Ask HN: Why is Hacker News so much more successful than Slashdot?
72 comments
Slashdot had a strong community and good stewardship when it started. Eventually it got bought (and I think changed hands many times) and became a thin commercial shell of what it once was. In the mid 2000s when I used to read it, there were some (many) good technical discussions that would be similar to what you would see here. The two sites are just different places on their arcs. Check back on HN in 20 years.
To add in response to the post, there is clearly a sweet spot of how many users a site has. At the beginning, fewer genuinely interested people can work, and it can get better as the number grows and more people contribute. At some point, you have too many people, and the combination of eternal September effect plus not being able to please everyone plus trolls and people looking to get upset about something means the quality goes down (that's where a lot of reddit is I guess). Then when numbers go down again, a lot of the quality users leave and you're left with the trolls etc. so that even if active users is higher than at the beginning, the quality is gone. That's where slashdot is.
To add in response to the post, there is clearly a sweet spot of how many users a site has. At the beginning, fewer genuinely interested people can work, and it can get better as the number grows and more people contribute. At some point, you have too many people, and the combination of eternal September effect plus not being able to please everyone plus trolls and people looking to get upset about something means the quality goes down (that's where a lot of reddit is I guess). Then when numbers go down again, a lot of the quality users leave and you're left with the trolls etc. so that even if active users is higher than at the beginning, the quality is gone. That's where slashdot is.
> Check back on HN in 20 years.
I'm sure the time period matters, rather whether it's still owned and stewarded by YCombinator, with someone like Dang actively moderating it.
I'm sure the time period matters, rather whether it's still owned and stewarded by YCombinator, with someone like Dang actively moderating it.
I think there might be a simpler explanation even than that - I suspect HN took over from Slashdot simply because it has a rich corporate backer, thus doesn't really have to make ends meet using banner ads. Slashdot did for a while too (VA Linux) but eventually the gravy train ended. Banner ads really make the experience worse, and they don't work well on sites targeted at geeks due to rampant ad blocking. Lacking any form of banner ads probably also contributed to allowing the HN UI to be extremely dense, so the throughput of topics can be higher. Technical people like density, fast loading, and relative lack of ads.
The heydey of Slashdot was when it was itself in its 'startup phase' with Rob Malda leading the charge from the front, and back then it was great. Complex and sophisticated technical discussion, as well as other topics. Arguably way less politics than HN, though maybe more open source-oriented politics. Not many ads. Useful-ish summaries.
Frankly the question why HN is more "successful" than Slashdot rankles somewhat because I feel like it's maybe not really more successful, depending on what you define the goals of such a site to be. To me it's just different. For example, Slashdot threads did a great job of mixing discussion and entertainment. They made me laugh, they made me cry, they taught me a hell of a lot about UNIX and programming and often they did all these things simultaneously. Some people don't like entertaining comments but Slashcode gave people great UI controls so you could hide them if you didn't like them. In practice, I found they made discussions way more enjoyable to read. In contrast, HN basically just bans entertaining comments. It's a crude approach.
Slashdot also pioneered a lot of ideas and tech that made very big discussions work. Back then sites got "slashdotted" because Slashdot scaled far better than many of the sites being discussed. Contrast this with HN, which can't really handle threads of more than 500 posts before the UI breaks and around 2000 posts, the site itself starts to break.
Finally, frankly, Slashdot moderation was way less frustrating than HN's can be. HN claims to a high minded search for intellectual curiousity, or some such. DanG makes it work, more or less. But absolutely nothing is formalized in any way. How would you replace Dan? The principles which are claimed to be enforced are sufficiently vague and inconsistent there's no way you could ever scale the model up. Slashdot, for all its faults, provided a crisp and actually formalized moderation system that tried to reflect the priorities of the user base rather than Malda himself.
The current site is a shadow of its former self due to neglect and being out-competed by other sites that were able to keep on the VC train longer, but the core ideas of the site worked. Honestly I miss it sometimes.
The heydey of Slashdot was when it was itself in its 'startup phase' with Rob Malda leading the charge from the front, and back then it was great. Complex and sophisticated technical discussion, as well as other topics. Arguably way less politics than HN, though maybe more open source-oriented politics. Not many ads. Useful-ish summaries.
