6 ms·

What makes Hacker News a social media website?

by Minor49er 2y ago

jesterson 2y ago
HN is exactly what social media is. social media is a definition of sourced content, nit the quality of the latter
- croes 2y ago
  To me it’s just a crowd curated list of links, more like early day Yahoo
  - willsmith72 2y ago
    Remove the comments and votes and I agree. But you just left a comment
    - croes 2y ago
      A comment isn’t social media to me, every news site used to have a comment section but wasn’t social media. It lacks the connection between the commenters. You can’t follow or block comments, or at least filter or sort them
dnissley 2y ago
It's an infinite feed of content with comments and ranking based on upvotes (aka likes)
- causal 2y ago
  It is social media, but I'd argue that it lacks the worst incentives of social media: monetization and ads, which lead to attention-hacking algorithms and regression to lowest common denominator content.
  - lesuorac 2y ago
    Eh, its monetized in a different way. YC has a vested interest in programmers being exposed to YC companies such that they might go work/start one of them. Sure the occasional "Promoted post" is way less than say Reddit or mid-roll ads.
  - fny 2y ago
    It still leverages social and internet points which for some is attention-hijacking enough.
    - randmeerkat 2y ago
      > It still leverages social and internet points which for some is attention-hijacking enough. The difference is it’s not deliberate, it’s just how they get us to rank training data for ChatGPT 5.
- croes 2y ago
  The ranking doesn’t seem to be based on likes alone. For a real social media the content should be ranked by the likes of my peers, a feature non existent on HN
0xDEAFBEAD 2y ago
I would argue the defining factor of social media which separates it from blogs/forums/etc. is the ubiquitous feedback metrics, in the form of likes/downvotes/retweets/etc. Imagine attending party where whenever you finished a sentence, everyone who was listening immediately responded with a silent thumbs up / thumbs down in response. Pretty dystopian. The Onion did a sketch illustrating the problem a few years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFpK_r-jEXg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFpK_r-jEXg By this definition, HN is halfway to being social media. There are metrics, but they aren't displayed publicly.
- Apocryphon 2y ago
  HN is simply pre-Web 2.0 social media, a la Slashdot, Metafilter, the WELL, kuro5hin, etc.
  - 0xDEAFBEAD 2y ago
    IIRC, the term "social media" came about with Facebook/Twitter/Youtube. Before that, we had forums/blogs/wikis. That was the sweet spot IMO. The days before things were constantly "going viral". Sometimes memetic speedbumps are a good thing.
    - Apocryphon 2y ago
      I agree with that, however I would consider large forums (especially those that arose after the rise of the Web- so not BBS- and those that were more than simply vBulletin/phpBB message boards) to be basically photo-social media, even if they predate the term and concept. I think we need more forums outside of mega-communities like Reddit or even HN, but at least there are many that are still alive: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41783682 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41783682 Also, things were going viral even before the mid-'00s when the concept consolidated. All Your Base and Star Wars Kid went viral before it was called that, even if they garnered a fraction of the mindshare of the general public. Even that dancing CGI baby qualifies.
- jolmg 2y ago
oohlolly 2y ago
Not much since it’s moderated to the point of being a boring headline aggregator, with a heavily biased, toxic community of vain Americans ignoring anything outside the HN RDF May as well disable comments and treat it like a user updated RSS feed, discuss links elsewhere.
- samatman 2y ago
  And yet here you are!
  - oohlolly 2y ago
    Only long enough to disperse a particular mind virus. STEM degrees and 20+ years in Eng; hardware then software This community isn’t really peddling anything that hasn’t been done before; just like the story mode politics and economics often complained about What’s that? You have a new state manager or a machine and some math euphemisms that translate cleanly to other math objects known for a century? WOW! …There’s no beating physics and it doesn’t care humans exist. No matter how much symbolism we write down to represent it, it’s not imbuing us with magic powers. We just meat suits like everyone else. Get over yourselves; this a momentary social bubble that will vanish like all the ones they say came before Really look forward to ML generation of new math built on the same old axioms so we can light a bunch of PhDs hanging on walls on fire
    - nickburns 2y ago
      Bruh... it's Friday. And this is a post about social media participation. Not your existential waxing. You don't see any irony whatsoever in what you're spouting?
      - jay_kyburz 2y ago
        Urg, so American. It's Saturday.
        nickburns 2y ago
talldayo 2y ago
Karma
interludead 2y ago
HN might seem more focused and professional than typical social media, but it fosters a community and interactions
- Minor49er 2y ago
  How does it foster a community? I don't think I've connected with anyone on here beyond a single thread in the few years I've been around, and I consider myself a typical user Not looking for a fight or anything. I'm just curious about different perspectives and definitions of social media. The responses so far have been interesting
  - llamaimperative 2y ago
    Media used to be few or one entity speaking to many Social media is many people speaking to many HN is social media
    - Minor49er 2y ago
      Then wouldn't public access TV, call-in radio shows, or the news be social media as well since they typically involve many-to-many interactions? Or is there more to it?
      - llamaimperative 2y ago
        Sure. It's probably more helpful to think of this (like almost all things) on a spectrum. HN is definitely on the social media end of the spectrum. For example, all your listed examples have very hands-on and comprehensive, opinionated editorial control. HN has moderation, but not really editorial control per se.
        interludead 2y ago
        Viewing it as a spectrum makes a lot of sense.
  - 2y ago
maininformer 2y ago
The fact that I come in it just to read comments

