from Hacker News

ThankYouHN: 14 Years

by solarized on 6/7/24, 3:40 AM with 25 comments

I don't remember exactly when I got hooked on HN—probably around mid-2009 or 2010. For the past 14 years, it's been the only serious social media I use and love.

HN has changed my perspective on engineering and the world, my life metrics, and ultimately given me wisdom. Anonymous arguments flourish beautifully here. No one cares who you are—only your argument matters.

It's helped me a lot with running my consulting business. I don’t have to repeat other people's mistakes or, even better, I can just copy proven systems and best practices. I've learned so many lessons and found incredibly useful links here.

The text-based format with upvotes and downvotes works beautifully. No fancy web frameworks—just pure HTML and CSS for my browser.

HN is the only tab in my Chrome that uses the least RAM but provides the most benefit to my daily info intake. Text mode keeps me focus to read & write content. No emojis, no stickers, no visual distraction !

I hope HN stays like this forever.

  • by hubraumhugo on 6/7/24, 4:09 AM

    My own startup wouldn't exist if I hadn't made a HN post with a crappy MVP and received feedback from users, founders, and potential customers.

    It's a very special place that successfully avoided its "Eternal September". I hope dang knows how much we appreciate his work to not let the quality go downhill.

  • by xelxebar on 6/7/24, 4:35 AM

    Adding to the foray. HN is one of the few sites actually pleasant to use by edbrowse, a line-oriented browser built and used by blind developers.

    Also, you guys in the comments are consistently great. Not only do I learn a ton from you and am delighted to have an appreciative ear for my own arcana, but it's also reassuring to see a reflection of my own quirks and neuroticies lightly peppered throughout as well. You guys remind me that we're all in this crazy world together, trying our best with whatever tools we got.

  • by sidcool on 6/7/24, 4:35 AM

    HN is an integral part of my life. Not even a day has gone by in years when I haven't at least checked out the front page of HN. HN has had its ups and down, with me sometimes getting disillusioned. But the hivemind course corrects and returns to its roots. Proud to be a part of this self assembled community.

    Be kind.

  • by keepamovin on 6/7/24, 3:47 AM

    True, Dan Gackle should be rewarded with equity / in kind from so many of the people helped by this platform. The "capture the value you create" really applies here, and the model where that doesn't happen is wrong.

  • by srirangr on 6/7/24, 4:09 AM

    Unreasonable effectiveness of simplicity and content moderation!

    (Apologies for overusing the phrase but it just fits in the context)

    Even I have been using it for the last 10 years and it's still the most important source of my information diet.

  • by purple-leafy on 6/7/24, 4:15 AM

    I switched to hackernews recently from reddit. I have no other social media now but hackernews.

    Though I think I’m shadowbanned for saying “f OpenAI”

  • by suchoudh on 6/7/24, 4:50 AM

    Thank you HN fellow users and the team who created it.

    This place is one of the few I can trust to get info that one can not "bump" into anyplace else.

  • by Brajeshwar on 6/7/24, 4:16 AM

    All true and similar feeling from my side. I signed up 16 years ago (HN is 17). I’ve became pretty active since the COVID-19 Pandemic. I wrote myself an article to note down the details https://brajeshwar.com/2023/hacker-news/

  • by lxdlam on 6/7/24, 4:40 AM

    HN became the go-to place to find and discuss serious technology topics several years ago and still is today.

  • by hislaziness on 6/7/24, 4:11 AM

    Same here. Coincidentally I joined in June 2009 and this is the only social media I indulge in.

  • by windowshopping on 6/7/24, 3:55 AM

    Don't know if I'd call this social media. Do people consider it as such?

    Wikipedia says:

    > Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the creation, sharing and aggregation of content, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks.

    I guess it is, huh, what do you know. I'm so used to thinking of social media as facebook/twitter/instagram/tiktok, where people have individual feeds.

  • by PeterHolzwarth on 6/7/24, 4:43 AM

    As of 9:43 PM pacific, why is this post flagged?

  • by ardillamorris on 6/7/24, 4:09 AM

    Agree 100%

  • by fury999io on 6/7/24, 8:02 AM

    > HN is the only tab in my Chrome that uses the least RAM

    You should be using Firefox

  • by wellthisisgreat on 6/7/24, 5:55 AM

    HN is the Internet at this point

  • by cr125rider on 6/8/24, 3:45 AM

    “Flagged” - come on. We can take a second for pats on the back. Thanks dang, et all. This is a good place. It’s appreciated.

  • by NinoScript on 6/9/24, 4:48 AM

    I find it funny, but excellent, that this post is flagged. One of the things I love the most of HN is the ability to stay on topic. I too hope HN stays like this forever.

  • by nathants on 6/7/24, 10:45 AM

    thank you dang.