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> It's anything with a "social" component that's the problem. This would include Hacker News, Discord, online forums, any video game...

• nottorp 2y ago
  > This would include Hacker News, Discord, online forums, any video game... Wrong. Neither HN nor traditional online forums push content selected to keep you "engaged". Not sure if Discord has started peddling "content" yet. If it does now I haven't noticed on my install yet. As for video games, are you of the kind that believes all video games are competitive multiplayer? You're right about the free to play IAP fests on both desktop and mobile, wrong about, for example, single player games.
  • krapp 2y ago
    The entire purpose of karma here and on forums like Reddit is to keep you "engaged" by pushing the most popular content to the top of the thread. And many people make HN a part of their marketing and SEO strategy, so the incentive for a lot of what gets posted here is just to get eyeballs and clicks, or increase clout for the authors and visibility to YC. And of course YC uses this forum to advertise their own startups, so they have an incentive to maximize engagement.
    • mewpmewp2 2y ago
      It is not as personalised as Facebook, Tiktok or Instagram. Problem is when a machine learning algorithm is designed to find content that has highest odds of keeping you engaged forever and diminishing your dopamine reserves as it is doing so. Hackernews can have issues, but by far not as much. Also having text only limits the ability to create such addicting content by far. Finally Hackernews doesn't play on your insecurities as much.
    • squigz 2y ago
      I love HN, and the community here, but yeah, let's not just ignore the fact that this is very much a YC recruitment platform.
      • nottorp 2y ago
        It's pretty easy to skip the blatant advertisements tbh. And HN doesn't somehow conjure more articles out of thin air when I'm done with the front page, as opposed to the likes of "social networking" somehow finding 10000 more cat photos for me if i scroll down. I could move that the definition of "social networking" is that it's not social. You get "content" crammed down your throat instead of interacting with people. While the main attraction of HN has always been the comments.
    • acuozzo 2y ago
      > The entire purpose of karma here and on forums like Reddit is to keep you "engaged" I see it more as a currency which can be used in exchange for spreading unpopular/controversial/inflammatory opinions. It's the online equivalent of whatever Dan Aykroyd has which enables him to keep getting invited to parties.
      • krapp 2y ago
        >I see it more as a currency which can be used in exchange for spreading unpopular/controversial/inflammatory opinions. So do I, but strictly speaking that's not what it's meant for. It's supposed to be operant conditioning - you want to do whatever makes the number go up, and avoid what makes it go down. What makes it go up? Obeying the rules, aligning with the local culture and posting stories and making comments other people want to read and upvote. What makes it go down? Repetition, humor, heterodoxy and controversy. It's the same kind of endorphine based Skinner box that every other forum and social media platform uses, just not as complex.
  • yieldcrv 2y ago
    big blind spot you got there
  • squigz 2y ago
    No True Social Platform, huh?
  • tekla 2y ago
    HN is literally startup founder type engagement bait - the forum.
    • nottorp 2y ago
      Funny because all I've learned from here is that "founder lifestyle" and "VC funding" are dirty words I don't want in my life...
• freeone3000 2y ago
  Not any video game! Many video games work without internet at all :)