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That's a surprisingly small percentage, in my mind. Do you have any insight as to why? My first guess is that it's non-HNers who stumble across it because of a
by mod 12y ago
That's a surprisingly small percentage, in my mind.
Do you have any insight as to why? My first guess is that it's non-HNers who stumble across it because of a google result or similar.
- dang 12y agoI was surprised by it too, but people with more experience than I have seem not to be. When I've told them, their reaction has been "yup, it's always like that". So maybe it's not unusual? I'm pretty sure it isn't one-time stumbling upon the site. It's that most regular HN readers don't log in.
- ldonley 12y agoI imagine a lot of people don't register an account until they feel the need to comment on something. I had browsed HN for a long time before I decided to register and the only reason I did register was so I could reply to someones comment. This is of course anecdotal but its easy to imagine the same case for many people.
- Joona 12y agoYeah. The main attraction of HN is the links. Comments are usually nice to read, but I rarely have much to add to the discussion.
- mod 12y agoFor me it's at least 50/50. Maybe not even--the links really are just important as they create discussion on a given topic. I really, really enjoy the comments on this site.
- acheron 12y agoIndeed, the only point of the links for me is that they generate worthwhile discussion. (Which is why I tend to flag political links and such that have been proven to not generate worthwhile discussions, whether or not the article itself is worthwhile.) Especially because HN shows no summary or anything of the linked article: I'm not going to click on a link if the only information about it that I have is an (often purposefully) abstruse title and a domain name. Once there are a few comments that give me an actual impression of what the article is going to be, then maybe I'll go back and actually read it.
- Joona 12y agoI do love the comments, but I rarely have anything to add, so I don't really need an account. :)
- blfr 12y agoIt's pretty common for Internet communities https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%25_rule_%28Internet_culture%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%25_rule_%28Internet_culture%...
- krapp 12y agoAnd some of those are sockpuppet or throwaway accounts, so the actual number of users is bound to be slightly lower than the number of accounts, or even unique IPs.