3 ms·

I didn't live long enough to see the entire lifetime of HN, but it's definitely part of the old web in my book. Its functionality is the same it's always been,

by tavavex 2mo ago

I didn't live long enough to see the entire lifetime of HN, but it's definitely part of the old web in my book. Its functionality is the same it's always been, it's rock solid, lightweight and simple. No personalization or engagement maximizing, no modern-style ads. Being spun off from something as big as Y Combinator meant they can run this site almost indefinitely.

CoastalCoder 2mo ago
> I didn't live long enough to see... Whoa, careful with your verb tenses! You just wrote a ghost story :)
- tavavex 2mo ago
  Have seen. Too late to edit it now...
  - apsurd 2mo ago
    havent lived. “I didnt live long enough” means your life ended! past tense. hasn’t means its still going “have not (yet)”. I don’t know the formal rules behind it all though. its interesting because it sounds more correct to use have not yet because your life is still going on but its going on in the forward direction, not backwards in time to overlap an earlier HN state. So you could say its not right, but the sentence sounds/feels more right to preserve that your life is still going on. We like that you are still here with us.
    - sebastiennight 2mo ago
      > your life is still going on but its going on in the forward direction, not backwards in time to overlap an earlier HN state Wouldn't the proper tense be "I won't have lived long enough to see the entire lifetime of HN" then? > We like that you are still here with us. Same here, and it feels like a very "old web" kind of feeling, as we're expressing this empathy towards an anonymous stranger with a very deemphasized username. I find it surprising how much empathy has seemingly been on a decline as the Web went from anonymity to pseudonymity to everyone's full name and face being attached to their online presence.
      - uniqueusername7 2mo ago
        "I won't have lived long enough" implies you will be missing out on the tail end of HN, "I haven't lived long enough" implies you have missed the start (head end?) of HN (as I understand it).
        eth0up 2mo ago
        The tail end of HN hearkens to the good old days of the Sun as it aimlessly courses the void in a pod metaphorical to itself. He'll be fine.
    - stbede 2mo ago
      Try "I am not old enough to have seen"
sodapopcan 2mo ago
The only thing not "old" about it is upvoting, which is one of those YMMV features.
- marcosdumay 2mo ago
  It has the entire web 2.0 neophillia. Discussions stay for a day or so in focus, then they are gone. This one is almost gone already.
  - samudrijan 2mo ago
    Were you even here?
    - marcosdumay 2mo ago
      I made my account here in 2011, I don't know how it was before. But I understand the OP was talking about how HN is today.
- tomjakubowski 2mo ago
  (Score:3, Insightful)
  - KPGv2 2mo ago
    I love how great this "takedown" is, but also how it'll only be apparent to people over 35 or so.
    - sodapopcan 2mo ago
      Naw, it's my bad, I'm 45 but never spent any time on Slashdot as I didn't really care about tech at large back then. None of the forums I spent my time on back then had voting systems and now all the ones I use do and I'm not the biggest fan.
- onion2k 2mo ago
  I have fond memories of Slashdot in 1998. It was the spiritual forerunner to HN, and had upvoting, and in a more complex form as there were categories of votes. I got lots of +5 Funny comments. Hard to imagine, isn't it.
ErigmolCt 2mo ago
HN is a good example of how little a website actually needs once you remove the requirement to constantly squeeze more engagement out of it. Though to be fair, its audience is unusually self-selecting :)
- radarsat1 2mo ago
  I don't know much about how HN is run but I think it would be a mistake to underestimate the need for human moderation here, and I assume that is a lot of work. A message forum is simple, old technology. Keeping it usable and useful for humans is not.
  - another-dave 2mo ago
    I don't think the parent meant that it doesn't need moderation, but we've always had that in IRC/boards etc. But there's nothing akin to personalised algorithms, resharing posts, multimedia content etc. I mean even text formatting is very lean :)
    - radarsat1 2mo ago
      that's absolutely true, it's also the fastest website i use daily, by a large margin
  - phs318u 2mo ago
    > I think it would be a mistake to underestimate the need for human moderation here Bingo. As anyone that’s tried to run a Mastodon instance for more than just family and friends will tell you.
    - lukan 2mo ago
      Even family can be challenging ...
  - ErigmolCt 2mo ago
    Agreed… yet I meant "needs" in terms of product features, not maintenance or moderation

