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It's so upsetting being a 21yo just getting started in the industry. I finally find this awesome site with like-minded, motivated, and successful people, but al

It's so upsetting being a 21yo just getting started in the industry. I finally find this awesome site with like-minded, motivated, and successful people, but all anybody can talk about is fixing it! It seems like I'm always on the tail-end of communities. Is this just simply a case of the grass is greener for you veterans of HN?

CodeCube 14y ago
remember, it's a cycle. I'm 10 years older than you, and when I was 21, newsgroups were where it was at. Then I found Slashdot ... these exact discussions happened back then. Those communities spawned the diggs, reddits, stackoverflows and hackernews(es?) of today. Some new community is brewing somewhere as we speak, just participate wherever you still enjoy while you still enjoy it. And when you find a new community that you enjoy, simply participate ... in ten years, I guarantee that you'll make a comment exactly like this to some young gun ;)
debacle 14y ago
It happens. If you're a risk taker and willing to be a part of multiple social networks at once, you can be on the bleeding edge of good communities but how much are you really losing out on? The next good community will spring up sooner rather than later, and we'll all visit it, for a while. Communities seem to have a 2-5 year lead in cycle, followed by 1-3 years of good, healthy community. Then they get mainstream, bloated, and meta. But they never really die, which is the saddest part. I can go to social networks I signed up for over a decade ago, and people are still stomping there. And they are angry. Angry at being deserted, or angry because they put all their eggs into one basket, but either way you wind up with little hovels all over the Internet that are remnants of the gold rush for good discussion. Some day, the Internet as a whole will find its El Dorado. One thing's for sure - it's probably not Facebook.
steve8918 14y ago
I'm double your age. It's fairly inaccurate to say that all everyone can talk about it fixing it. Sure, some people gripe about it, and some aspects of the community might have shifted over time, but you'll still find the highest quality comments of any online community out there.
spion 14y ago
I'm sorry, I made the headline a bit sensationalist to attract attention. Paul Graham said he was looking into various options for the voting system, so I thought I'd pitch in and suggest my idea. That is all really - I love hacker news. No need to be discouraged or upset.
mbesto 14y ago
People have been talking about "fixing it" since day one. It's a reoccurring theme and typically goes in waves. However, I've been on here for 3+ years. I've seen the community decline unfortunately. It's only been in the last year that I've seen more than 100 comments (although this probably a cognitive bias) consistently frontpage articles and in my opinion is a bad thing. The quantity has certainly increased, but technically the quality hasn't diminished, it's just much harder to dig through the crap to find it. TL;DR - The signal to noise ratio has gotten much worse, but the signal quality seems to be the same.
lmm 14y ago
Part of me thinks that communities have a lifecycle. I feel like I caught a few on the way up - 4chan and facebook - and some on the decline - K5, plastic, fark. Only /. seems to go on and on like it always was. Sadly HN is feeling more and more like it's in its twilight years, if only because of all these endless posts on how to "fix" it. Particularly since I'm seeing people suggest a $5 signup charge. That killed K5 stone dead.

CodeCube 14y ago

remember, it's a cycle. I'm 10 years older than you, and when I was 21, newsgroups were where it was at. Then I found Slashdot ... these exact discussions happened back then. Those communities spawned the diggs, reddits, stackoverflows and hackernews(es?) of today. Some new community is brewing somewhere as we speak, just participate wherever you still enjoy while you still enjoy it. And when you find a new community that you enjoy, simply participate ... in ten years, I guarantee that you'll make a comment exactly like this to some young gun ;)

debacle 14y ago

It happens. If you're a risk taker and willing to be a part of multiple social networks at once, you can be on the bleeding edge of good communities but how much are you really losing out on? The next good community will spring up sooner rather than later, and we'll all visit it, for a while. Communities seem to have a 2-5 year lead in cycle, followed by 1-3 years of good, healthy community. Then they get mainstream, bloated, and meta. But they never really die, which is the saddest part. I can go to social networks I signed up for over a decade ago, and people are still stomping there. And they are angry. Angry at being deserted, or angry because they put all their eggs into one basket, but either way you wind up with little hovels all over the Internet that are remnants of the gold rush for good discussion. Some day, the Internet as a whole will find its El Dorado. One thing's for sure - it's probably not Facebook.

steve8918 14y ago

I'm double your age. It's fairly inaccurate to say that all everyone can talk about it fixing it. Sure, some people gripe about it, and some aspects of the community might have shifted over time, but you'll still find the highest quality comments of any online community out there.

spion 14y ago

I'm sorry, I made the headline a bit sensationalist to attract attention. Paul Graham said he was looking into various options for the voting system, so I thought I'd pitch in and suggest my idea. That is all really - I love hacker news. No need to be discouraged or upset.

mbesto 14y ago

People have been talking about "fixing it" since day one. It's a reoccurring theme and typically goes in waves. However, I've been on here for 3+ years. I've seen the community decline unfortunately. It's only been in the last year that I've seen more than 100 comments (although this probably a cognitive bias) consistently frontpage articles and in my opinion is a bad thing. The quantity has certainly increased, but technically the quality hasn't diminished, it's just much harder to dig through the crap to find it. TL;DR - The signal to noise ratio has gotten much worse, but the signal quality seems to be the same.

lmm 14y ago

Part of me thinks that communities have a lifecycle. I feel like I caught a few on the way up - 4chan and facebook - and some on the decline - K5, plastic, fark. Only /. seems to go on and on like it always was. Sadly HN is feeling more and more like it's in its twilight years, if only because of all these endless posts on how to "fix" it. Particularly since I'm seeing people suggest a $5 signup charge. That killed K5 stone dead.