadays.
bugfix-66 4y ago
There is evidence that a large fraction of Hacker News readers are early in their programming journey. Presumably people migrate elsewhere as they mature? I don't know of another forum like Hacker News, so where are they going? To understand the level of programming skill on Hacker News, consider that less than 5% of Hacker News readers succeed in adjusting a loop iteration variable to avoid unsigned overflow (despite repeatedly attempting to do so): https://bugfix-66.com/8617f16fa68e021b656b1856f94afebf7a31175d42060ca253a9af7513346851 https://bugfix-66.com/8617f16fa68e021b656b1856f94afebf7a3117... This is an empirical observation and not an attack (please don't flag/downvote this comment). It tells us something about the population of users on the forum, and where they are on the developmental timeline as programmers. It seems like more senior programmers move on, maybe.
- bee_rider 4y ago
  Well, it tells us about the Go programmers on the forum. One possibility is that as Go has become more mainstream, Go programmers have become less competent on average.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

jspash 4y ago

That's almost 10 years ago. Maybe they're all gainfully employed with their hard-won knowledge in programming? Albeit a tad prematurely...

oh_sigh 4y ago
I mean...I've been gainfully employed the entire time but am still here :) I was on HN long before I registered this username - in fact, I only registered this user after I noticed the quality of comments degrading (hence the name). Maybe I'm different than other earlier people who were drawn here - I'm just interested in tech and never really thought of doing the startup route. I've made a few millions of dollars in total comp in that time, but I do wonder where I would be if I took a step out of my comfortable FANG-type job 15 years ago.

cortesoft 4y ago

I clicked on the older post, and then the first couple of comments... and one of them has commented within the last few months. Not sure what the exact turnover rate is, but it seems pretty normal that there would be some turnover over 15 years.

roflyear 4y ago

HN has changed.

dang 4y ago

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33290805 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33290805.