Frankly the question why HN is more "successful" than Slashdot rankles somewhat because I feel like it's maybe not really more successful, depending on what you define the goals of such a site to be. To me it's just different. For example, Slashdot threads did a great job of mixing discussion and entertainment. They made me laugh, they made me cry, they taught me a hell of a lot about UNIX and programming and often they did all these things simultaneously. Some people don't like entertaining comments but Slashcode gave people great UI controls so you could hide them if you didn't like them. In practice, I found they made discussions way more enjoyable to read. In contrast, HN basically just bans entertaining comments. It's a crude approach.
Slashdot also pioneered a lot of ideas and tech that made very big discussions work. Back then sites got "slashdotted" because Slashdot scaled far better than many of the sites being discussed. Contrast this with HN, which can't really handle threads of more than 500 posts before the UI breaks and around 2000 posts, the site itself starts to break.
Finally, frankly, Slashdot moderation was way less frustrating than HN's can be. HN claims to a high minded search for intellectual curiousity, or some such. DanG makes it work, more or less. But absolutely nothing is formalized in any way. How would you replace Dan? The principles which are claimed to be enforced are sufficiently vague and inconsistent there's no way you could ever scale the model up. Slashdot, for all its faults, provided a crisp and actually formalized moderation system that tried to reflect the priorities of the user base rather than Malda himself.
The current site is a shadow of its former self due to neglect and being out-competed by other sites that were able to keep on the VC train longer, but the core ideas of the site worked. Honestly I miss it sometimes.
I might quibble with some of your argument, but I certainly agree that slashdot was great :)
Well, I for one, would certainly welcome input from our forum overlords! :)
> Hacker News has so many people on it everyday, which makes me wonder why Slashdot fails in comparison. I also hear that the community at Slashdot is less than pleasant, but I'm not sure as to the validity of those claims.
> Why is Hacker News so successful while Slashdot has become a relic of internet history?
Dang, ruthless moderation and community effects.
People underestimate the degree to which peer comments encourage and discourage behaviors in the rest of the participating population. Civility and on-topic-ness are central values of hacker news. The top 5% most active users religiously follow this, and this establishes a clear personality for the platform. This implicitly discourages new users from contributing in a way that strays from those values.
There are 2 possible events where this system goes haywire. Slow takeover and viral events. Slow deterioration happens through complacency. Viral events are when there is an overnight migration of new users to your platform, replacing your culture wholesale. Dang's remarkably consistent culture reminders curb the slow deterioration. For the 2nd point, HN has likely never had a major viral event, but culture war threads are often locked quickly and deprioritized.
HN is the way it is cause of painstaking effort to keep it the way it is. Don't take it for granted. I try my best to be an honest participant. It is one of the few places that still remind of the old internet. I'm willing to be a obedient child if that means it can stay that way.
> Why is Hacker News so successful while Slashdot has become a relic of internet history?
Dang, ruthless moderation and community effects.
People underestimate the degree to which peer comments encourage and discourage behaviors in the rest of the participating population. Civility and on-topic-ness are central values of hacker news. The top 5% most active users religiously follow this, and this establishes a clear personality for the platform. This implicitly discourages new users from contributing in a way that strays from those values.
There are 2 possible events where this system goes haywire. Slow takeover and viral events. Slow deterioration happens through complacency. Viral events are when there is an overnight migration of new users to your platform, replacing your culture wholesale. Dang's remarkably consistent culture reminders curb the slow deterioration. For the 2nd point, HN has likely never had a major viral event, but culture war threads are often locked quickly and deprioritized.
HN is the way it is cause of painstaking effort to keep it the way it is. Don't take it for granted. I try my best to be an honest participant. It is one of the few places that still remind of the old internet. I'm willing to be a obedient child if that means it can stay that way.
