12 ms·

as much as like this idea, I dont like this idea. I think to true value in HN lays in the fact its not hugely popular in masses. It has its own group of brillia

as much as like this idea, I dont like this idea. I think to true value in HN lays in the fact its not hugely popular in masses. It has its own group of brilliant hackers, programmers, lawyers, writers, etc, that are willing to spend time to read/write BECAUSE there is interesting stuff to read here, and other interesting people are willing to read what they want to write. If everyone jumps on this ship, most likely quality of subscriptions and comments will go down. So the "elite" will swim away... I think HN, with its current audience and contributors is PERFECT the way it is. so sorry to burst your bubble :(

RegEx 15y ago
If you think the value of HN stems from it not being popular with the masses, you're fully capable of making HN 1 unit better by leaving. Oh, wait, this doesn't apply to you, does it?
- joering2 15y ago
  RegEx, you are perfectly correct. One thing I quickly learned here is to shut up and listen, limit my comments. But I hope you understand; its soo darn hard sometimes to keep your mouth shut :|
- leot 15y ago
  By that reasoning, HN was best when it was just pg.
- tptacek 15y ago
  What a weirdly hostile comment.
  - RegEx 15y ago
    It's just extremely silly how people don't want other people on HN, as if they are any different.
    - tptacek 15y ago
      I wonder why you didn't just say that, then. But again note that the comment you're responding to is parroting something 'pg himself has said.
      - RegEx 15y ago
        I was upset, I find the elitist attitude to be extremely irritating. Should've waited a few minutes to cool off before responding. The fact that it's pg's opinion doesn't mean anything to me, though.
aadilr 15y ago
I second. As well-intentioned as this is, I am firmly against HN becoming the mainstream social platform that it will become if it is to be grouped in the same share boat as Facebook, Twitter, etc. It is perfectly fine for a blog post to link to its corresponding HN discussion, but I feel that the share button approach commodifies the experience.
PStamatiou 15y ago
I can't find it now, but this HN button thing has come up several times before and pg commented on it saying something similar.
- joering2 15y ago
  I have not seen that comment, fyi, but I would assume he would think similar. I would think most folks here would have the same feeling after couple days or weeks hanging around.
- DanBC 15y ago
  Here's the discusssion: (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2934178 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2934178)
  - tptacek 15y ago
    For the tl;dr crowd: this is a comment in which 'pg says basically the same thing as 'joering2.
- espeed 15y ago
  A few weeks ago someone said the ranking algorithm may silently disregard votes for directly-linked pages -- is this true?
eoghan 15y ago
I find this idea of trying to maintain a certain "elite" quality quite silly. This sort of growth is a natural phenomenon that happens to valuable sites like HN. Trying to prevent growth in a certain area (i.e. the less awesome people who you like here) will prevent growth in all areas—e.g. HN buttons could also promote HN to great but new hackers. If you stop these guys from getting involved, you'll cut off the lifeblood of a community whose participants are moving very quickly past the phase where they're excited to be involved in such a community—people get successful, busy, jaded, etc. and not forever passionate enough to bother doing the things that HN needs: reading, commenting, voting. You need new guys to replace the old guys, and both can learn from each other. If HN is locked down to a degree that its natural growth is stunted, it will die, and probably deservedly so.
- tptacek 15y ago
  The lifeblood of this community depends on... embedded "like" buttons?
  - Killswitch 15y ago
    No, but the lifeblood of this community depends on new hackers who'd fit in but aren't here. It'll be a huge circlejerk if no new users are coming down the pipe to bring freshness to the community.
  - eoghan 15y ago
    Read my comment again.
- sycr 15y ago
  > You'll cut off the lifeblood of a community whose participants are moving very quickly past the phase where they're excited to be involved in such a community—people get successful, busy, jaded, etc. I was about to respond to this with something to the effect of: "What have you observed that suggests in any way that the community is moving on?" Then I looked at your credentials. It seems as though the kind of person you're describing as having moved on/become far too busy/etc is, well, you. So it's possible that you might be conflating your own experience with the group's as a whole. Hacker News appears to me to be growing at quite a pace - independently of any such buttons or notions of elitism. In fact, I think the notion that it's growing precisely because of the elitism of quality, is worth considering. (P.S. Love your work by the way - it's got such a superb sense of design.)

