Hacker News is 2(ycombinator.com)
ycombinator.com
Hacker News is 2
http://ycombinator.com/newsnews.html#19feb09
68 comments
Wow. It feels like just yesterday I signed up for HN. YC:HN is priceless for me. Thank you YC and thanks to this community.
Actually it feels to me like it's been around for much longer than 2 years... don't know what that means though
Absolutely. I'd like to add that the killer feature for me (well, aside from the good quality links and discussion) is "noprocrast" and that I'm particularly grateful for the relatively recent removal of the "ignore" link. It's all very much appreciated.
I would say that the killer feature is the users :-)
While I'm not much of a coder, I come to this place because there a lots of interesting articles and insightful comments. It's refreshing to see such an intelluctual crowd of people on the internet for once.
Since nobody seems to really be saying it I will:
Paul, thanks for taking the time and putting in the effort to create a website I really value. I've learned a lot over the last little bit and continue to do so.
Job well done.
Paul, thanks for taking the time and putting in the effort to create a website I really value. I've learned a lot over the last little bit and continue to do so.
Job well done.
How about a hand for the moderators? They are the guys who keep the quality of this site up. Without them, this would soon just be another clone of reddit
Was it necessary to bash Reddit?
No, but I would like to take this opportunity to do it anyway. Reddit has become a den of melodramatic ideologues and thoughtless iconoclasts. I'm no longer a supporter.
Here are some intellectually unflattering sample headlines from the front page right now:
4. Like NASCAR Drivers, Our Politicians Should Wear Uniforms Clearly Stating Their Sponsors
5. Oh, Canada. “When statements are said that God probably does not exist, this is an implied statement of hatred towards all those who do believe that God exists.”
13. The head of the DEA spent more than $123,000 to charter a private jet to fly to Bogota, Colombia, last fall instead of taking one of the agency's 106 planes.
15. PWNED!!!
19. Citigroup, which lost $18 Billion Last year, laid off 39,000 and got a $52 Billion Govt Bailout still provides perks to directors and former CEOs such as airplanes, helicopters, and drivers costing millions of dollars per year.
20. Cousin of 9/11 Hijacker Arrested as Israeli Spy
21. Fuck the media. CBS Evening News only points to $4600 from Stanford to Obama as well as showing Bill Clinton and Nancy Pelosi. No mention of McCain's $28K or any other Republican. (1:55 video)
22. Ten years. Ten FUCKING years you've been following me. And for what? PIKACHU?
23. Woman Blinded By Acid Requests That Her Attacker Be Blinded With Drops Of Acid In Each Eye. Iranian Court Accomodates Her.
25. Giant rat caught in China
Here are some intellectually unflattering sample headlines from the front page right now:
4. Like NASCAR Drivers, Our Politicians Should Wear Uniforms Clearly Stating Their Sponsors
5. Oh, Canada. “When statements are said that God probably does not exist, this is an implied statement of hatred towards all those who do believe that God exists.”
13. The head of the DEA spent more than $123,000 to charter a private jet to fly to Bogota, Colombia, last fall instead of taking one of the agency's 106 planes.
15. PWNED!!!
19. Citigroup, which lost $18 Billion Last year, laid off 39,000 and got a $52 Billion Govt Bailout still provides perks to directors and former CEOs such as airplanes, helicopters, and drivers costing millions of dollars per year.
20. Cousin of 9/11 Hijacker Arrested as Israeli Spy
21. Fuck the media. CBS Evening News only points to $4600 from Stanford to Obama as well as showing Bill Clinton and Nancy Pelosi. No mention of McCain's $28K or any other Republican. (1:55 video)
22. Ten years. Ten FUCKING years you've been following me. And for what? PIKACHU?
23. Woman Blinded By Acid Requests That Her Attacker Be Blinded With Drops Of Acid In Each Eye. Iranian Court Accomodates Her.
25. Giant rat caught in China
Have you looked at the subreddits? I spend a lot of time in /programming/ & I find that it has much better articles than HN. Or maybe it's just me, I'm more interested in code than startups.
http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/
The reddit RSS feed is also considerably better & I find that invaluable.
http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/
The reddit RSS feed is also considerably better & I find that invaluable.
I used to swear by programming.reddit.com, until the discussions went the way of reddit.com. Whatever can be said for link quality, I find the discussions here 100x better.
reddit was the beginning. it was seeded by the ycombinator crowd, and it was cool. then the number of users increased, and the noise was gaining on the signal. being a for-profit company, they valued new users more than civility.
realizing that the writing was on the wall, pg created hacker news. it started off just like reddit, but with different priorities.
it's sad that reddit has become what it has, but it's run by a company with profit motives. most of us would have probably done the same thing, had we been in their shoes.
realizing that the writing was on the wall, pg created hacker news. it started off just like reddit, but with different priorities.
it's sad that reddit has become what it has, but it's run by a company with profit motives. most of us would have probably done the same thing, had we been in their shoes.
thats what everyone compares to
714 days here, karma 117 and I couldn't be happier: this place is special, let's keep it that way, happy birthday to us! wiiiii ! what kind of birthday gift do you give to a website?