I figured I'd check out Slashdot after a decade-plus long hiatus... clicked on a comment section to be greeted by a pages-long scrolling message with some QAnon drivel and dozens of huge ascii swastikas. Flagged it. Never got taken down. Same message in damn near every other story on there. Ok... bye. It's not like they're just being inundated and not able to respond— that site is so low-volume they could hire a task rabbit for $5 every day to go through and delete all of the swastikas and it would drastically less off-putting. Or maybe just require logins? No allow monospaced text in posts?
Not sure what signals you'd need to realize your formerly excellent site is a giant moldering dumpster and you should just throw archives from the first 15 years somewhere and call it a day— but I'm pretty confident they were just ignoring those signals like 10 years ago.
Not sure what signals you'd need to realize your formerly excellent site is a giant moldering dumpster and you should just throw archives from the first 15 years somewhere and call it a day— but I'm pretty confident they were just ignoring those signals like 10 years ago.
At least a few years ago (maybe 5 or 6 at least) there was a limit on the number of new users per day/hour. I remember coming sometimes from Reddit to Hacker News and not being able to sign up
Also, a thing to note is that HN has user hierarchy, meaning certain users have more power than others, more or less based on karma. Which does mean that if you're thinking an easy of expressing your thought doesn't align well enough with those above you, your experience of HN will be crippled.
Like with all things in life, HN could be better, more accepting to different thinking people.
There have been times when seeing what gets up voted and what gets down voted really made me think twice about what people that are running this website are actually thinking.
Also also, not sure if this is specific only to me or if it happens to others who's first language isn't English but quite often when I ask a question users assume the worst and think that in just trolling and down vote, making the website less useful...
But! Compared to pretty much any other content aggregator, HN is, content wise much better, even if the comments experience can get worse then Reddit.
Like with all things in life, HN could be better, more accepting to different thinking people.
There have been times when seeing what gets up voted and what gets down voted really made me think twice about what people that are running this website are actually thinking.
Also also, not sure if this is specific only to me or if it happens to others who's first language isn't English but quite often when I ask a question users assume the worst and think that in just trolling and down vote, making the website less useful...
But! Compared to pretty much any other content aggregator, HN is, content wise much better, even if the comments experience can get worse then Reddit.
> Also, a thing to note is that HN has user hierarchy, meaning certain users have more power than others, more or less based on karma. Which does mean that if you're thinking an easy of expressing your thought doesn't align well enough with those above you, your experience of HN will be crippled.
I have no idea what you're talking about here, apparently more than just newbies not being able to downvote - could you give an example or two? Maybe it's just a sinister way of describing being downvoted but not being able to downvote others.
> There have been times when seeing what gets up voted and what gets down voted really made me think twice about what people that are running this website are actually thinking.
Uh, it's not the "people running the website" who do the voting, not sure what you mean. If you really are curious about what the people running HN are thinking, email dang at [email protected] and just ask. It's not a hidden, mysterious, shadowy entity. Or, reading his comments on here for an hour or two should answer most questions.
p.s. It seems likely you meant way but typed eay or esy and it was auto-corrected to easy?
I have no idea what you're talking about here, apparently more than just newbies not being able to downvote - could you give an example or two? Maybe it's just a sinister way of describing being downvoted but not being able to downvote others.
> There have been times when seeing what gets up voted and what gets down voted really made me think twice about what people that are running this website are actually thinking.
Uh, it's not the "people running the website" who do the voting, not sure what you mean. If you really are curious about what the people running HN are thinking, email dang at [email protected] and just ask. It's not a hidden, mysterious, shadowy entity. Or, reading his comments on here for an hour or two should answer most questions.
p.s. It seems likely you meant way but typed eay or esy and it was auto-corrected to easy?
For example, you can't flag or vouch posts unless you have a certain amount of karma.
And that cripples your experience of HN?
Unfortunately, it's hard/impossible to talk about this properly, because of that sentence starting "Which does mean that if you're thinking an easy of expressing". I can't work out what grammatical sentence they could've been going for, what they meant exactly, it's such a mangled mess. I try to repair it but can't.
Unfortunately, it's hard/impossible to talk about this properly, because of that sentence starting "Which does mean that if you're thinking an easy of expressing". I can't work out what grammatical sentence they could've been going for, what they meant exactly, it's such a mangled mess. I try to repair it but can't.