by tavavex 2mo ago

CoastalCoder 2mo ago

> I didn't live long enough to see... Whoa, careful with your verb tenses! You just wrote a ghost story :)

tavavex 2mo ago
Have seen. Too late to edit it now...
- apsurd 2mo ago
  havent lived. “I didnt live long enough” means your life ended! past tense. hasn’t means its still going “have not (yet)”. I don’t know the formal rules behind it all though. its interesting because it sounds more correct to use have not yet because your life is still going on but its going on in the forward direction, not backwards in time to overlap an earlier HN state. So you could say its not right, but the sentence sounds/feels more right to preserve that your life is still going on. We like that you are still here with us.
  - sebastiennight 2mo ago
    > your life is still going on but its going on in the forward direction, not backwards in time to overlap an earlier HN state Wouldn't the proper tense be "I won't have lived long enough to see the entire lifetime of HN" then? > We like that you are still here with us. Same here, and it feels like a very "old web" kind of feeling, as we're expressing this empathy towards an anonymous stranger with a very deemphasized username. I find it surprising how much empathy has seemingly been on a decline as the Web went from anonymity to pseudonymity to everyone's full name and face being attached to their online presence.
    - uniqueusername7 2mo ago
      "I won't have lived long enough" implies you will be missing out on the tail end of HN, "I haven't lived long enough" implies you have missed the start (head end?) of HN (as I understand it).
      - eth0up 2mo ago
        The tail end of HN hearkens to the good old days of the Sun as it aimlessly courses the void in a pod metaphorical to itself. He'll be fine.
  - stbede 2mo ago
    Try "I am not old enough to have seen"

sodapopcan 2mo ago

The only thing not "old" about it is upvoting, which is one of those YMMV features.

marcosdumay 2mo ago
It has the entire web 2.0 neophillia. Discussions stay for a day or so in focus, then they are gone. This one is almost gone already.
- samudrijan 2mo ago
  Were you even here?
  - marcosdumay 2mo ago
    I made my account here in 2011, I don't know how it was before. But I understand the OP was talking about how HN is today.
tomjakubowski 2mo ago
(Score:3, Insightful)
- KPGv2 2mo ago
  I love how great this "takedown" is, but also how it'll only be apparent to people over 35 or so.
  - sodapopcan 2mo ago
    Naw, it's my bad, I'm 45 but never spent any time on Slashdot as I didn't really care about tech at large back then. None of the forums I spent my time on back then had voting systems and now all the ones I use do and I'm not the biggest fan.
onion2k 2mo ago
I have fond memories of Slashdot in 1998. It was the spiritual forerunner to HN, and had upvoting, and in a more complex form as there were categories of votes. I got lots of +5 Funny comments. Hard to imagine, isn't it.

ErigmolCt 2mo ago

HN is a good example of how little a website actually needs once you remove the requirement to constantly squeeze more engagement out of it. Though to be fair, its audience is unusually self-selecting :)

radarsat1 2mo ago
I don't know much about how HN is run but I think it would be a mistake to underestimate the need for human moderation here, and I assume that is a lot of work. A message forum is simple, old technology. Keeping it usable and useful for humans is not.
- another-dave 2mo ago
  I don't think the parent meant that it doesn't need moderation, but we've always had that in IRC/boards etc. But there's nothing akin to personalised algorithms, resharing posts, multimedia content etc. I mean even text formatting is very lean :)
  - radarsat1 2mo ago
    that's absolutely true, it's also the fastest website i use daily, by a large margin
- phs318u 2mo ago
  > I think it would be a mistake to underestimate the need for human moderation here Bingo. As anyone that’s tried to run a Mastodon instance for more than just family and friends will tell you.
  - lukan 2mo ago
    Even family can be challenging ...
- ErigmolCt 2mo ago
  Agreed… yet I meant "needs" in terms of product features, not maintenance or moderation