> what kind of birthday gift do you give to a website?
Probably a really sweet submission. Like "new web framework lightspeed lisp screencast by Paul Graham on Justin.tv".
Probably a really sweet submission. Like "new web framework lightspeed lisp screencast by Paul Graham on Justin.tv".
689 days for a non-techie hanging with geeks. What is it like?
Well, participating (silently) in conversations between the advantages of one programming language/tool over another.
Reading some of the most thoughtful comments from users who clearly seem to know what they are talking about.
Experimenting with new web startups that launched here for the first time that are eager to get feedback.
Getting/giving advices on what to do and what not to do to achieve success in different fields.
Being constantly reminded that smart people who want to impact are everywhere.
Still don't know how to program, but I am loving HN. If I had to have one digital home HN would be the IT.
Thanks to every user, moderator, to the founder and to myself for mingling with smarter individuals.
HBHN
Well, participating (silently) in conversations between the advantages of one programming language/tool over another.
Reading some of the most thoughtful comments from users who clearly seem to know what they are talking about.
Experimenting with new web startups that launched here for the first time that are eager to get feedback.
Getting/giving advices on what to do and what not to do to achieve success in different fields.
Being constantly reminded that smart people who want to impact are everywhere.
Still don't know how to program, but I am loving HN. If I had to have one digital home HN would be the IT.
Thanks to every user, moderator, to the founder and to myself for mingling with smarter individuals.
HBHN
There was so a missed opportunity for a nerd joke here:
Hacker News is 10!
Hacker News is 10!
Here's a link to the oldest page I could find on the wayback machine:
http://web.archive.org/web/20070221033032/http://news.ycombi...
http://web.archive.org/web/20070221033032/http://news.ycombi...
22 points by pg 864 days ago | 16 comments | flag
Wait, I sense a disturbance in the Force:
Wait, I sense a disturbance in the Force:
2x365+1=731 < 864
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=-1
Oh right, not Python.
Oh right, not Python.
Despite 14x growth, the character of the site has remained intact. So far this experiment seems to be working.
I'm not sure what counts as character and this is obviously subjective but my personal feeling is that HN's quality has taken a slight hit in the past year. It doesn't seem as unique as it once was and many of the topics that make it to the front page seem to be more formulaic. Furthermore many newcomers seem to post the same things that were raised here previously. I've lost track of the number of topics about hosting providers, credit card processing and the like. Also with the increased volume it's been hard to make effective use of the "new" page. Odd things that may interest me that don't quickly get enough attention are lost faster.
Unfortunately I predict growth and network effects will speed up this trend and 2 years from now HN will likely be much less interesting as the HN of a year or two ago.
I'm not sure what counts as character and this is obviously subjective but my personal feeling is that HN's quality has taken a slight hit in the past year. It doesn't seem as unique as it once was and many of the topics that make it to the front page seem to be more formulaic. Furthermore many newcomers seem to post the same things that were raised here previously. I've lost track of the number of topics about hosting providers, credit card processing and the like. Also with the increased volume it's been hard to make effective use of the "new" page. Odd things that may interest me that don't quickly get enough attention are lost faster.
Unfortunately I predict growth and network effects will speed up this trend and 2 years from now HN will likely be much less interesting as the HN of a year or two ago.
2 years and I'm still so far from 100 points of 'karma'... What a shame!
Happy birthday, Hax0rs!
Happy birthday, Hax0rs!
Happy birthday.
RMS, is that you?
I came here to say that I really like the design of this web site (despite of what some others say), but the stability seems lacking sometimes. The site is often inaccessible. I was going to suggest reimplementing everything in ASP.NET and VB.NET, but in RMS's presence, I don't dare.
I came here to say that I really like the design of this web site (despite of what some others say), but the stability seems lacking sometimes. The site is often inaccessible. I was going to suggest reimplementing everything in ASP.NET and VB.NET, but in RMS's presence, I don't dare.
As a very helpful comment once put it:
On HN, dhh is DHH but rms is not RMS.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=412440
On HN, dhh is DHH but rms is not RMS.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=412440
[deleted]
OK then, reimplement everything in ASP.NET!
DHH, the Ruby guy? Sorry about posting that Lua vs Ruby benchmark link.
DHH, the Ruby guy? Sorry about posting that Lua vs Ruby benchmark link.