Despite the slight language or spelling barrier I still feel like I got what OP was trying to say without much trouble.
I'm actually curious if you're trying to illustrate the following part of their comment with your replies?
> Also also, not sure if this is specific only to me or if it happens to others who's first language isn't English but quite often when I ask a question users assume the worst and think that in just trolling and down vote, making the website less useful...
I'm actually curious if you're trying to illustrate the following part of their comment with your replies?
> Also also, not sure if this is specific only to me or if it happens to others who's first language isn't English but quite often when I ask a question users assume the worst and think that in just trolling and down vote, making the website less useful...
Please assume good faith, your comment is just insulting. I will assume you didn't mean to be. That's great you understood it without much trouble. Consider it possible that, as I've said several times, I couldn't. So can you please turn/correct this into understandable english for me?
"Which does mean that if you're thinking an easy of expressing your thought doesn't align well enough with those above you, your experience of HN will be crippled."
Well, I think that would just be guesswork, so maybe don't worry about it.
I tried, but can't believe that you're "actually curious if you're trying to illustrate the following part of their comment", i.e. that I'm deliberately trolling. You are just 'cleverly' being mean, while accusing me of the same. Don't play such games on HN, thanks. I'm not interested in playing, and utterly regret taking part in this thread.
"Which does mean that if you're thinking an easy of expressing your thought doesn't align well enough with those above you, your experience of HN will be crippled."
Well, I think that would just be guesswork, so maybe don't worry about it.
I tried, but can't believe that you're "actually curious if you're trying to illustrate the following part of their comment", i.e. that I'm deliberately trolling. You are just 'cleverly' being mean, while accusing me of the same. Don't play such games on HN, thanks. I'm not interested in playing, and utterly regret taking part in this thread.
I'm certainly not playing games or trying to be mean. Your replies seemed like they may be picking apart the OP's comment in a way that legitimately appeared to illustrate their point, hence my question. I get how my question about whether you're "trying" to illustrate the point can come off as accusing you of trolling though, apologies for that. I will assume the point was simply illustrated by accident.
Here is the "understandable English" you requested, which is how I interpreted the OP's message without picking apart their every word (I hope they will correct me if I'm wrong):
If you are attempting to express your thought and the way you word it does not align well enough with those who have more karma (and thereby things like flagging/vouching power), your experience of HN will be crippled.
I'm not sure I agree with this entirely, though I can definitely see their point.
Here is the "understandable English" you requested, which is how I interpreted the OP's message without picking apart their every word (I hope they will correct me if I'm wrong):
If you are attempting to express your thought and the way you word it does not align well enough with those who have more karma (and thereby things like flagging/vouching power), your experience of HN will be crippled.
I'm not sure I agree with this entirely, though I can definitely see their point.
I appear to be unable to edit the original comment, but I'd say that you're quite on point.
I was trying to say that how people think, how good they are at putting those thoughts into words and how they put it into words is different from person to person.
Quite often when I try to give an example of something I pick as obvious of an example as possible.
Example of how people have different definitions for the same words: Word: evil.
Hitler probably wouldn't describe himself as evil, but a vast majority of people would use the word evil to describe Hitler.
That would mean that Hitler's definition of evil would have to exclude the things that he did.
When I gave that example in a different community the moderator deleted my message saying that supporting and glorifying Hitler is not allowed there.
While I do have faith that here on HN people would actually read what I wrote and understand that I did no such thing. Such misinterpretation of comments still happens even here, which ends in a negative outcome.
I was trying to say that how people think, how good they are at putting those thoughts into words and how they put it into words is different from person to person.
Quite often when I try to give an example of something I pick as obvious of an example as possible.
Example of how people have different definitions for the same words: Word: evil.
Hitler probably wouldn't describe himself as evil, but a vast majority of people would use the word evil to describe Hitler.
That would mean that Hitler's definition of evil would have to exclude the things that he did.
When I gave that example in a different community the moderator deleted my message saying that supporting and glorifying Hitler is not allowed there.
