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Why did he write: "It’s interesting to note that during my very brief tenure, reddit added more users than Hacker News has in total." Was that a dig at Hacker

by Sealy 12y ago

Why did he write: "It’s interesting to note that during my very brief tenure, reddit added more users than Hacker News has in total." Was that a dig at Hacker News?

naiyt 12y ago
No, I think it was just to emphasize how much Reddit is growing. HN is targeted at a specific audience and is more like a subreddit for a particular topic. It wouldn't make sense to compare them directly.
- fletchowns 12y ago
  Not to mention half of the user accounts at reddit are just stupid novelty accounts... I'm exaggerating of course, but there are still a ton of novelty/alt accounts that people create on reddit.
serve_yay 12y ago
No, why would he do that?
dragonwriter 12y ago
I think it was a humorous factoid rather than a dig; I don't think Sam Altman is attacking HN, nor do I think he thinks, or expects anyone reading his post to think, that HN / reddit scale comparisons are meaningful given their very different intended audiences.
- Sealy 12y ago
  Fair enough! I was thinking that theres not much of a comparison to draw as the hacker news crowd are quite different to the reddit crowd. I'd come here for an informed discussion and expertise... and assume I'd get mildly humorous trolling, lolcats and memes on reddit!
  - alttab 12y ago
    I felt like it was a joke. "I'm the shit - look what I did with Reddit in only 8 days, grew it 5x more than Reddit."
bvi 12y ago
No, it was just an interesting observation to put some context around just how massive reddit really is.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
TrevorJ 12y ago
It's an odd comment given the fact that HN has never really tried to grow. There's a certain audience for HN, and it seems to be understood that growth for growth's sake can sometimes put that at risk. (anybody remember back when PG would ask everybody to post really obscure stuff for a few days when HN was seeing an influx?)
darkstar999 12y ago
It would be interesting to see a comparison to /r/startups
- Sealy 12y ago
  I'll go check it out, are there any other similar subreddits the community could suggest I should check out? I already am a follower of /r/bitcoin and /r/bitcoinmarkets for reasons you can probably guess!
cwyers 12y ago
Seeing as how Sam Altman is president of Y Combinator, and there's a reason Hacker News' URL is news.ycombinator.com... yes, yes Sam Altman was definitely intending to insult Hacker News and everyone involved with it.
dang 12y ago
I assumed he was just poking fun at the home team, but it's nice to see HN users arise passionately in its defense.
deleted 12y ago
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Elrac 12y ago
I don't know if it was intended as a dig, but even as a casual and mostly-lurking HN user I perceived it that way, and was mildly offended on HN's behalf.

by Sealy 12y ago

Why did he write: "It’s interesting to note that during my very brief tenure, reddit added more users than Hacker News has in total." Was that a dig at Hacker News?

naiyt 12y ago

No, I think it was just to emphasize how much Reddit is growing. HN is targeted at a specific audience and is more like a subreddit for a particular topic. It wouldn't make sense to compare them directly.

fletchowns 12y ago
Not to mention half of the user accounts at reddit are just stupid novelty accounts... I'm exaggerating of course, but there are still a ton of novelty/alt accounts that people create on reddit.

serve_yay 12y ago

No, why would he do that?

dragonwriter 12y ago

I think it was a humorous factoid rather than a dig; I don't think Sam Altman is attacking HN, nor do I think he thinks, or expects anyone reading his post to think, that HN / reddit scale comparisons are meaningful given their very different intended audiences.

Sealy 12y ago
Fair enough! I was thinking that theres not much of a comparison to draw as the hacker news crowd are quite different to the reddit crowd. I'd come here for an informed discussion and expertise... and assume I'd get mildly humorous trolling, lolcats and memes on reddit!
- alttab 12y ago
  I felt like it was a joke. "I'm the shit - look what I did with Reddit in only 8 days, grew it 5x more than Reddit."

bvi 12y ago

No, it was just an interesting observation to put some context around just how massive reddit really is.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

TrevorJ 12y ago

It's an odd comment given the fact that HN has never really tried to grow. There's a certain audience for HN, and it seems to be understood that growth for growth's sake can sometimes put that at risk. (anybody remember back when PG would ask everybody to post really obscure stuff for a few days when HN was seeing an influx?)

darkstar999 12y ago

It would be interesting to see a comparison to /r/startups

Sealy 12y ago
I'll go check it out, are there any other similar subreddits the community could suggest I should check out? I already am a follower of /r/bitcoin and /r/bitcoinmarkets for reasons you can probably guess!

cwyers 12y ago

Seeing as how Sam Altman is president of Y Combinator, and there's a reason Hacker News' URL is news.ycombinator.com... yes, yes Sam Altman was definitely intending to insult Hacker News and everyone involved with it.

dang 12y ago

I assumed he was just poking fun at the home team, but it's nice to see HN users arise passionately in its defense.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

Elrac 12y ago

I don't know if it was intended as a dig, but even as a casual and mostly-lurking HN user I perceived it that way, and was mildly offended on HN's behalf.