6 ms·

Something to consider - if HN doesn't go dark it may become a refugee camp for a good chunk of bored reddit users (c. 70m daily pageviews), which could lead to

by polshaw 15y ago

Something to consider - if HN doesn't go dark it may become a refugee camp for a good chunk of bored reddit users (c. 70m daily pageviews), which could lead to a radical change in HN's userbase. Good to support, too.

kevinh 15y ago
On the other hand - publicity gained by going dark along with reddit would raise the amount of people who were aware of HN and could cause more people to come here. Either way, I don't think it's that big of a concern.
- polshaw 15y ago
  I think the effect of people being aware of HN would be quite different from that of HN being available whilst reddit wasn't. Essentially HN is not as 'good' at doing what reddit does (because it's not meant to), so increased awareness isn't likely to shift people from reddit. Take away reddit and things change. It will be interesting to see the effect on the web without reddit for a day. With no serious Digg these days, HN would be high on the list of alternatives (even though it is not aimed as such), and there will no doubt be a lot of SOPA posting that day.
- Samuel_Michon 15y ago
  "publicity gained by going dark along with reddit would raise the amount of people who were aware of HN and could cause more people to come here." I know it's elitist, but I have no wish for this community to get exponentially larger.
  - bbrizzi 15y ago
    I love how there's an unwritten rule to never talk about HN on Reddit. I never even saw it mentioned, and myself try to avoid mentioning it while I see talks about Reddit and proof that a lot of HNers are former redditors almost daily on this site.
Forrest7778 15y ago
I'm afraid.
- rsanchez1 15y ago
  Isn't HN becoming enough like Reddit already with the kind of stories that are posted? Last thing we need are the redditors then it's Reddit 2.0.
  - artursapek 15y ago
    Do you honestly believe what you wrote here? You see marginal difference between reddit and HN?
  - Samuel_Michon 15y ago
    "If your account is less than a year old, please don't submit comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit. (It's a common semi-noob illusion.)" http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://jacquesmattheij.com/The+Unofficial+HN+FAQ#shark http://jacquesmattheij.com/The+Unofficial+HN+FAQ#shark
    - blhack 15y ago
      Okay. My account is plenty old, and HN is most certainly seeing a lot more reddit-like posts. Honestly I think the downturn started about the time we lost the ability to see comment points in threads. I think dropping the comment points was a reaction to the downturn.

by polshaw 15y ago

kevinh 15y ago

On the other hand - publicity gained by going dark along with reddit would raise the amount of people who were aware of HN and could cause more people to come here. Either way, I don't think it's that big of a concern.

polshaw 15y ago
I think the effect of people being aware of HN would be quite different from that of HN being available whilst reddit wasn't. Essentially HN is not as 'good' at doing what reddit does (because it's not meant to), so increased awareness isn't likely to shift people from reddit. Take away reddit and things change. It will be interesting to see the effect on the web without reddit for a day. With no serious Digg these days, HN would be high on the list of alternatives (even though it is not aimed as such), and there will no doubt be a lot of SOPA posting that day.
Samuel_Michon 15y ago
"publicity gained by going dark along with reddit would raise the amount of people who were aware of HN and could cause more people to come here." I know it's elitist, but I have no wish for this community to get exponentially larger.
- bbrizzi 15y ago
  I love how there's an unwritten rule to never talk about HN on Reddit. I never even saw it mentioned, and myself try to avoid mentioning it while I see talks about Reddit and proof that a lot of HNers are former redditors almost daily on this site.

Forrest7778 15y ago

I'm afraid.

rsanchez1 15y ago
Isn't HN becoming enough like Reddit already with the kind of stories that are posted? Last thing we need are the redditors then it's Reddit 2.0.
- artursapek 15y ago
  Do you honestly believe what you wrote here? You see marginal difference between reddit and HN?
- Samuel_Michon 15y ago
  "If your account is less than a year old, please don't submit comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit. (It's a common semi-noob illusion.)" http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://jacquesmattheij.com/The+Unofficial+HN+FAQ#shark http://jacquesmattheij.com/The+Unofficial+HN+FAQ#shark
  - blhack 15y ago
    Okay. My account is plenty old, and HN is most certainly seeing a lot more reddit-like posts. Honestly I think the downturn started about the time we lost the ability to see comment points in threads. I think dropping the comment points was a reaction to the downturn.