While I do have faith that here on HN people would actually read what I wrote and understand that I did no such thing. Such misinterpretation of comments still happens even here, which ends in a negative outcome.
[deleted]
[deleted]
HN is well moderated however I am getting bored with questions such as
"Why am I not more successful?"
"How do I make money fast?"
"Tell me your ideas?" (so I can be successful and make money fast)
"Why am I not more successful?"
"How do I make money fast?"
"Tell me your ideas?" (so I can be successful and make money fast)
I enjoy the non-technical topics as much as the next person. But the quality of commentary degrades quickly. We all know there are lots of smart people on this forum. But, I’m not certain that many of these users realize how confidently ignorant they sound on non-technical topics such as politics, economics, and medicine.
Also there is a daily "don't know what to do with my life" with the same two responses: get diagnosed and swallow this pill.
The many topics about Rust are annoying too. The activists and fanboys turn the discussions tiresome.
I like lobste.rs as an alternative that stays technical and has less of the fluff that HN attracts. Plus with their tagging scheme, I can just hide all of the junk that I could care less about by default.
Simple; The Page layouts.
There is nothing else other than relevant content and the density of information per page is very high. Hence no distractions.
There is nothing else other than relevant content and the density of information per page is very high. Hence no distractions.
This is it for me. I find that I can easily skim and read threads on HN, plus the actual content takes up the vast majority of the screen. On Slashdot (and maybe I'm doing it wrong), less that 50% of the screen is actual content, and I have to constantly click to open comments deeper in threads.
One of the things I got tired of was the same jokes always upvoted to +5 funny, whereas tired memes are discouraged here.
At the same time, HN is quite distinctly not funny, with jokes being so exceedingly rare that they never even get the chance to turn into a meme. Sometimes, when I read discussions on HN, I wonder whether a little bit of humor might help from time to time (I know it's difficult in writing).
Slashdot was a little bit messy,and less obsessed with facts and technical accuracy, and with being civil and polite, but it was also, well, more human I think. And being a bit messy is ok, as long as most people recognize it (including the people messing about ) and mark things as such for those who don't (the funny, flamebait, etc tags).
Slashdot was a little bit messy,and less obsessed with facts and technical accuracy, and with being civil and polite, but it was also, well, more human I think. And being a bit messy is ok, as long as most people recognize it (including the people messing about ) and mark things as such for those who don't (the funny, flamebait, etc tags).
I never reflected on that until you mentioned it. It seems even when someone does attempt a joke here, I always wonder why the comment hasn't been down voted away. It's just not that venue, I guess.
Which is a shame, because smart folks are often some of the funniest.
Which is a shame, because smart folks are often some of the funniest.
1. HN community typically frowns on fluff, jokes and loose comments. Its a good thing. The discussion stays to the point.
2. No commercial algorithm boosting a topic over other. Plain upvoting. This helps a lot. It becomes matter of the community's collective choice.
3. Unlike reddit for e.g. the mob down voting is reduced to an extent because the hard limit is -3. (Fun fact: I had reddit account a while ago where a popular sub's mod got personal and his cronies downvoted me everywhere. I was shadowbanned on several of the subs. My max karma drops was ~300-400 points in a single day. It was due to a thread which wasn't even fluff or lame/ funny/ sarcastic, but because I had questioned the moderation morals. The post was sick and hurtful & the crowd gets murderous. If slashdot is snarky, reddit is outright toxic.)
4. No amount of praise is enough when I mention @dang. The guy ruthlessly keeps everyone in line. Hats off to him. HN is much better because of his untiring efforts to curate.
2. No commercial algorithm boosting a topic over other. Plain upvoting. This helps a lot. It becomes matter of the community's collective choice.
3. Unlike reddit for e.g. the mob down voting is reduced to an extent because the hard limit is -3. (Fun fact: I had reddit account a while ago where a popular sub's mod got personal and his cronies downvoted me everywhere. I was shadowbanned on several of the subs. My max karma drops was ~300-400 points in a single day. It was due to a thread which wasn't even fluff or lame/ funny/ sarcastic, but because I had questioned the moderation morals. The post was sick and hurtful & the crowd gets murderous. If slashdot is snarky, reddit is outright toxic.)