What makes Hacker News a social media website?

jesterson 2y ago

HN is exactly what social media is. social media is a definition of sourced content, nit the quality of the latter

croes 2y ago
To me it’s just a crowd curated list of links, more like early day Yahoo
- willsmith72 2y ago
  Remove the comments and votes and I agree. But you just left a comment
  - croes 2y ago
    A comment isn’t social media to me, every news site used to have a comment section but wasn’t social media. It lacks the connection between the commenters. You can’t follow or block comments, or at least filter or sort them

dnissley 2y ago

It's an infinite feed of content with comments and ranking based on upvotes (aka likes)

causal 2y ago
It is social media, but I'd argue that it lacks the worst incentives of social media: monetization and ads, which lead to attention-hacking algorithms and regression to lowest common denominator content.
- lesuorac 2y ago
  Eh, its monetized in a different way. YC has a vested interest in programmers being exposed to YC companies such that they might go work/start one of them. Sure the occasional "Promoted post" is way less than say Reddit or mid-roll ads.
- fny 2y ago
  It still leverages social and internet points which for some is attention-hijacking enough.
  - randmeerkat 2y ago
    > It still leverages social and internet points which for some is attention-hijacking enough. The difference is it’s not deliberate, it’s just how they get us to rank training data for ChatGPT 5.
croes 2y ago
The ranking doesn’t seem to be based on likes alone. For a real social media the content should be ranked by the likes of my peers, a feature non existent on HN

0xDEAFBEAD 2y ago

I would argue the defining factor of social media which separates it from blogs/forums/etc. is the ubiquitous feedback metrics, in the form of likes/downvotes/retweets/etc. Imagine attending party where whenever you finished a sentence, everyone who was listening immediately responded with a silent thumbs up / thumbs down in response. Pretty dystopian. The Onion did a sketch illustrating the problem a few years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFpK_r-jEXg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFpK_r-jEXg By this definition, HN is halfway to being social media. There are metrics, but they aren't displayed publicly.

Apocryphon 2y ago
HN is simply pre-Web 2.0 social media, a la Slashdot, Metafilter, the WELL, kuro5hin, etc.
- 0xDEAFBEAD 2y ago
  IIRC, the term "social media" came about with Facebook/Twitter/Youtube. Before that, we had forums/blogs/wikis. That was the sweet spot IMO. The days before things were constantly "going viral". Sometimes memetic speedbumps are a good thing.
  - Apocryphon 2y ago
    I agree with that, however I would consider large forums (especially those that arose after the rise of the Web- so not BBS- and those that were more than simply vBulletin/phpBB message boards) to be basically photo-social media, even if they predate the term and concept. I think we need more forums outside of mega-communities like Reddit or even HN, but at least there are many that are still alive: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41783682 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41783682 Also, things were going viral even before the mid-'00s when the concept consolidated. All Your Base and Star Wars Kid went viral before it was called that, even if they garnered a fraction of the mindshare of the general public. Even that dancing CGI baby qualifies.
jolmg 2y ago

oohlolly 2y ago

Not much since it’s moderated to the point of being a boring headline aggregator, with a heavily biased, toxic community of vain Americans ignoring anything outside the HN RDF May as well disable comments and treat it like a user updated RSS feed, discuss links elsewhere.

samatman 2y ago
And yet here you are!
- oohlolly 2y ago
  Only long enough to disperse a particular mind virus. STEM degrees and 20+ years in Eng; hardware then software This community isn’t really peddling anything that hasn’t been done before; just like the story mode politics and economics often complained about What’s that? You have a new state manager or a machine and some math euphemisms that translate cleanly to other math objects known for a century? WOW! …There’s no beating physics and it doesn’t care humans exist. No matter how much symbolism we write down to represent it, it’s not imbuing us with magic powers. We just meat suits like everyone else. Get over yourselves; this a momentary social bubble that will vanish like all the ones they say came before Really look forward to ML generation of new math built on the same old axioms so we can light a bunch of PhDs hanging on walls on fire
  - nickburns 2y ago
    Bruh... it's Friday. And this is a post about social media participation. Not your existential waxing. You don't see any irony whatsoever in what you're spouting?
    - jay_kyburz 2y ago
      Urg, so American. It's Saturday.
      - nickburns 2y ago

talldayo 2y ago

Karma

interludead 2y ago

HN might seem more focused and professional than typical social media, but it fosters a community and interactions

Minor49er 2y ago
How does it foster a community? I don't think I've connected with anyone on here beyond a single thread in the few years I've been around, and I consider myself a typical user Not looking for a fight or anything. I'm just curious about different perspectives and definitions of social media. The responses so far have been interesting
- llamaimperative 2y ago
  Media used to be few or one entity speaking to many Social media is many people speaking to many HN is social media
  - Minor49er 2y ago
    Then wouldn't public access TV, call-in radio shows, or the news be social media as well since they typically involve many-to-many interactions? Or is there more to it?
    - llamaimperative 2y ago
      Sure. It's probably more helpful to think of this (like almost all things) on a spectrum. HN is definitely on the social media end of the spectrum. For example, all your listed examples have very hands-on and comprehensive, opinionated editorial control. HN has moderation, but not really editorial control per se.
      - interludead 2y ago
        Viewing it as a spectrum makes a lot of sense.
- 2y ago

maininformer 2y ago

The fact that I come in it just to read comments