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A New Beginning for LifeHacker
- lethologica 4y agoSo they just got rid of ads in the middle of articles and are making it sound like something revolutionary?
- Shank 4y agoIt sounds like Ziff Davis is giving them the freedom to remove them, and focus on more substantive content, rather than their previous owners, G/O Media, which forced them to deal with it for economics reasons. The more substantive thing is the change-of-ownership, which should, in-theory, allow them to grow in a way that diverges from G/O Media (and formerly the Gizmodo/Gawker empire) strategy.
- lapcat 4y ago> Lifehacker stopped publishing slideshows. Hallelujah!
- nxpnsv 4y agoI started a much used todo.txt based Gina's posts on Lifehacker, sometime back in the dark ages before the site deteriorated...
- roryisok 4y agoomg I remember todo.txt! I've kept that mantra alive with my own todo apps (private use only, I'm not selling myself here). I always build stuff that follows the same philosophy of "store everything in text files".
- qup 4y agoWorks well in the age of llms, conveniently.
- mlok 4y agoI didn't know about it, thanks. Here is the article for orhers like me : https://lifehacker.com/geek-to-live-list-your-life-in-txt-166299 https://lifehacker.com/geek-to-live-list-your-life-in-txt-16...
- marttt 4y agoTime for a nostalgic link to 43folders.com as well, I guess. The whole todo-file geekery of 2005-2010-or-so was incredible actually. https://www.43folders.com/2005/09/12/building-a-smarter-to-do-list-part-i https://www.43folders.com/2005/09/12/building-a-smarter-to-d...
- rationalist 4y agoGizmodo, LifeHacker, and The Consumerist used to be my daily reading back when they were high quality sites 15+ years ago. Thanks for posting this to HN, because I'm bookmarking LH and willing to give it another go.
- BrandoElFollito 4y agoSame here. I used to read it with curiosity, then scroll through, to finally simply forget about them (especially LH).
- roryisok 4y agoditto. I was turned off LifeHacker a long time back by the ads and slideshows and junk content. delighted to start rediscovering it.
- travisporter 4y agoWow I’m just coming to the same realization. I used to love it anout a decade ago and suddenly realized I hated going there more and more til I stopped.
- AH4oFVbPT4f8 4y agoWow The Consumerist, I had completely forgotten about that one. Add in the simple dollar and those four were my staples of daily web browsing.
- dehrmann 4y agoGawker going under really left a void.
- rchaud 4y agoMany of Gawker's best writers had already jumped ship to start indie projects by the time they seppuku'd by leaving that Hulk Hogan video up. Splinter News and The Awl were both started by ex-Gawker people. Original Gawker may have been special but towards the end they had already become a lazy aggregator chasing Buzzfeed's audience.
- Tsiklon 4y agoI really used to enjoy reading lifehacker in years gone past. When Kinja happened, and then gawker imploded I gave up completely as by that point the articles had taken a turn for the worse. I hope this offers the site a new start and they can do longer form articles now
- petodo 4y agois there really any place for LH in times of Reddit subs like LPT and likes? also used to read it like 15-20 years ago, but the content just didn't tell me anything new
- KyeRussell 4y agoCuration is worth something.
- flarg 4y agoCuration is the lifeblood of Reddit and some subs are insane in their quality and dedication. Maybe there are some in those subs who would contribute longer form content to Lifhacker in the future but the differing business models makes this unlikely in the near term IMHO
- asdff 4y agoOn the other hand, you can end up in situations where moderators are the only source of truth. The california subreddit is an example of this. 432k subscribers, yet the vast majority of posts come from a single moderator. At least they are posting mainstream news articles and not fringe content, but this seems to depend on one person with no check or balance.
- ianai 4y agoNotably, they both coexisted back in the day, too. If they seek to be an honest source of information they ought to stand out in modern net sources. We all know the hell of searching for info on google nowadays.
- petodo 4y agothey definitely didn't coexist 15-20 years ago, which was maybe the reason I read LH back in the days, Reddit was founded less than 18 years ago and even in those first few years had hardly any users, started using it maybe 11 years ago and even then it was quite empty stopped reading LH already before starting with Reddit
- robertlagrant 4y agoI still follow the advice of a LH article on when to first have a cup of coffee. Seems to work.
- prollings 4y agoAnd what would that advice be?
- teknolog 4y agoBefore the second cup
- gumby 4y agoWoah, mind blown. Def gonna try this tomorrow morning. Thanks, teknolog!
- robertlagrant 4y agoIt was to not have a cup until your natural endorphins from waking up have worn off - say around 10:30am. Whenever I have an earlier cup I seem to do less well.
