> If you read the profile the New Yorker published about us last year, you'll find the author's own shock experience of HN encoded into that article (and it's something of a miracle of openness and intelligence that she was able to get past that—the shock experience really is that bad).
You can try: https://github.com/sebst/pythonic-news/ or https://github.com/lobsters/lobsters
Re "please make it possible to block specific users" - this has been on the list for a long time but I have a feeling that it may go against the community in the long run. The more I get to know HN, the more I realize how important the non-siloed property is—i.e. everyone's in one big room together and can't self-select to get away from each other [1]. Of course, that makes HN a place where we all run up against things that are not only unpleasant, but actually shocking [2]. But I think that learning collectively to deal with that—learning to tolerate what that does to our nervous systems—is core work we have to do together, to keep this place vital.
Each internet community begins with different initial conditions, and if it goes on for long enough, those initial conditions get a chance to unfold into something unique. Trying to change the initial conditions after the fact feels to me like a bad idea. It's better to find ways to live with them, and maybe to steer their consequences, like sweepers in curling.
[1] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...
See this blog for one case thereof: https://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=46541
One of these years we'll release an update of it that incorporates a lot of the changes we've made to HN.
[1] https://blog.ycombinator.com/meet-the-people-taking-over-hac... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7493856
Agreed for the actual Twitter site, but it doesn't seem to happen nearly as much with Tweetdeck. (In fact, I'm not sure Tweetdeck even shows ads.)
> Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do. Think of the Queen Mary—the whole ship goes by and then comes the rudder. And there's a tiny thing at the edge of the rudder called a trim tab.
> It's a miniature rudder. Just moving the little trim tab builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder around. Takes almost no effort at all. So I said that the little individual can be a trim tab.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trim_tab#Trim_tab_as_a_metapho...
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And thank you!
But one thing I keep thinking back to is the abysmal discussion of the Event Horizon Telescope black hole pictures. I think they were shown around the time of this interview. I remember for the first time the threads on hn felt unmoderated or overwhelmed [1]. Like someone sucked all the air out the room, metaphorically speaking. I don't mean this as a criticism of dan or anyone else behind hn (you can even see he was actively trying to flag the worst offenders), but I just wonder what it was like behind the scenes for hn that day, how prevalent that sort of thing is, how concerned mods should be of that sort of thing in the future, etc.
> One of these years we'll release an update of it that incorporates a lot of the changes we've made to HN.
Out of curiosity, absent such a release, is there a public changelog anywhere? If not, that would be a great start.
I’m delighted to announce that Daniel Gackle (pronounced Gackley), who has already been doing most of the moderation for the last 18 months, is going to join YC full-time to be in charge of the HN community. Many HN users know Daniel as gruseom, though now he’s going to switch to the slightly more legit sounding dang.
https://blog.ycombinator.com/meet-the-people-taking-over-hac...
The New England Complex Systems Institute - https://necsi.edu/ (Twitter link at top right)
London Math Lab’s Ergodicity Economics group - https://ergodicityeconomics.com/ (Twitter feed in left column)
Any PI running a research project of interest to you at the Santa Fe Institute - https://www.santafe.edu/
Here's an example of one (healthcare) community that try them: https://q.health.org.uk/community/rcts/
> How does it work?
> Every member who signs up will be sent the name of another randomly-chosen member on the 1st of every month. Each pair can arrange a brief informal meet-up at a time that suits both parties – be it a phone call, Skype call, Google Hangout or even a coffee in person.
> “RCTs have given me the opportunity to talk to people who work in areas that I don’t usually come across in my day to day work.” Lesley Goodburn, Patient Experience Consultant
> RCTs allow Q members to connect with a new member each month and hear about what other colleagues are working on and share any ideas and inspiration. There are no rules here – RCTs should be viewed as an informal opportunity to connect with peers, however if scheduling means that you can’t meet that month then it’s ok.
> We think you’ll enjoy these fun and fruitful conversations – it’s organised serendipity. Matthew Mezey, Q’s Community Manager has written a blog about the benefits of RCTs.
And here's a link to that blog: https://q.health.org.uk/blog-post/easy-time-light-impact-hea...
Always good to hear from you. I'm glad there's been progress; I wish the climb were not out of such a deep hole.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17777496 [2018]
> Yeah, that's why I appear to be the only woman to have ever spent time on the leaderboard of HN
Do you think there's anything that HN's guides could do differently?