3 ms·

Ask HN: Hacker News Demographics

11 points by y1426i 14y ago

It would be interesting to see HN demographics and how it has evolved over the years (region, gender, browser, OS). Anyone who has that data and could post here?

GFischer 14y ago
There were some polls over the years, for example age: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2175588 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2175588 And a comment has links to older polls http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2180045 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2180045 Same for Operating System: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1511643 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1511643 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2303726 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2303726 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3786674 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3786674 gender http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=591309 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=591309 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1421169 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1421169 and region http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3298905 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3298905 googling for: poll [xyz] site:news.ycombinator.com will get you most of the results you want :) I hope you can extract and share some interesting data from there :)
- egor83 14y ago
  Some visualizations for these polls: Age (bar): http://hn-stuff.appspot.com/poll_chart/build/?thread_id=2175588&chart_type=bar http://hn-stuff.appspot.com/poll_chart/build/?thread_id=2175... Region (bar): http://hn-stuff.appspot.com/poll_chart/build/?thread_id=3298905&chart_type=bar http://hn-stuff.appspot.com/poll_chart/build/?thread_id=3298... Primary OS (latest), pie: http://hn-stuff.appspot.com/poll_chart/build/?thread_id=3786674&chart_type=pie&show_percents=on http://hn-stuff.appspot.com/poll_chart/build/?thread_id=3786... Build your own: http://hn-stuff.appspot.com/poll_chart http://hn-stuff.appspot.com/poll_chart
  - GFischer 14y ago
    Thanks egor :) . The pie chart with everything in shades of blue is a bit confusing, but bar charts do make things much clearer to visualize.
    - egor83 14y ago
      And thanks for feedback! I updated the coloring a bit: http://hn-stuff.appspot.com/poll_chart/build/?thread_id=3298905&chart_type=pie http://hn-stuff.appspot.com/poll_chart/build/?thread_id=3298...
      - GFischer 14y ago
        Much nicer now ! Thanks.
tokenadult 14y ago
As noted in some of the threads that GFischer has kindly linked to, voluntary response polling is not a reliable way to gather demographic data about HN. The HN webmaster may (or may not) have automated gathering of data about browswer and OS, although my wild guess would be that HN's participant population includes an unusually large number of persons who hide or obfuscate such data on the client side.

11 points by y1426i 14y ago

It would be interesting to see HN demographics and how it has evolved over the years (region, gender, browser, OS). Anyone who has that data and could post here?

GFischer 14y ago

There were some polls over the years, for example age: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2175588 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2175588 And a comment has links to older polls http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2180045 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2180045 Same for Operating System: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1511643 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1511643 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2303726 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2303726 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3786674 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3786674 gender http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=591309 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=591309 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1421169 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1421169 and region http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3298905 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3298905 googling for: poll [xyz] site:news.ycombinator.com will get you most of the results you want :) I hope you can extract and share some interesting data from there :)

egor83 14y ago
Some visualizations for these polls: Age (bar): http://hn-stuff.appspot.com/poll_chart/build/?thread_id=2175588&chart_type=bar http://hn-stuff.appspot.com/poll_chart/build/?thread_id=2175... Region (bar): http://hn-stuff.appspot.com/poll_chart/build/?thread_id=3298905&chart_type=bar http://hn-stuff.appspot.com/poll_chart/build/?thread_id=3298... Primary OS (latest), pie: http://hn-stuff.appspot.com/poll_chart/build/?thread_id=3786674&chart_type=pie&show_percents=on http://hn-stuff.appspot.com/poll_chart/build/?thread_id=3786... Build your own: http://hn-stuff.appspot.com/poll_chart http://hn-stuff.appspot.com/poll_chart
- GFischer 14y ago
  Thanks egor :) . The pie chart with everything in shades of blue is a bit confusing, but bar charts do make things much clearer to visualize.
  - egor83 14y ago
    And thanks for feedback! I updated the coloring a bit: http://hn-stuff.appspot.com/poll_chart/build/?thread_id=3298905&chart_type=pie http://hn-stuff.appspot.com/poll_chart/build/?thread_id=3298...
    - GFischer 14y ago
      Much nicer now ! Thanks.

tokenadult 14y ago

As noted in some of the threads that GFischer has kindly linked to, voluntary response polling is not a reliable way to gather demographic data about HN. The HN webmaster may (or may not) have automated gathering of data about browswer and OS, although my wild guess would be that HN's participant population includes an unusually large number of persons who hide or obfuscate such data on the client side.