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Why don't we let Reddit be Reddit, and HN be HN? Why would I want HN to be a megaphone for Famous Joe Blow X when I'd much rather have him actively participati

Why don't we let Reddit be Reddit, and HN be HN? Why would I want HN to be a megaphone for Famous Joe Blow X when I'd much rather have him actively participating and helping out in the threads with the rest of us? This is a very bad idea in my opinion. Since I have no clue how to run a busy site, that means it'll probably happen. :)

d0m 14y ago
It can be both. An AMA is "Ask me anything" which is more focused on somebody (Or something that happened).. which is very different than the same person posting a meaningful comment on a discussion. As far as I know, PG regularly comments on HN and there are often links to his essay or interviews. An AMA isn't so much different than an interview...
- saraid216 14y ago
  To me, it would be ideal if AMAs were split off into their own site, rather than piggybacking off HN or Reddit. Same with ELI5. (Also, the meta-implications of the fact that this poll is asking about AMAs rather than ELI5 amuses me.)
  - antoko 14y ago
    ELI5: what are the meta implications that amuse you - for someone that just had to google "ELI5" :) (explain like I'm 5)
    - dfc 14y ago
      I too had to lookup ELI5 and am at a complete loss regarding any implications, meta or otherwise.
      - saraid216 14y ago
        The implication is that HNers are more interested in Q&A sessions over what amounts to a lecture. You could frame that as positively or negatively as you like: a fixation on fame and fortune over substance; a disinterest in having someone else explain what you could learn on your own; a preference for an interactive setting rather than a receptive one; etc.
antirez 14y ago
Many AMAs are not about famous people, but just people that are in a position you would love to ask them questions, in general or because of some specific news / event in the world or alike. With that I don't want to say that AMAs are necessarily good for HN.
nyrulez 14y ago
I think your estimate of their interest or availability regarding being a regular HN participant for some of these folks is is a bit misguided.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
achompas 14y ago
Why would I want HN to be a megaphone for Famous Joe Blow X when I'd much rather have him actively participating and helping out in the threads with the rest of us? Because the odds of getting Famous Joe Blow X to run a HN AMA are much, much higher than getting him to become an active HNer. We're talking about a one-time commitment versus extended involvement in our community. Look at the roster of AMA guests on Reddit. How many of them are active Redditors? It's non-zero, but not substantially so. And yet, by participating in AMAs, they enrich Reddit's community. EDIT EDIT: removed some belly-aching
- chollida1 14y ago
  > EDIT: wait what, downvote? For speaking the truth? Calm your self:) It can happen easily by accident from things like small buttons on mobile devices. Your comment has a positive score, isn't that enough of a positive signal?
  - kens 14y ago
    The down arrow makes voting pretty much impossible on mobile devices. Can I get 18 downvotes here so my karma will be below 500 and I won't have to put up with the down arrow anymore?
    - lotharbot 14y ago
      There are various HN interfaces people have written specifically for mobile. There's http://hckrn.ws/ http://hckrn.ws/ and http://ihackernews.com/ http://ihackernews.com/ for starters. A quick google search reveals https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/news-yc/id434787119?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/news-yc/id434787119?mt=8 for iOS, which includes a "confirm votes" toggle setting. There's https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rickylaishram.hackernews&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rickylaish... for android as well.
- _delirium 14y ago
  > by participating in AMAs, they enrich Reddit's community That's the part I'm skeptical of, at least keeping in mind what community means in the HN sense. They don't really seem to be part of the Reddit community at all; they're more like the "content" that the Reddit community is discussing any given day. What's more interesting about the HN community to me is that some pretty accomplished people are actually part of the community. Given the quality of questions/answers in a typical AMA, I'm not even sure how it's different from just linking to an offsite TechCrunch interview. Is it just some kind of fuzzy feeling of having participated?
duaneb 14y ago
> Why would I want HN to be a megaphone for Famous Joe Blow X when I'd much rather have him actively participating and helping out in the threads with the rest of us? I'd much rather just straight up ask him questions instead of waiting for him to appear.
- goblin89 14y ago
  Why would you wait for him to do an AMA, then? Can't we ask questions and get answers without the help of HN—say, via email?
  - ruswick 14y ago
    Famous and quasi-famous people generally don't publish their primary email. The whole point of the AMA is that it offers a public forum in which anyone can ask anything to people with whom they generally wouldn't interact.
    - deleted 14y ago
      [deleted]
greghinch 14y ago
The level of discourse in HN comments is leaps and bounds better than that in Reddit. At the very least, you'd get a much more useful and legible comment thread. And presumably the topics would be more focused on the HN crowd, where as Reddit runs the gamut
- jlgaddis 14y ago
  You are assuming that the Reddit crowd wouldn't participate in the HN AMAs. Many probably would and, possibly worse, they might stick around.
uglytom 14y ago
I agree. Even with my short time I have spent on HN, I find the place to be much more civil and information with less clutter than Reddit. Keep HN's identity strong and don't try to "copy" Reddit. I would think that if you allow a few AMAs it will quickly devolve as everyone would want to do an AMA.
- JoshTriplett 14y ago
  AMAs still have to get upvoted and have questions posted. If J. Random Whoareyouagain posts an AMA, it'll either die in "new" with 2 points, or fall off the front page with 10 points and two comments.
Jplenbrook 14y ago
Having the greatest technologists of our time answer our questions would be a huge distraction from the arguments over which language is better.
redthrowaway 14y ago
HN AMAs would fill a niche that doesn't really exist elsewhere: the opportunity to have questions asked by an audience focussed on tech and entrepreneurship. Reddit's too mainstream to get questions about the things HNers tend to care about upvoted. I'd certainly appreciate the flavour that HN would bring to an AMA.
michael_nielsen 14y ago
A way of addressing this would be to have a karma threshold before someone can do an AMA.
brudgers 14y ago
My first reaction was similar. However, I realized that an HN AMA, need not mimic a Reddit AMA. I created a prototype HN AMA here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5250690 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5250690 It doesn't seem to be very successful. Then again, I'm not that interesting.

