from Hacker News

Ask HN: Has HN lost its tech startup community vibe?

by forgottenacc56 on 8/1/16, 12:45 PM with 10 comments

Sure there's plenty of traffic and discussion but it occurred to me that a long time ago it felt like a place where the tech startup community gather and chat and share. Now I wonder if maybe it just feels like another Reddit forum / tech news channel with comments.

Do you think the early magic is lost? If yes, then what do you think has changed?

  • by mtmail on 8/1/16, 1:06 PM

    Is this related to your "Show HN" submission an hour ago where you asked startups to upload a video presenting themselves? (no upvotes, submitter didn't create a video him/herself, submitter deleted submission)

    Your account is two years old, but the question is (and gets) so old it's even in the guidelines

    "If your account is less than a year old, please don't submit comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit. It's a common semi-noob illusion, as old as the hills. "

  • by Tomte on 8/1/16, 1:03 PM

    Yes. Thank god.

    We've got prominent people like John Nagle or Alan Kay talking about stuff.

    We've got people who were involved in Maxis early games (SimFarm etc.) commenting little nuggets about the games and how the name "The Sims" was chosen.

    We've got people I have never heard of who talk about interprocess communication on QNX. Or about barrel machines and Intel Xeon programming. Or about lots of other interesting stuff.

    None of which fits into "let's talk how awesome my startup is".

  • by hobs on 8/1/16, 1:05 PM

    Its certainly diluted, but to be honest unless I am applying to the latest YC batch or starting my own company I don't care as much, most of that talk is fairly standard after you have heard it a few years running. While most of it is genuine, it can get a overhyped/inauthentic at times.

    I like the more relaxed atmosphere, but would like to see more interesting technical articles getting to the front page, and less repeated news things being cross posted around the internet.

    Spending a bit more time on /newest is probably a good idea.

  • by bgnm2000 on 8/1/16, 1:17 PM

    Honestly, no - I don't think so. The site has ebbs and flows based on whats happening in the world just like anywhere else. HackerNews constantly seems to have a higher level of discussion than reddit, or any other place for internet comments, and I don't mind that it changes (just like everything else does) with time.

  • by jacquesm on 8/1/16, 1:14 PM

    It's called 'hacker news' and no longer 'startup news' for a reason.

  • by fsloth on 8/1/16, 1:41 PM

    I've been reading HN for a decade. For that time it's been a fascinating technology and cultural discussion aggregator. There is lots of quality sharing and discussion of deep issues. Thank god only very few "me too! look at my trivial cool stuff!" vanity posts reach the headlines. I think it's been that way for the span I'm aware of (otherwise I'm pretty sure I would have moved along).

  • by yardie on 8/1/16, 1:26 PM

    I've found Uber, AirBnb, Grooveshark, spotify, and many other startups through here. The frontpage has a list of 30 links that cycle, basically, 24 hours.

    HN is my homepage now. If it was just news on startups that would be interesting but not something I would visit daily. Just like I don't visit Apple or Android news sites daily. It's a good mix (I would even say firehose) of topics and I like it that way.

  • by cocotino on 8/1/16, 1:02 PM

    The world has lost its tech startup community vibe, thankfully.

  • by mathiasrw on 8/1/16, 12:55 PM

    Yes !