3 ms·
Something I appreciate about HN is having the opportunity to make a case to dozens or perhaps hundreds of my peers, without the burden of having and maintaining
by maxbond 4y ago
Something I appreciate about HN is having the opportunity to make a case to dozens or perhaps hundreds of my peers, without the burden of having and maintaining an audience. I don't think people recognize my name from one thread to another, and if they do I don't think they have much of a parasocial relationship with me. I don't see any evidence people "follow" my comments, for instance; the people I talk to more frequently seem like people who just have similar interests and click the same threads, not people who are interested in me and are following what I do. On two occasions people have sent me an email thanking me for making a certain comment, but it always felt like a peer pulled me aside to have a one-on-one chat, not like I was some kind of personality.
There's a moment towards the end of the Bo Burnham special "what." where he talks about the weight having an audience has in his life, and he says, "if you can go through your life without having an audience, you should do it." I do have thoughts to share and I am working on starting a blog, but I try to keep Burnham's warning in mind.
- shakezula 4y agoAh this is such a succinct description of the real value of the town hall discussion format. I don’t care or want to maintain a subscriber list, but I absolutely do want to contribute and actively participate in my area of interests. HN is the best area I’ve found for that.