- welcome_dragon 4y agoIs that where they said to get the first cup that comes out as it comes out? Something about antioxidants or something?
- thot_experiment 4y agogenuinely brought a hopeful tear to my eye, maybe all is not lost
- unsupp0rted 4y ago15 years ago I read Lifehacker daily. Top article on Lifehacker right now: Donald Trump news. If they go back to publishing quality life hacks I’ll go back to reading them. “Toxic” comments section or not.
- GuB-42 4y agoYep, I was hoping to see more lifehacks and less politics, and it seemed to be the case... until now. Il the last years, it was full blown propaganda for the US democratic party and against republicans, which brought a matching audience of political activists that I think that it off topic and even toxic. Keep it about lifehacks. Why can't republicans have good lifehacks? That should be a politically neutral topic.
- tomrod 4y ago> it was full blown propaganda for the US democratic party and against republicans Really hard to blame Lifehacker, considering the damage done to legal precedent and other tomfoolery. Oh, to be sufficiently privileged to be able to ignore the macroeconomic and political trends. My grandparents taught me that politics aint about people. They learned that in the Depression. It's about existing power structures, deciding winners and losers. Demographically the GOP as a power player is living on borrowed time and doing everything it can to consolidate power and rebrand itself, in large part because its major three tents in its coalition (poverty-stricken disaffected [sometimes called eat-the-rich], business conservative, evangelical Christian) are not natural allies (as well as the latter two decreasing dramatically in both numbers and support). May the party of malcontent fail and more community-focused coalitions take the reins.
- mardifoufs 4y agoFunnily enough, most of the "trump obsessed" liberals are usually extremely privileged white people. I guess not having tons of actual issues and struggles in real life, and living a life of privilege makes it easy for people to look for "existential threats", and overdramatize/inflate the importance of relatively benign matters. There is no bigger sign of privilege than to think you (not aimed at you! Just a general you) are saving democracy or fighting evil by being a vocal democrat in a liberal middle-upper class suburbia. I guess as a minority I just don't relate with the concept that ignoring politics, or not being obsessed by it, is a form of privilege when the absolute opposite is more the norm.
- bachmeier 4y agoIt'll be interesting to see how long it takes for a site that was a garbage click generator to be accepted as a legit site. I wonder at what point you're better starting from scratch. If lifehacker.com comes up in a search now, I don't click, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
- Zetobal 4y agoHu? lifehacker was great in the beginning when it was run by Gina. It still has a bit of nostalgia even if the last years were garbage content.
- burnished 4y agoNot to me, I only associate the word lifehack with garbage clickbait.
- jerbearito 4y ago"in the beginning" -- right, but it's been garbage content for years now. It sounds like you're agreeing with him?
- solarkraft 4y agoThis looks good. I used to really like Lifehacker about a decade ago. When I looked at it again a few years ago I was deeply disappointed. The article sounds like they're trying to pivot away from being a spam farm and actually want to provide valuable content again.
- brainzap 4y agoI still remember that “what will kill you” (something like that) article, with statistics on how you most likely will die. Gave me focus.
- PaulWaldman 4y agoThe comments in the article from the editors make me wonder why they continued to work there under the previous ownership.
- reiichiroh 4y agoHealthcare and mortgage?
- Ensorceled 4y agoYou make it sound like lifestyle editors can just switch jobs to a better publication with a snap of their fingers. Also, it was probably not all bad from their point of view.
- asdff 4y agoWith all the drama surrounding newsrooms at odds with their penny pinching ownership, you'd think there would be more movements for the entire staff of a news agency to walk out entirely and just up and start a coop, working exactly as they were previously only without Tribune or whoever stepping on their neck. It's not like many are being paid great as it is so they wouldn't be taking much of an impact to their bottom line, plus over time maybe they'd end up making more with profit sharing agreements.
- ben30 4y agoOn personal note, I had set lifehacker to automatically go into reader mode on iOS safari probably due to some time in the past wanting to read the content but fed up by how bad the site layout had gotten.
- BryantD 4y agoThank you for this — I had no idea you could do that.
- IggleSniggle 4y agoiOS is too “intuitive” to properly document and share documentation for all the features they provide. It’s got a wide variety of power user features that come and go, and this word of mouth thing is basically how you find out about them. Try and search for them and you’ll get documentation from 10 years ago that no longer applies, if you’re lucky.
