4 ms·

Spend 30 seconds on the site. Didn't get it. Move on. If this is important, it will appear again on (HN|Reddit|etc) for me to take a closer look. Oh, and 30 s

by milesf 13y ago

Spend 30 seconds on the site. Didn't get it. Move on. If this is important, it will appear again on (HN|Reddit|etc) for me to take a closer look. Oh, and 30 seconds is a looooong time to spend on a site. I would guess people spend no more than 5 to 10 seconds on a site before they decide to investigate further or move on.

iancarroll 13y ago
You couldn't take a minute to actually read it over? It's not hard to understand. If you don't want to give new ideas the time of day, don't click on it; and especially don't waste your precious time on commenting about it.
- jonahx 13y ago
  I read what, why, and how and still have no idea what it is and no concrete example of an application. Everything is explained with jargon and abstractions. Btw, I actually have a vague sense this could be something cool and interesting and would like to understand....
- comatose_kid 13y ago
  The parent comment is helpful. If it was my product, I would wAnt to know if I was losing people over messaging.
- milesf 13y ago
  Actually, it's because I think maybe there's something there that I commented on it. I just didn't get it. The emerging norm for people with ideas is to package them in a way that draws people in. I'm guessing the majority of people on HN have some great idea that burning in their gut. Hopefully they will realize the important of great marketing and sales copy, because there are countless other ideas vying for our attention.
tlrobinson 13y ago
FYI, this is at least the second time Ethereum has been posted to HN (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7041628 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7041628). Also, I thought the same thing about Bitcoin the first few times I saw headlines posted on HN in 2009 and 2010. Kind of wish I payed attention sooner...
jonahx 13y ago
It's such a common paradox with technically gifted people: They spend so much time and energy on a product, but almost none thinking about how to present it clearly and succinctly to a complete outsider.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- atmosx 13y ago
  You are completely right, I've had the same feeling many times in the past for a vast array of technologies. In this case thought, the authors are making clear that it's for advanced technical audience[1]. They are just trying to get developers, but mainly communities that will run their blockchain (their version of bitcoin), which comes with a language that makes easy to implement all the beautiful things we're talking about when the discussion revolves around the bitcoin protocol (as opposed to the currency). [1] https://code.ethereum.org/ https://code.ethereum.org/
  - jonahx 13y ago
    It's true I may not be the intended audience, but I am a programmer who is more than capable of understanding what they are doing. That is, there are people who could have clearly explained what they are doing to me in the same number of words they've used. You're right that it might not be a big priority to them, but it couldn't hurt.
drpancake 13y ago
Agree with you that it's not clear for newcomers. I'm not affiliated, but basically Ethereum is an alternative cryptocurrency (or alt-coin) to Bitcoin with it's own separate mining algorithm and blockchain. The really interesting part is that it comes with a Python-like Turing-complete language, such that you can embed small scripts into transactions to define smart contracts. This theoretically allows you to implement all kinds of applications in a distributed way with no central trusted authority. For example: DNS resolution, options, betting, distributed exchanges.
- rdtsc 13y ago
  Hmm I thought it was a programming language for a distributed system. Yeah I guess they need to do a better job on the presenting who/what/how
  - collyw 13y ago
    That's exactly what I got from the "what" link.
applecore 13y ago
That was pretty much the response to Bitcoin five years ago, when it first appeared on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=463793 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=463793 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=599852 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=599852
- amirmc 13y ago
  The link you provide doesn't support your assertion. 5 votes for a bitcoin story that had three comments, none of which say they didn't understand the website. Edit: and the new link you just added has 4 votes and no comments.
- milesf 13y ago
  Yeah, and I missed that boat :) I wish I could dive into everything I read, but pragmatically I just don't have the time to chase down every rabbit hole. This is why the Internet is so powerful. It only take a couple of people to pursue something to report back to others and say "hey, this is important".
amirmc 13y ago
Maybe this will help [1]. I didn't understand the site either but I kind of stumbled on to 'blockchain for contracts' (no idea whether that's right or wrong). In any case it seems like there are a lot of people in Ethereum meetup groups around the world [2], so this isn't a new thing. [1] https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/%5BEnglish%5D-White-Paper https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/%5BEnglish%5D-White-Pa... [2] http://www.meetup.com/find/?allMeetups=false&keywords=Ethereum&radius=Infinity http://www.meetup.com/find/?allMeetups=false&keywords=Ethere...
ttflee 13y ago
I found its wiki a clearer but longer version: https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/%5BEnglish%5D-White-Paper https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/%5BEnglish%5D-White-Pa... In short, it is a proposal for a framework/protocol/platform/you-name-it sort of like BitCoin with more feature.
bachback 13y ago
spend 5 seconds reading that post. moving on.

