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Ask HN: Are there places to have nuanced conversations online?

As per the title, are there places where people still have nuanced conversations online? Especially conversations that span across multiple days. Because even here on HN where conversations are, for the most part, fairly great you still have the issue of new content coming up daily and so the conversation has to move on the new topic. I personally had luck using emails to interact with people but I was wondering if other people had different experiences.

wsgeorge 4y ago
If you found such a place, and word got out, enough people will join in on the conversation, and the possibility of nuance will diminish and be eventually lost. Heck, I've had a hard time teasing out the nuance of some of my points when debating with a single friend over phone. For almost two hours. This sort of thing only really works in high trust situations where everyone assumes good faith all the time.
wrp 4y ago
You raise two issues, 1) avoiding bad participants, and 2) pursuing long discussions. Any forum with open membership will eventually attract people who can't/won't handle nuanced conversation. The only way to completely be safe is with a moderated mailing list. For long conversations, look for moderated, special interest forums. I think HN is as good as a general purpose forum can be, with its heavy moderation and fairly restricted audience.
- manuelmoreale 4y ago
  Do you happen to know good mailing lists worth joining?
  - wrp 4y ago
    Mailing lists are usually attached to a particular project or department, so are very narrow in focus. To find a good list, search out the people you want to be conversing with and see where they interact. Some examples: Unix Heritage Society mailing list (https://www.tuhs.org/ https://www.tuhs.org/) PHILOSOP Mailing List (https://lists.louisiana.edu/mailman/listinfo/philosop https://lists.louisiana.edu/mailman/listinfo/philosop) Listing of linguistics lists: (https://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo https://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo)

wsgeorge 4y ago

If you found such a place, and word got out, enough people will join in on the conversation, and the possibility of nuance will diminish and be eventually lost. Heck, I've had a hard time teasing out the nuance of some of my points when debating with a single friend over phone. For almost two hours. This sort of thing only really works in high trust situations where everyone assumes good faith all the time.

wrp 4y ago

You raise two issues, 1) avoiding bad participants, and 2) pursuing long discussions. Any forum with open membership will eventually attract people who can't/won't handle nuanced conversation. The only way to completely be safe is with a moderated mailing list. For long conversations, look for moderated, special interest forums. I think HN is as good as a general purpose forum can be, with its heavy moderation and fairly restricted audience.

manuelmoreale 4y ago
Do you happen to know good mailing lists worth joining?
- wrp 4y ago
  Mailing lists are usually attached to a particular project or department, so are very narrow in focus. To find a good list, search out the people you want to be conversing with and see where they interact. Some examples: Unix Heritage Society mailing list (https://www.tuhs.org/ https://www.tuhs.org/) PHILOSOP Mailing List (https://lists.louisiana.edu/mailman/listinfo/philosop https://lists.louisiana.edu/mailman/listinfo/philosop) Listing of linguistics lists: (https://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo https://listserv.linguistlist.org/mailman/listinfo)