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> I’ve said it before, the difference is that we don’t use any of the social media ourselves You wouldn't classify HN as social media?

beej71 4y ago
I'd say it's a subclass of social media. There's dopamine social media and non-dopamine social media.
- nineteen999 4y ago
  I want to thank you for your socket guides etc. I learnt TCP/IP programming from those way back in the 90's! Presuming I am talking to the correct Beej here of course.
  - beej71 4y ago
    You're welcome! Always good to hear when the guides are used to good effect. :)
yumraj 4y ago
Touché! But, I'm pretty sure the Surgeon General did not have HN in mind while making that comment. :) HN is a social media, but it lacks certain capabilities that make it OK. First and foremost, there is no DM, then it's heavily moderated both by users as well as by DanG, and then it is text based. Also, based on my observation, the karma/like acquisition is not what drives people's comments here. So, while you're correct that it's a social media, it's not the cesspool of poison that the usual ones, that come to mind when we use the term social media, are.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
irrational 4y ago
I wouldn’t. It’s not social without a social network. A social network implies that we are not all anonymous strangers. It implies we know people’s real names and other personal information about them. To the best of my knowledge, I have never interacted with the same person twice on HN (or Reddit). That’s basically the opposite of social or a network. When everyone is anonymous, and might even be a bot, it isn’t social media. Mostly because it is not social.
- wilsonnb3 4y ago
  Hacker news is pseudonymous, not anonymous, although I would argue that it would be social media either way. Just because you don’t know the real world identity of the other nodes doesn’t mean that a network doesn’t exist.
  - irrational 4y ago
    By that argument, Amazon is social media. Each item for sale is a post and the comments are the reviews and the questions/answers.

beej71 4y ago

I'd say it's a subclass of social media. There's dopamine social media and non-dopamine social media.

nineteen999 4y ago
I want to thank you for your socket guides etc. I learnt TCP/IP programming from those way back in the 90's! Presuming I am talking to the correct Beej here of course.
- beej71 4y ago
  You're welcome! Always good to hear when the guides are used to good effect. :)

yumraj 4y ago

Touché! But, I'm pretty sure the Surgeon General did not have HN in mind while making that comment. :) HN is a social media, but it lacks certain capabilities that make it OK. First and foremost, there is no DM, then it's heavily moderated both by users as well as by DanG, and then it is text based. Also, based on my observation, the karma/like acquisition is not what drives people's comments here. So, while you're correct that it's a social media, it's not the cesspool of poison that the usual ones, that come to mind when we use the term social media, are.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

irrational 4y ago

I wouldn’t. It’s not social without a social network. A social network implies that we are not all anonymous strangers. It implies we know people’s real names and other personal information about them. To the best of my knowledge, I have never interacted with the same person twice on HN (or Reddit). That’s basically the opposite of social or a network. When everyone is anonymous, and might even be a bot, it isn’t social media. Mostly because it is not social.

wilsonnb3 4y ago
Hacker news is pseudonymous, not anonymous, although I would argue that it would be social media either way. Just because you don’t know the real world identity of the other nodes doesn’t mean that a network doesn’t exist.
- irrational 4y ago
  By that argument, Amazon is social media. Each item for sale is a post and the comments are the reviews and the questions/answers.