- layer8 4y agoYou just have to browse through Safari’s website menu. It’s also documented in the iPhone User Guide: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/hide-ads-and-distractions-iphdc30e3b86/16.0/ios/16.0 https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/hide-ads-and-distract... > Automatically use Reader for a website
- asdff 4y agoThey need to start shipping the documentation on the actual hardware. Imagine its 1995 and you try and release a bash tool that has no built in man file or documentation of any sort short of some page on your personal website. Bash users would probably call you a script kiddie and yell to get off their lawn.
- layer8 4y agoThe iPhone manual exists as an Apple book, you can have it on-device in the Books app: https://books.apple.com/book/id6443146864 https://books.apple.com/book/id6443146864
- prepend 4y agoI remember really liking lifehacker when it was basically a blog. I think the issue is that these sites don’t generate enough income for whole teams of editors and to be bought by media companies like ZiffDavis. Maybe they are better now, that’s nice. But I think what works is a single person or maybe 3 finding life hacks and writing about them. I’m not even sure what lifehacker is supposed to write about now. But I think until they get back to someone’s passion project, they won’t be very good.
- pbronez 4y agoThis is my dream for a strong social safety net, maybe up to a UBI. If you could actually provide for people’s basic needs by default, people would lean in to passion projects like these. I think these are some of the most wonderful parts of being human.
- AH4oFVbPT4f8 4y agoMine as well, being able to give advice about personal finances, computers, providing mentorship. Lifehacker used to be one of my favorite websites, it's a shame what it has become.
- Ensorceled 4y agoLet us say “had become” and give them a chance here.
- AH4oFVbPT4f8 4y ago100%, i'm hoping it can reclaim its former glory
- JohnBooty 4y agoThis is my dream for a strong social safety net, maybe up to a UBI Amen. Many, many artists in the UK have commented how they could not possibly have pursued a career in the arts without the safety net of the NHS (National Health Service)
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- atlgator 4y agoBeth Skwarecki is part of the problem, not the solution. Elevating her content in the statement tells me they are heading further down the wrong path.
- resuresu 4y agoRemoving ads and bloat from your website makes people want to use it more. Who woulda thunk it.
- dirtyv 4y agoThis is not the type of article I would post on April 1st
- isleyaardvark 4y agoI agree, but this explains to me why Lifehacker disappeared from the top nav of the other Gizmodo sites a couple of days ago.
- ilaksh 4y agoAlso the way they were poking fun at the slideshow etc. really made me wonder if it was an April Fool's thing.
- cx42net 4y agoI agree too. I don't hype the April 1st so forgot what days it was when I submitted it.
- dmix 4y agoI like how the first article series they reference opens with one of their health editors attacking Homeopathy https://lifehacker.com/home-remedies-and-homeopathy-aren-t-the-same-thing-and-1850147006 https://lifehacker.com/home-remedies-and-homeopathy-aren-t-t... Some good writing
- kwertyoowiyop 4y agoLove it. It’s shameful that our country allows this crap to be sold. Someone who bought a homeopathic potion told me they thought that word meant ‘natural.’
- dmix 4y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_nature https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_nature
- npilk 4y agoWhen I was in high school I wrote a very basic Mac app that pretty much just wrapped some Terminal commands in a GUI. Somehow it got enough attention to get a small post from Gina on Lifehacker, which helped translate into thousands and thousands of downloads. Seeing my dumb little app on Lifehacker was an incredibly cool moment that made me feel like I'd really accomplished something. Here's hoping they can recapture some of the spirit of the old days.
- napierzaza 4y ago[dead]
- KeplerBoy 4y agoI remember when Whitson Gordon regularly wrote stuff on there. They covered niche, nerdy topics in simpler terms than most other publications, which was neat for a kid who just started learning English.
- miked85 4y agoI feel like lifehacker has slowly become a slightly better version of buzzfeed over the last few years.
- calimac 4y ago[dead]
- rchaud 4y agoAt this point I'd prefer to show my support for Lifehacker by purchasing a hardcover compilation of their top stories and their comment threads. The best content is evergreen anyway. It doesn't matter if the V3.0 of LH has done away with slideshows, something I thought the Internet abandoned in 2012. There is no way for a modern content-only website to survive without saturating every paragraph with affiliate link spam.
- gadders 4y agoBring back Gina Trapani.
- kylehotchkiss 4y agoI was hoping Gina would buy it back via Postlight. Rich and Paul’s podcasts have always been so entertaining, they’d make great writers for it!
- SecurityMinded 4y agoHopefully, lifehacker will again become a blog of life hacks rather than "your kid is trans and not yet know it" propaganda outlet. I definitely give them another chance under ZD ownership. Their current style is abysmal and even god damn tasteless.