I think what I will miss most about TikTok is its ability to teach me things that I would otherwise never have interest in. I've discovered so many musicians, writers, historians and niche curators it's such a shame that this is going away. I'm still surprised somehow no other company has been able to compete with how well TikTok has done discovery.
Second this. I've written my own private Google Apps script specifically for this view and I wish more calendar apps would do the same. Maybe I haven't looked hard enough.
Did we hit some sort of technical inflection point in the last couple of weeks or is this just coincidence that all of these ML papers around high quality procedural generation are just dropping every other day?
I never thought I'd see Vaporwave mentioned on HN. Anybody fans of Bandcamp here? I really feel like it's helped keep a lot of these microgenres going even more than Spotify.
My response to this will always be: whoever solves live music performance (as in two or more musicians in two different locations happily playing together over the internet) will win the video conferencing wars.
It's not just latency, it's the non-verbal cues, dynamics (including silence that often represents acknowledgement), "energy" and rhythm that I miss about in-person communication.
I'm still stunned we're able to achieve all this in a web browser today (not the processing power but how accessible this is to people). Great job, Emily!
I'm fine with the questions but I still think people are missing my point.
This is NOT for professional videos. The whole point is just regular people showcasing some small talent they might have hidden away and thru the algorithm you start to discover these amazingly talented regular people that the other platforms have failed.
If I want to see the celebs, brands or professionally shot content I have FaceGram/YouTube/Vimeo for that. This app is for the rest of us until the celebs/brands come in and inevitably ruin it. Hopefully by then, one of you HN folks will have built the next one.
According to their "algorithm", they show everyone's videos randomly to a small set of people and if people watch all of it (as in don't immediately swipe up), share or comment quickly then they show it to more people implying that the content I made is actually interesting to people. TikTok obv wants to surface good viral content to as many people as possible so the incentives are aligned. Think of it as being able to automate AB testing across hundreds of thousands of pieces of content.
As a result, I don't think traffic was given to me for absolutely no reason but there is a component of luck that they are explicit about which makes it even more compelling to creators. Compared to FB/IG/YouTube where I have to pay influencers or ad networks to get my work seen, they've evened the playing field a bit if my content has enough "inertia". It just motivates me to create better content next time and to try more often. You see how they're getting creators addicted?
a) If I'm being brutally honest, it's attention. Human beings enjoy attention even if it's totally dumb luck. I could say for this HN crowd that the traffic translates to revenue or some kind of practical benefit but honestly, it just felt good to get attention for something I created. That triggered a serotonin response in my brain that made me want to come back. I would assume it's similar to a HN post you submit making it to the front page?
b) They're real in that I get tens of thousands of comments and people actually reply. Most of the comments are reactions and jokes but I enjoy the thought that someone took the time to comment just like how I'm enjoying having a discussion here on HN. Whether or not it's meaningful is entirely subjective but probably goes back to my answer in a) - I appreciate the attention.
My personal opinion is people don't realize the app/algorithm doesn't just reward the viewers, it rewards the creators. I do video/photo work outside of coding and at first what got me hooked was the effortless video tools (useful realtime effects, non-generic music). Not a video editor? Someone in my feed already posted a 15s tutorial so you learn how to create as you consume. Then after posting a few vids as a joke (cuz 15s videos couldn't be anything meaningful right?) the algorithm rewarded me with 100k's views that IG/YouTube/FB/Twitch/Vimeo COMBINED could never give me. Then they randomly invited me to their Slack where I could get tips on how to use the latest new effect, upcoming hashtags and give feedback to devs. I'm not a full time content creator, I'm old and I'm not a looker but for the first time, I felt like I could be a content creator and all I did was post a few 15s videos. It just works.
I don't want to debate the politics, security issues or your judgement of the content. I want whoever comes up with the next killer app to learn from what they were able to achieve because they hit an amazing product market fit and I'm hoping the HN crowd can at least understand that. /rant
There is something irreplaceable about the first time you solve a difficult puzzle, especially one that you anticipate to be daunting. As a Sudoku enthusiast (though not at Simon's level) this was surprisingly vicarious to watch for what's usually a silent solitaire experience. Well done!
I got the game because a friend invited me to a virtual wedding party because she had to cancel the one in real life due to SIP. My goal was to get a nice virtual gift for my friend so I grinded hard to make Bells and learn DIYs but wound up enjoying the whole process not because I was living a fantasy life like in the article but because it gave me a bit of purpose beyond checking mortality stats every five minutes and feeling guilty for not developing a new skill during this "privileged downtime". Everyone plays for different reasons. I feel lucky this game came out during this uncertain time.
Not always and I'd suspect that being a "Full-Service Shopper" (vs "In-Store Shopper") pays better so a large percentage are likely both preparer and deliverer.
What area do you live in? Like the other comment, best to donate locally and not delay with more shipping logistics. Search #GetMePPE or #PPEshortage on Twitter and you'll find a bunch, possibly where you are.