4. No amount of praise is enough when I mention @dang. The guy ruthlessly keeps everyone in line. Hats off to him. HN is much better because of his untiring efforts to curate.
I agree, and I know you didn't mean it literally but s/ruthlessly/tirelessly/ ! He's the exact opposite of ruthless.
I think people get bored with a platform and move onto next.
Examples - Slashdot -> Digg -> Reddit. Hi5 -> Facebook -> Tiktok.
There'll eventually be "new HN".
Examples - Slashdot -> Digg -> Reddit. Hi5 -> Facebook -> Tiktok.
There'll eventually be "new HN".
There already is
What's the new Hacker News, if you don't mind me asking?
Sorry, I really wish I could but I've seen too many small good communities eventually turn into large bad ones.
Why post the comment if you're not open to linking the website, then?
Do you mean https://lobste.rs/ ?
While they both target the tech audience, they focus on different parts of it. Slashdot attracts a lot more of the detail focused folks who are implementing tech "in the trenches" but have a greater tendency to obsess over minor details (often very important to implementation). The quite visible scoring system tends reward hive thinking and a sense of self-righteousness. Places like HN, consciously or not, appear to have learned from the worst of Slashdot's forced consensus model and made adjustments to weaken that tendency. Of course it still happens, just look at how the lab leak theory was handled here. HN is still quite susceptible to hive thinking and resulting poor moderating (sorry Dang, but you did fuck you there, hope you learned from it) but it is nothing on the scale of places like Slashdot.
The above is in addition to all of the meta problems the site has had with change of ownership, management, catering the advertisers, etc.
The above is in addition to all of the meta problems the site has had with change of ownership, management, catering the advertisers, etc.
I think in a way Slashdot is still a "Web 1.0" site. The way it works was more adapted to the way of thinking of the time
Of course now the users are completely different from the time it started, and the level of discussions there is much shallower than what it was let's say, 15 yrs. ago.
Of course now the users are completely different from the time it started, and the level of discussions there is much shallower than what it was let's say, 15 yrs. ago.
Slashdot always struck me as snarkier and snippier and sarcastic compared to HN. There were some pure tech topics (my interest was in the Linuxy and systemsy stuff)... but I remember the snark. However it's been so long my memory might be tainted.
[deleted]
Hacker News is a marketing campaign for a VC fund. Slashdot is a business.
Different motivations give different options and lead to different outcomes. Personally I find HN a worse community because the motives are hidden/glossed over.
Different motivations give different options and lead to different outcomes. Personally I find HN a worse community because the motives are hidden/glossed over.
The motives aren’t hidden. They are indeed glossed over. But are you telling me that alone makes it a worse community? In other words, if they were explicit you would regard this site as the better one?
To me HN is an order of magnitude better than Slashdot but of course your mileage obviously varies.
To me HN is an order of magnitude better than Slashdot but of course your mileage obviously varies.
Yeah, I think the blindness to what this “community” is makes it insidiously toxic in a way that SlashDot isn’t.
Probably because HN has no direct commercial interests. Just keeping a good community.
HN has also learned from Usenet's, Slashdot's and Reddit's issues, e.g. how to avoid the eternal September effect.
HN has also learned from Usenet's, Slashdot's and Reddit's issues, e.g. how to avoid the eternal September effect.
I think HN does have a direct commercial interest - provide a community for YCombinator companies to promote to and hire from. YCombinator companies have access to special post types no one else has access to. Additionally there’s a paid moderation team to keep post (check out /pool) and comment quality high.
You are correct. A better way to say it might be that HN's commercial interests are better aligned with the interests of its readers. Both favor a high quality discussion. That's not necessarily true when you have ad revenue as a forcing function as with later slashdot.
I've never used Slashdot, but I have just looked its homepage and its content is more like The Verge, Wired, or similar websites, i. e., generic tech articles, but more oriented to techie people.
HN is a lot more niche in different kind of matters, like finding obscure problems with a compiler, how a company is using some technology and why, or simply articles about work/life balance and what to do and what not to do to achieve a fulfilling life.
