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Sorry, but no. While the content may be the same, the format is entirely the opposite of what I read HN for. Even given the same quality of discussion and links

Sorry, but no. While the content may be the same, the format is entirely the opposite of what I read HN for. Even given the same quality of discussion and links: - The thumbnails add nothing useful - Fewer headlines are visible without scrolling - Insipid 'social' functions showing me everything going on down the right pane I read Reddit and HN, but I read them for different reasons. I'm not looking for a Reese's-esque solution, I would like my chocolate and peanut butter decidedly separate.

ScottWhigham 14y ago
It's answers like this that make me wish for the karma/comment score system to be returned. I 100% agree - the "information density" is just digg-like and, as a result, I'm out. But if I just upvote you, so what? Maybe it floats to the top, maybe it doesn't. Who knows how many people agreed with you? You might get 150 votes but no one will ever know that 150 people agreed with you. And if I was the developer/Brad, I'd want to know that "150 people in my target audience agreed with this" vs. "This is the top commment as voted on by an unknown number of people".
- jgrahamc 14y ago
  If you really want to know how many points that comment received then use the HNSearch API.
- alanctgardner2 14y ago
  Well, I appreciate your upvote ;) More seriously, I think the tone of the comments on HN is not supposed to be binary: we don't aim for solely critical or supportive feedback. We try to improve things by offering suggestions. That my comment made it to the top means my suggestions were widely viewed as useful, or at least my criticism was accurate. The magnitude of the negative sentiment isn't really important. It's the fact that, if the creator values HN's input, he should accept suggestions more-or-less from the top down, and weight them appropriately. If he scrolls to the bottom to see some generic 'Good work man, way to hustle', he doesn't really get it, does he?
jgrahamc 14y ago
Also, on the first visit I'm urged to "log in to start earning great rewards". No, thanks. To build a Hacker News competitor you need to build a community of equal value, not some 'rewards'. The reward here comes from having intelligent people read my comments and write intelligent responses. Build that and it'll be worth checking out. And, making it look like a pink version of Digg circa 2007 isn't enticing me at all. I do not need avatars, lots of whitespace, fancy fonts, etc. And it has precisely the horrible thing Digg had: two clicks to read a story (one click to get to same lame summary of a story, another to read it). Hacker News is all about respecting what Shannon told us so long ago about noisy channels.
- trendspotter 14y ago
  And the rewards are not even for this website, they are managed by "BigDoor" - a gamification startup Brad Feld has invested in: http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2010/06/fun-and-games-with-bigdoor.html http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2010/06/fun-and-games-with-b...

ScottWhigham 14y ago

It's answers like this that make me wish for the karma/comment score system to be returned. I 100% agree - the "information density" is just digg-like and, as a result, I'm out. But if I just upvote you, so what? Maybe it floats to the top, maybe it doesn't. Who knows how many people agreed with you? You might get 150 votes but no one will ever know that 150 people agreed with you. And if I was the developer/Brad, I'd want to know that "150 people in my target audience agreed with this" vs. "This is the top commment as voted on by an unknown number of people".

jgrahamc 14y ago
If you really want to know how many points that comment received then use the HNSearch API.
alanctgardner2 14y ago
Well, I appreciate your upvote ;) More seriously, I think the tone of the comments on HN is not supposed to be binary: we don't aim for solely critical or supportive feedback. We try to improve things by offering suggestions. That my comment made it to the top means my suggestions were widely viewed as useful, or at least my criticism was accurate. The magnitude of the negative sentiment isn't really important. It's the fact that, if the creator values HN's input, he should accept suggestions more-or-less from the top down, and weight them appropriately. If he scrolls to the bottom to see some generic 'Good work man, way to hustle', he doesn't really get it, does he?

jgrahamc 14y ago

Also, on the first visit I'm urged to "log in to start earning great rewards". No, thanks. To build a Hacker News competitor you need to build a community of equal value, not some 'rewards'. The reward here comes from having intelligent people read my comments and write intelligent responses. Build that and it'll be worth checking out. And, making it look like a pink version of Digg circa 2007 isn't enticing me at all. I do not need avatars, lots of whitespace, fancy fonts, etc. And it has precisely the horrible thing Digg had: two clicks to read a story (one click to get to same lame summary of a story, another to read it). Hacker News is all about respecting what Shannon told us so long ago about noisy channels.

trendspotter 14y ago
And the rewards are not even for this website, they are managed by "BigDoor" - a gamification startup Brad Feld has invested in: http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2010/06/fun-and-games-with-bigdoor.html http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2010/06/fun-and-games-with-b...