4 ms·

I would argue it is not a social media platform for a few very important reasons. - No infinite scroll - No algorithmic content recommendations (ex: if you li

I would argue it is not a social media platform for a few very important reasons. - No infinite scroll - No algorithmic content recommendations (ex: if you like X, you'll like Y) - Highly targeted and moderated content - The user is not the product (this is maybe the most important and has far reaching consequences)

michalf6 3y ago
The user absolutely is the product here, HN is a marketing and recruitment funnel to YC and YC-backed companies.
- thinkingtoilet 3y ago
  I could be wrong, but I don't believe HN relies on selling user data like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok does. That is what I meant by that. That dramatically changes the incentives and therefor the experience.
supazek 3y ago
To me, having a profile with some kind of “like” system (karma) makes it social media. The main incentive is to gain upvotes which dramatically changes the way in which users write their thoughts. Even though there’s nothing tying the “real me” to my profile, I still know it’s me and am incentivized to make posts that will garner more votes. SO, Quora, forums etc all count. Only when people are truly anonymous, with no “score” being kept do I believe it doesn’t count.
jonplackett 3y ago
And most important of all - no push notifications trying to drag you back in all the time.
taude 3y ago
It does have paging that you can click through to get more articles. I know it's "different" but for someone like a HACKER, pressing the link vs a swipe probably has little differences. It does use "popularity" and it's gamed - maybe not algorithmic content, but it's still promoting content. It uses Social media game to upvote/downvote comments, etc. which impacts people's behaviors and group think. There's such a wide variety of articles on here, and a pretty wide variety of people, too. I'm always suprised by how many non-programmer types are really around here. The user's not the product? We'll there is targeting of Job ads and such on here for Y-Combinator companies. Probably other things that you just don't know about. It's just a niche social media company that you happen to really align with. But so are certain Reddits for people, etc. The one thing it doesn't have here is the distractions with other links (I'm
hgsgm 3y ago
It's like the old debates abput what "object oriented" or "functional" programming means. We need a list of the major attributes of social media, and then tag each system with its attributes from the list. Then we can discuss which attributes are good or bad and which attributes interact with some kind of synergy or opposition.
hk__2 3y ago
None of the item you listed have _anything_ to do with being a social media platform. Is it a website that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking? Yes, then it’s a social media platform, period. This is a good example for this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37210298 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37210298 > People tend to view every other social media platform negatively except for the one they personally use, and they're prepared to staunchly defend their choice no matter what. Besides, nowadays pretty much any random content website (including newspapers) have infinite scroll, algorithmic content recommendation (btw, content recommendation is algorithmic by definition), untargeted content and ads (= the user is the product) while not always being a social media platform.

michalf6 3y ago

The user absolutely is the product here, HN is a marketing and recruitment funnel to YC and YC-backed companies.

thinkingtoilet 3y ago
I could be wrong, but I don't believe HN relies on selling user data like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok does. That is what I meant by that. That dramatically changes the incentives and therefor the experience.

supazek 3y ago

To me, having a profile with some kind of “like” system (karma) makes it social media. The main incentive is to gain upvotes which dramatically changes the way in which users write their thoughts. Even though there’s nothing tying the “real me” to my profile, I still know it’s me and am incentivized to make posts that will garner more votes. SO, Quora, forums etc all count. Only when people are truly anonymous, with no “score” being kept do I believe it doesn’t count.

jonplackett 3y ago

And most important of all - no push notifications trying to drag you back in all the time.

taude 3y ago

It does have paging that you can click through to get more articles. I know it's "different" but for someone like a HACKER, pressing the link vs a swipe probably has little differences. It does use "popularity" and it's gamed - maybe not algorithmic content, but it's still promoting content. It uses Social media game to upvote/downvote comments, etc. which impacts people's behaviors and group think. There's such a wide variety of articles on here, and a pretty wide variety of people, too. I'm always suprised by how many non-programmer types are really around here. The user's not the product? We'll there is targeting of Job ads and such on here for Y-Combinator companies. Probably other things that you just don't know about. It's just a niche social media company that you happen to really align with. But so are certain Reddits for people, etc. The one thing it doesn't have here is the distractions with other links (I'm

hgsgm 3y ago

It's like the old debates abput what "object oriented" or "functional" programming means. We need a list of the major attributes of social media, and then tag each system with its attributes from the list. Then we can discuss which attributes are good or bad and which attributes interact with some kind of synergy or opposition.

hk__2 3y ago

None of the item you listed have _anything_ to do with being a social media platform. Is it a website that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking? Yes, then it’s a social media platform, period. This is a good example for this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37210298 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37210298 > People tend to view every other social media platform negatively except for the one they personally use, and they're prepared to staunchly defend their choice no matter what. Besides, nowadays pretty much any random content website (including newspapers) have infinite scroll, algorithmic content recommendation (btw, content recommendation is algorithmic by definition), untargeted content and ads (= the user is the product) while not always being a social media platform.