d0m 14y ago

It can be both. An AMA is "Ask me anything" which is more focused on somebody (Or something that happened).. which is very different than the same person posting a meaningful comment on a discussion. As far as I know, PG regularly comments on HN and there are often links to his essay or interviews. An AMA isn't so much different than an interview...

saraid216 14y ago
To me, it would be ideal if AMAs were split off into their own site, rather than piggybacking off HN or Reddit. Same with ELI5. (Also, the meta-implications of the fact that this poll is asking about AMAs rather than ELI5 amuses me.)
- antoko 14y ago
  ELI5: what are the meta implications that amuse you - for someone that just had to google "ELI5" :) (explain like I'm 5)
  - dfc 14y ago
    I too had to lookup ELI5 and am at a complete loss regarding any implications, meta or otherwise.
    - saraid216 14y ago
      The implication is that HNers are more interested in Q&A sessions over what amounts to a lecture. You could frame that as positively or negatively as you like: a fixation on fame and fortune over substance; a disinterest in having someone else explain what you could learn on your own; a preference for an interactive setting rather than a receptive one; etc.

antirez 14y ago

Many AMAs are not about famous people, but just people that are in a position you would love to ask them questions, in general or because of some specific news / event in the world or alike. With that I don't want to say that AMAs are necessarily good for HN.