HN is a lot more niche in different kind of matters, like finding obscure problems with a compiler, how a company is using some technology and why, or simply articles about work/life balance and what to do and what not to do to achieve a fulfilling life.
Slashdot was great before user accounts.
The comment scoring put the final nails in. It took a while to die after that but the screaming and thumping were pretty good indicators of where it was headed.
The comment scoring put the final nails in. It took a while to die after that but the screaming and thumping were pretty good indicators of where it was headed.
Scoring attracts people who try to game the score system. Relevant content usually loses out in the competition for scores.
I think slashdot is simply too old and younger millennials+zoomers went elsewhere.
I remember reading it as a teenager for news, but felt completely disconnected from the community and never even created an account. Jokes about Micro$oft from the 90s. My subjective impression was that the average age of users was about 40.
Similar fate awaits HN eventually. I don't see alpha gen coming here, the culture is going to feel too old - like mingling with their parents
I remember reading it as a teenager for news, but felt completely disconnected from the community and never even created an account. Jokes about Micro$oft from the 90s. My subjective impression was that the average age of users was about 40.
Similar fate awaits HN eventually. I don't see alpha gen coming here, the culture is going to feel too old - like mingling with their parents
I like hearing your perspective. Mine is different. My filter is that this format works well because there will always be a use for sites with a fairly high information density, and with high quality commenting.
I was an early low user-id user on slashdot (friends and family IPO for those that remember those days).
The key for me is are folks willing to have a conversation and does the site support that.
The ideological people (apple is evil, masks don't work (now turned into they do work), the lab leak theory is misinformation (now somewhere in between?), a fair bit of anti-racism stuff) can really drown out the conversation. When a site gets more popular that seems to happen?
Someone is definitely keeping some of the politics out of here which is a relief.
The key for me is are folks willing to have a conversation and does the site support that.
The ideological people (apple is evil, masks don't work (now turned into they do work), the lab leak theory is misinformation (now somewhere in between?), a fair bit of anti-racism stuff) can really drown out the conversation. When a site gets more popular that seems to happen?
Someone is definitely keeping some of the politics out of here which is a relief.
I find the comments in Slashdot very confusing so I never opened the site. I checked it right now and I still find the comments confusing, HN on the other is easy to understand.
I honestly don't think it's a relic, it's a staple at this point. Yeah it's been around a while, but slashdot is doing much better than you're assuming.
HN didn't kill Slashdot - it was Digg.
The chain is for practical purposes:
Usenet -> Slashdot -> Digg > Reddit -> HN
(Yes, I know that HN predates reddit. Talking about the where programmers hang out, though.)
The chain is for practical purposes:
Usenet -> Slashdot -> Digg > Reddit -> HN
(Yes, I know that HN predates reddit. Talking about the where programmers hang out, though.)
Is it even fair to say they have similar goals such that relative success could be compared? I'm not convinced this makes sense.
How are you measuring "successful?"
Successful as in terms of how many people bother with it, and the overall quality of the comments on posts.
wider range of subject matter ?
Maybe us nerds/tech heads like other subjects ?
Could also be the comments, but I don't comment very often and rarely read the comments except to be sure I am not repeating what was already there
It's not quite the same (not a hacker hangout, as such) but another good community is Metafilter. Not only do they moderate relentlessly, but there's a charge $5 to join...just enough friction to make the trolls think twice.
I would happily pay the five dollars but their hostility to people with different politics makes it impossible for me to enjoy the community. Nothing wrong with that, it’s just not for me. On this site, I still feel greatly outnumbered, but they are infinitely more polite. And I would pay for this site in a heartbeat.
It probably comes down to quality moderation.
The interface is MUCH better for one.
First post
TBH HN is a milder Reddit but it flows on the same river.
Whenever you create an unpopular post your karma goes down. I have no adblocked the karma display because I will not be judged for my posts. Should I get shadow banned I'll create a new account.