by milesf 13y ago

iancarroll 13y ago

You couldn't take a minute to actually read it over? It's not hard to understand. If you don't want to give new ideas the time of day, don't click on it; and especially don't waste your precious time on commenting about it.

jonahx 13y ago
I read what, why, and how and still have no idea what it is and no concrete example of an application. Everything is explained with jargon and abstractions. Btw, I actually have a vague sense this could be something cool and interesting and would like to understand....
comatose_kid 13y ago
The parent comment is helpful. If it was my product, I would wAnt to know if I was losing people over messaging.
milesf 13y ago
Actually, it's because I think maybe there's something there that I commented on it. I just didn't get it. The emerging norm for people with ideas is to package them in a way that draws people in. I'm guessing the majority of people on HN have some great idea that burning in their gut. Hopefully they will realize the important of great marketing and sales copy, because there are countless other ideas vying for our attention.

tlrobinson 13y ago

FYI, this is at least the second time Ethereum has been posted to HN (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7041628 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7041628). Also, I thought the same thing about Bitcoin the first few times I saw headlines posted on HN in 2009 and 2010. Kind of wish I payed attention sooner...

jonahx 13y ago

It's such a common paradox with technically gifted people: They spend so much time and energy on a product, but almost none thinking about how to present it clearly and succinctly to a complete outsider.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
atmosx 13y ago
You are completely right, I've had the same feeling many times in the past for a vast array of technologies. In this case thought, the authors are making clear that it's for advanced technical audience[1]. They are just trying to get developers, but mainly communities that will run their blockchain (their version of bitcoin), which comes with a language that makes easy to implement all the beautiful things we're talking about when the discussion revolves around the bitcoin protocol (as opposed to the currency). [1] https://code.ethereum.org/ https://code.ethereum.org/
- jonahx 13y ago
  It's true I may not be the intended audience, but I am a programmer who is more than capable of understanding what they are doing. That is, there are people who could have clearly explained what they are doing to me in the same number of words they've used. You're right that it might not be a big priority to them, but it couldn't hurt.

drpancake 13y ago

Agree with you that it's not clear for newcomers. I'm not affiliated, but basically Ethereum is an alternative cryptocurrency (or alt-coin) to Bitcoin with it's own separate mining algorithm and blockchain. The really interesting part is that it comes with a Python-like Turing-complete language, such that you can embed small scripts into transactions to define smart contracts. This theoretically allows you to implement all kinds of applications in a distributed way with no central trusted authority. For example: DNS resolution, options, betting, distributed exchanges.

rdtsc 13y ago
Hmm I thought it was a programming language for a distributed system. Yeah I guess they need to do a better job on the presenting who/what/how
- collyw 13y ago
  That's exactly what I got from the "what" link.

applecore 13y ago

That was pretty much the response to Bitcoin five years ago, when it first appeared on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=463793 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=463793 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=599852 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=599852

amirmc 13y ago
The link you provide doesn't support your assertion. 5 votes for a bitcoin story that had three comments, none of which say they didn't understand the website. Edit: and the new link you just added has 4 votes and no comments.
milesf 13y ago
Yeah, and I missed that boat :) I wish I could dive into everything I read, but pragmatically I just don't have the time to chase down every rabbit hole. This is why the Internet is so powerful. It only take a couple of people to pursue something to report back to others and say "hey, this is important".

amirmc 13y ago

Maybe this will help [1]. I didn't understand the site either but I kind of stumbled on to 'blockchain for contracts' (no idea whether that's right or wrong). In any case it seems like there are a lot of people in Ethereum meetup groups around the world [2], so this isn't a new thing. [1] https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/%5BEnglish%5D-White-Paper https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/%5BEnglish%5D-White-Pa... [2] http://www.meetup.com/find/?allMeetups=false&keywords=Ethereum&radius=Infinity http://www.meetup.com/find/?allMeetups=false&keywords=Ethere...

ttflee 13y ago

I found its wiki a clearer but longer version: https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/%5BEnglish%5D-White-Paper https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/%5BEnglish%5D-White-Pa... In short, it is a proposal for a framework/protocol/platform/you-name-it sort of like BitCoin with more feature.

bachback 13y ago

spend 5 seconds reading that post. moving on.