nyrulez 14y ago

I think your estimate of their interest or availability regarding being a regular HN participant for some of these folks is is a bit misguided.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

achompas 14y ago

Why would I want HN to be a megaphone for Famous Joe Blow X when I'd much rather have him actively participating and helping out in the threads with the rest of us? Because the odds of getting Famous Joe Blow X to run a HN AMA are much, much higher than getting him to become an active HNer. We're talking about a one-time commitment versus extended involvement in our community. Look at the roster of AMA guests on Reddit. How many of them are active Redditors? It's non-zero, but not substantially so. And yet, by participating in AMAs, they enrich Reddit's community. EDIT EDIT: removed some belly-aching

chollida1 14y ago
> EDIT: wait what, downvote? For speaking the truth? Calm your self:) It can happen easily by accident from things like small buttons on mobile devices. Your comment has a positive score, isn't that enough of a positive signal?
- kens 14y ago
  The down arrow makes voting pretty much impossible on mobile devices. Can I get 18 downvotes here so my karma will be below 500 and I won't have to put up with the down arrow anymore?
  - lotharbot 14y ago
    There are various HN interfaces people have written specifically for mobile. There's http://hckrn.ws/ http://hckrn.ws/ and http://ihackernews.com/ http://ihackernews.com/ for starters. A quick google search reveals https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/news-yc/id434787119?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/news-yc/id434787119?mt=8 for iOS, which includes a "confirm votes" toggle setting. There's https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rickylaishram.hackernews&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rickylaish... for android as well.
_delirium 14y ago
> by participating in AMAs, they enrich Reddit's community That's the part I'm skeptical of, at least keeping in mind what community means in the HN sense. They don't really seem to be part of the Reddit community at all; they're more like the "content" that the Reddit community is discussing any given day. What's more interesting about the HN community to me is that some pretty accomplished people are actually part of the community. Given the quality of questions/answers in a typical AMA, I'm not even sure how it's different from just linking to an offsite TechCrunch interview. Is it just some kind of fuzzy feeling of having participated?

duaneb 14y ago

> Why would I want HN to be a megaphone for Famous Joe Blow X when I'd much rather have him actively participating and helping out in the threads with the rest of us? I'd much rather just straight up ask him questions instead of waiting for him to appear.

goblin89 14y ago
Why would you wait for him to do an AMA, then? Can't we ask questions and get answers without the help of HN—say, via email?
- ruswick 14y ago
  Famous and quasi-famous people generally don't publish their primary email. The whole point of the AMA is that it offers a public forum in which anyone can ask anything to people with whom they generally wouldn't interact.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]

greghinch 14y ago

The level of discourse in HN comments is leaps and bounds better than that in Reddit. At the very least, you'd get a much more useful and legible comment thread. And presumably the topics would be more focused on the HN crowd, where as Reddit runs the gamut

jlgaddis 14y ago
You are assuming that the Reddit crowd wouldn't participate in the HN AMAs. Many probably would and, possibly worse, they might stick around.

uglytom 14y ago

I agree. Even with my short time I have spent on HN, I find the place to be much more civil and information with less clutter than Reddit. Keep HN's identity strong and don't try to "copy" Reddit. I would think that if you allow a few AMAs it will quickly devolve as everyone would want to do an AMA.

JoshTriplett 14y ago
AMAs still have to get upvoted and have questions posted. If J. Random Whoareyouagain posts an AMA, it'll either die in "new" with 2 points, or fall off the front page with 10 points and two comments.

Jplenbrook 14y ago

Having the greatest technologists of our time answer our questions would be a huge distraction from the arguments over which language is better.

redthrowaway 14y ago

HN AMAs would fill a niche that doesn't really exist elsewhere: the opportunity to have questions asked by an audience focussed on tech and entrepreneurship. Reddit's too mainstream to get questions about the things HNers tend to care about upvoted. I'd certainly appreciate the flavour that HN would bring to an AMA.

michael_nielsen 14y ago

A way of addressing this would be to have a karma threshold before someone can do an AMA.

brudgers 14y ago

My first reaction was similar. However, I realized that an HN AMA, need not mimic a Reddit AMA. I created a prototype HN AMA here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5250690 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5250690 It doesn't seem to be very successful. Then again, I'm not that interesting.