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> Isn't something special about HN? I think so. One of the core advantages of HN, imo, is the absence of any of the common monetization models. The site itself
by rft 3y ago
> Isn't something special about HN? I think so.
One of the core advantages of HN, imo, is the absence of any of the common monetization models. The site itself and the moderation are run by a company making money in another field. Of course HN serves a function for that company, at least marketing, recruiting and community building. But, HN is not optimized to keep me "engaged", because engagement leads to more ad impressions. Things like the noprocrast feature would never make it to Reddit etc.
Another important difference is moderation is paid for and not based on volunteers. This means there is no regular way for someone to become a moderator and getting their own little fiefdom. For as long as I am following this site, dang has been the moderator here and with this consistency also comes consistency in decisions. Sure, dang does not set the tone directly, but at least we don't get "hostile takeovers" followed by a purge of supporters of the old moderation team.
Maybe it is also the topics of HN. They are at the same time really niche, but also very broad. You can find deep dives on esoteric programming languages, some social/political issues, biology research papers, history and even some gaming here. Sure, all of these topics have dedicated subreddits, Discord servers or boards, but here we get all of these topics more or less in 30 links on a single page. Maybe having a space to interact with many different topics and thus people is what keeps this interesting.
I don't know whether these things are due to something like a master plan or are just happy little accidents. No matter, it seems to work.
P.S. some comments mention the lack/low amount of humor. I agree that meme spamming is not great, but I like that we occasionally get a bit of snark or sarcasm mixed in. And without any shiny medals like Reddit gold or a point score attached to such a comment, it is easy to just skip over.