RegEx 15y ago

If you think the value of HN stems from it not being popular with the masses, you're fully capable of making HN 1 unit better by leaving. Oh, wait, this doesn't apply to you, does it?

joering2 15y ago
RegEx, you are perfectly correct. One thing I quickly learned here is to shut up and listen, limit my comments. But I hope you understand; its soo darn hard sometimes to keep your mouth shut :|
leot 15y ago
By that reasoning, HN was best when it was just pg.
tptacek 15y ago
What a weirdly hostile comment.
- RegEx 15y ago
  It's just extremely silly how people don't want other people on HN, as if they are any different.
  - tptacek 15y ago
    I wonder why you didn't just say that, then. But again note that the comment you're responding to is parroting something 'pg himself has said.
    - RegEx 15y ago
      I was upset, I find the elitist attitude to be extremely irritating. Should've waited a few minutes to cool off before responding. The fact that it's pg's opinion doesn't mean anything to me, though.

aadilr 15y ago

I second. As well-intentioned as this is, I am firmly against HN becoming the mainstream social platform that it will become if it is to be grouped in the same share boat as Facebook, Twitter, etc. It is perfectly fine for a blog post to link to its corresponding HN discussion, but I feel that the share button approach commodifies the experience.

PStamatiou 15y ago

I can't find it now, but this HN button thing has come up several times before and pg commented on it saying something similar.

joering2 15y ago
I have not seen that comment, fyi, but I would assume he would think similar. I would think most folks here would have the same feeling after couple days or weeks hanging around.
DanBC 15y ago
Here's the discusssion: (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2934178 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2934178)
- tptacek 15y ago
  For the tl;dr crowd: this is a comment in which 'pg says basically the same thing as 'joering2.
espeed 15y ago
A few weeks ago someone said the ranking algorithm may silently disregard votes for directly-linked pages -- is this true?

eoghan 15y ago

I find this idea of trying to maintain a certain "elite" quality quite silly. This sort of growth is a natural phenomenon that happens to valuable sites like HN. Trying to prevent growth in a certain area (i.e. the less awesome people who you like here) will prevent growth in all areas—e.g. HN buttons could also promote HN to great but new hackers. If you stop these guys from getting involved, you'll cut off the lifeblood of a community whose participants are moving very quickly past the phase where they're excited to be involved in such a community—people get successful, busy, jaded, etc. and not forever passionate enough to bother doing the things that HN needs: reading, commenting, voting. You need new guys to replace the old guys, and both can learn from each other. If HN is locked down to a degree that its natural growth is stunted, it will die, and probably deservedly so.

tptacek 15y ago
The lifeblood of this community depends on... embedded "like" buttons?
- Killswitch 15y ago
  No, but the lifeblood of this community depends on new hackers who'd fit in but aren't here. It'll be a huge circlejerk if no new users are coming down the pipe to bring freshness to the community.
- eoghan 15y ago
  Read my comment again.
sycr 15y ago
> You'll cut off the lifeblood of a community whose participants are moving very quickly past the phase where they're excited to be involved in such a community—people get successful, busy, jaded, etc. I was about to respond to this with something to the effect of: "What have you observed that suggests in any way that the community is moving on?" Then I looked at your credentials. It seems as though the kind of person you're describing as having moved on/become far too busy/etc is, well, you. So it's possible that you might be conflating your own experience with the group's as a whole. Hacker News appears to me to be growing at quite a pace - independently of any such buttons or notions of elitism. In fact, I think the notion that it's growing precisely because of the elitism of quality, is worth considering. (P.S. Love your work by the way - it's got such a superb sense of design.)