I can't tell if you're trolling or serious.
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. It won't be rewritten in ASP.Net because of this: http://arclanguage.org/
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. It won't be rewritten in ASP.Net because of this: http://arclanguage.org/
I know about Arc. I'm half-joking about .NET, and I'm serious about the rest.
Congratulations. It was just this new year that I lucked into HN - and it has made a huge difference to this tech-retread (me) as I seek to play catch-up in my hacking education. A great community you've catalyzed!
Happy birthday!
I'm happy to see that you didn't do any major changes to the look and feel of this website, most sites tend to change for the worse after receiving more and more hits. Good job!
I'm happy to see that you didn't do any major changes to the look and feel of this website, most sites tend to change for the worse after receiving more and more hits. Good job!
Wow 2 years. It's strange, but I can't really remember how I came to start reading HN. I know I had been reading PG's essays for a while, but there seems to be a gap I can't recall. It's kinda like the way I can't really remember when I started using Google for all my searches, I just kinda naturally assimilated it into my life.
Joining the throng of people congratulating HN and noting how big a part of my technical life it has become.
HN has completely dominated all other forums I used to read frequently, even the one I pay for membership at and have been hanging around for a decade. Thank you. (I think it's a good addiction).
So, what are your plans for the next year at HN and how can we help with them?
So, what are your plans for the next year at HN and how can we help with them?
Thanks pg, cheers to us!
This place has grown to be such a great one. Thank you all.
Happy Birthday! What, only 2?
Oh Time flies! Never noticed that two years have elapsed. Happy Birthday.
Am I the only one here who first read this as "Hacker News 2" and got all excited for a nanosecond imagining something like beta.news.yc.com with a new design and added features???
Why is the Alexa rank so low with 22k unique users everyday?
Honestly, there's still an argument to be made that compete.com is at least semi accurate. But Alexa is just a lost cause. It simply doesn't even resemble anything accurate anymore.
P.S. Happy Birthday HN
P.S. Happy Birthday HN
Actually, I'm surprised it's so high (150,637 as of today).
It means quite a lot of HN visitors (which are not necessarily just registered HN users) have installed Alexa toolbar.
Which is what ultimately Alexa rank mean. It is a huge source of bias - different types of sites have very different likelihood that their visitors would have installed Alexa toolbar.
It means quite a lot of HN visitors (which are not necessarily just registered HN users) have installed Alexa toolbar.
Which is what ultimately Alexa rank mean. It is a huge source of bias - different types of sites have very different likelihood that their visitors would have installed Alexa toolbar.
Alexa shouldn't be compared to anything because their algorithm is heavily skewed. Use Compete, it's fairly accurate.
Probably because people that install spyware don't program or start their own companies, and hence don't read HN.
It's a useful place to get news, but also to get insight from folks who do what I do and it's invaluable in a world filled with noise and static.
HN is my homepage on my desktop, and the first bookmark on my Blackberry. It's really all I need for news that's relevant to me.
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread, and Hacker News Beside me singing in the Internet Wilderness
Oh, Internet Wilderness were Paradise enow!
(apologies to Omar Khayyam)
Oh, Internet Wilderness were Paradise enow!
(apologies to Omar Khayyam)
491 days here and I still haven't figured out what the user params (like "noprocrast" or "showdead") do, what a noob
I can't see the link to this anywhere, must be the age
very bottom of the main page. I have to admit, it wasn't obvious to me either when I first went looking for it.
thanks. The FAQ link should be where the question arises (in the user's profile page).
HN made me quit reading Reddit. Thanks HN!
Happy birthday! HN is a great resource.
Happy birthday. What, no champagne?
zomg, never realized news was born on my birthday! Best gift I got today! (Well, almost :)
"This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius ♫ Golden living dreams of visions ♪ And the mind's true liberation"... well I'm no mystic but I just love us aquariuses!
"This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius ♫ Golden living dreams of visions ♪ And the mind's true liberation"... well I'm no mystic but I just love us aquariuses!
Happy Birthday! My favorite community here. Great people, great ideas, great service!
Happy birthday! The only site on the net worth checking multiple times a dayIMO.
Anyone know who are the HN moderators? Are there any these days?
Happy Birthday to the HN crew. Heres hoping for many many more!
Happy birthday HN and thanks to the HNers; you are wonderful.
What? No cake?
Congrats on a fun site so far, Paul. Hope it continues.
Congrats on a fun site so far, Paul. Hope it continues.
Congrat's! this is a great resource for all of us
Happy Birthday!
Intact? Don't kid yourself.
hmmmmmmmmm
I think that the 14x growth happened because there is a nice atmosphere here that you won't find anywhere...
I think that the 14x growth happened because there is a nice atmosphere here that you won't find anywhere...