Why HN? Being an old Isonews member I like the orange. And even if the quality has degraded there are still some interesting posts here. I'm also not a "slashdot" I'm a "hacker", well I don't call myself hacker but commonly hacker is synonymous for creator, developer, entrepreneur. Slashdot never mattered in my world. The internet is a tool, a means to and end, not the center of my life. I don't even remember when I first stumbled upon HN. Was it on Google+? I miss Google+ and the spirit and people it had. I felt right at home. Unlike Facebook where is never really fit in. A platform for consumers and their producers but more consumers who have no clue about the creative spirit. How I despise Facebook. Then Google+ became more like it instead of continuing with doing its own thing. The final UI changes made it as terrible as Facebook. The post was the main attraction and comments and discussions were no longer wanted. And when it died there was Reddit which was and still is the worst Troll-infested... platform of stupid. And there was HN, which I always viewed as being too much ivory tower/first world problems, but compared it has the most interesting topics. Twitter then is a platform for the permanently "how dare you" crowd. Someone always has something to bitch about. And while many seem to like it, I never could, smartphone stupidity.
And HN then, old school, low effort design. Not the best input methods. But interesting enough and more positive than reading mainstream news, which in the last 2 years and nowadays especially is unbearable. That's also why I strongly react when I see a propaganda post for either side of the war, which doesn't really concern me. Idc about it. It's all lies anyway. What's the relevance for a IT tech news site? None. Ok if it gets IT techy but a ship sinking? idgaf. If you ask me, the Ukraine is being used so the "west" can sell weapons. 1000 million € loan and more from Germany alone... anyhow not on topic.
HN without karma would be an improvement. I will not change my ways or truth just because someone with a larger pot thinks they have more power or the right to judge.
Why is there no Google+ replacement? A social network for devs, artists, businessmen, but not big businesses, where you can stay up to date on the latest in tech and directly talk to people without having to "friend" them and where you're not judged and censored via "karma". Not owned by big tech. Where the focus in on discussion and meeting people and not POST BIG comment small but all equal.
Whenever you create an unpopular post your karma goes down. I have no adblocked the karma display because I will not be judged for my posts. Should I get shadow banned I'll create a new account.
Why HN? Being an old Isonews member I like the orange. And even if the quality has degraded there are still some interesting posts here. I'm also not a "slashdot" I'm a "hacker", well I don't call myself hacker but commonly hacker is synonymous for creator, developer, entrepreneur. Slashdot never mattered in my world. The internet is a tool, a means to and end, not the center of my life. I don't even remember when I first stumbled upon HN. Was it on Google+? I miss Google+ and the spirit and people it had. I felt right at home. Unlike Facebook where is never really fit in. A platform for consumers and their producers but more consumers who have no clue about the creative spirit. How I despise Facebook. Then Google+ became more like it instead of continuing with doing its own thing. The final UI changes made it as terrible as Facebook. The post was the main attraction and comments and discussions were no longer wanted. And when it died there was Reddit which was and still is the worst Troll-infested... platform of stupid. And there was HN, which I always viewed as being too much ivory tower/first world problems, but compared it has the most interesting topics. Twitter then is a platform for the permanently "how dare you" crowd. Someone always has something to bitch about. And while many seem to like it, I never could, smartphone stupidity.
And HN then, old school, low effort design. Not the best input methods. But interesting enough and more positive than reading mainstream news, which in the last 2 years and nowadays especially is unbearable. That's also why I strongly react when I see a propaganda post for either side of the war, which doesn't really concern me. Idc about it. It's all lies anyway. What's the relevance for a IT tech news site? None. Ok if it gets IT techy but a ship sinking? idgaf. If you ask me, the Ukraine is being used so the "west" can sell weapons. 1000 million € loan and more from Germany alone... anyhow not on topic.
HN without karma would be an improvement. I will not change my ways or truth just because someone with a larger pot thinks they have more power or the right to judge.
Why is there no Google+ replacement? A social network for devs, artists, businessmen, but not big businesses, where you can stay up to date on the latest in tech and directly talk to people without having to "friend" them and where you're not judged and censored via "karma". Not owned by big tech. Where the focus in on discussion and meeting people and not POST BIG comment small but all equal.
Why is Hacker News so successful while Slashdot has become a relic of internet history?