I then got the idea of actually figuring out how many. Then I first wanted to try out algolia but then later, I found out about clickhouse and how it had a play and the api for playing is so simple, I am definitely gonna make more projects on top of clickhouse play for HN (seriously my mind got blown because I was assuming that the browser -> api was gonna be hard but it seriously wasn't)
Then decided to think to write a github page about it for other people as well.
Anyways, this was one of the most fun project I had. So it turns out that I personally have written 0.64 Game of thrones words in Hackernews itself.
Dang has written 11.15 Volumes equivalent to game of thrones which is actually really crazy.
When I searched dang I was shocked haha. Anyways Dang, If you are reading this, I know that we all like to talk about how moderation of HN has issues but seriously man, the amount of efforts you put in is really lovely & respectable. We all love you.
I still feel like there are some issues where people flag anything they dislike which can be frustrating and other things but that still doesn't really impact the moderation and the moderation team (dang) is pretty awesome in my opinion even if the website does have this flaw in my opinion but Hackernews is one of the best websites man!
Dang today's your day! We can discuss the issues of flagging and others some other day, Have a nice day now!
(Also a little side fact but I picked game of thrones because my name of github is SerJaimeLannister because I was watching game of thrones in my brother's dorm room once in his college room and I literally just thought one or two episodes and started watching from s4 or something and then literally the second I got home, I binge watched Game of thrones till end and then s1 s2 but I think that I haven't watched some seasons I think s3 iirc more but still I loved the show so much and I think I had lost my old github account and naming is always hard especially in programming so picked SerJaimeLannister but this is the reason why I picked the novel equivalent to be game of thrones!)
I just looked it up, and apparently War and Peace is about 590,000 words. A book that is a joke in every 90's cartoon as something "really heavy to drop on someone's head", and apparently I've written almost that much arguing with people on a programmers forum.
I've been on here for about 10.5 years, so averaging about 48,515 per year. My favorite book is The Go Between by LP Hartley, and that's 98,621 words [1], so I'm basically writing the equivalent of about half of my favorite novel every year.
So it's a bit weird to me. A large part of me thinks I should have written five novels instead.
I wonder how much you and I singularly contribute to the training data being used for tech-focused AI bots now; presumably they're training on software-people-websites?
https://wordcounter.net/blog/2015/12/08/10975_how-many-words...
I've been collecting a long list of ideas on what you're describing. Thanks to AI encouraging me to really dive in and use it, I've been quietly working on something for what you're describing.
First step is to improve the HN UX a tiny bit and flesh out a framework for how to code it. Next will add some interesting social features I've been brewing on. Why can't I easily follow someone?
Open source. GPLv3. It isn't perfect, but this is not AI vibe slop, and there are lots of tests from day one. I want to make this sustainable over a long period of time and become genuinely useful to a community that I've gotten a lot out of.
Note, the chrome store is really slow at getting releases out (or I'm too fast), best to install from github releases. It is also buggy and I'm fixing and improving things as fast as I can.
Columns are words/karma, words, karma, name.
3.5 308431 88008 mooreds
4.1 307127 75567 stavros
4.3 314850 73503 minimaxir
4.3 575909 133629 ColinWright
4.5 429663 96135 walterbell
5.5 320283 58461 wallflower
5.9 463540 78823 paxys
6.1 298839 49063 paulpauper
7.1 450573 63823 cperciva
7.1 685484 97028 simonw
7.2 415385 57466 mpweiher
8.8 435188 49452 Waterluvian
9.4 912601 97058 steveklabnik
9.5 484782 51089 pavlov
9.5 514233 54028 nkurz
9.6 738986 76912 jedberg
9.9 538580 54533 pavel_lishin
10.5 523765 50113 wmf
10.5 562066 53697 kibwen
11.1 649587 58521 pmoriarty
11.2 554531 49316 petercooper
11.3 626706 55613 sp332
11.3 674598 59635 tyingq
11.3 997305 88154 ceejayoz
11.4 774926 67711 davidw
11.8 892827 75358 hn_throwaway_99
12.5 652216 52309 duxup
12.5 627078 49987 Someone1234
12.6 1999366 159310 Animats
13.3 1168121 87843 userbinator
13.5 1425286 105817 pjc50
13.5 771686 56994 lisper
14.1 1143293 81306 crazygringo
14.2 698215 49002 JoshTriplett
14.3 867103 60494 saagarjha
15.4 1628467 105619 toomuchtodo
16.2 787659 48722 amelius
16.3 1285245 78792 WalterBright
16.5 1058282 64324 ryandrake
16.6 892312 53904 ksec
18.8 1038783 55136 bane
19.8 1950935 98675 anigbrowl
19.9 1355066 67997 masklinn
20.0 2510303 125350 pjmlp
20.2 2110424 104359 PaulHoule
20.3 2251499 110917 ChuckMcM
20.5 1497782 73213 jrockway
21.0 1168930 55722 btilly
21.9 2747766 125470 rayiner
22.2 1822427 82045 nostrademons
22.4 1319812 58825 wpietri
24.7 1275113 51702 brudgers
27.6 3131449 113256 TeMPOraL
29.7 2701314 90987 jerf
30.1 2696913 89718 coldtea
31.7 1911252 60198 Retric
37.6 4785959 127149 dragonwriter
38.5 2130838 55318 derefr
39.3 2583878 65748 dredmorbius
42.5 2141376 50383 tzsLooks like she’s actively writing at https://califmichele.blogspot.com/ and https://doreenmichele.blogspot.com/ but has departed HN.
This is a client-side GitHub Pages app. GitHub Pages doesn't do server-side SQL execution.
As your POST request shows, it's querying the hackernews_history table on Clickhouse Playground which is a big read-only demo environment.
The information is public. "I can get the API wrapper to output more data" might be a quirk but it doesn't have security impact.
https://play.clickhouse.com/play?user=play
https://clickhouse.com/docs/getting-started/playground
https://clickhouse.com/blog/announcing-the-new-sql-playgroun...
I felt as if I had written quite a lot on HN and I was always referencing my past comments. I just usually write what I am thinking so I do have quite a filler words in my HN comments, but still, I wanted to see how many words have I written in the first place & I wrote this thought in another comment & thought that its pretty interesting, let's do it. Maybe others would be curious too :)
But essentially, some part of me wanted to write blog too to quickly reference it and be part of the indie-web.
This is something that I wrote in that comment
"I guess I can write it but I already write like this in HN. The procastination of writing specifically in a blog is something which hits me.
Is it just me or is it someone else too? Because on HN I can literally write like novels (or I may have genuinely written enough characters of a novel here, I might have to test it or something lol, got a cool idea right now to measure how many novels a person has written from just their username, time to code it)"
So you aren't alone in having the procastination around making a personal blog. This is literally why I had made this idea so if this project (or discussion) helps you in making a personal blog & helps atleast a single person (meaningfully). I would consider my project to be success :)
Have a nice day and good luck for your personal blog!
username words karma
1. tptacek 4,310,896 416351
2. jacquesm 3,841,209 237961
3. ingve 2,273 215283
A bit anecdotally but when I built this website (and this is something that I commented to another commentor in here but wanted to share it again),is that I had the same weird feeling you can say (although to write blogs instead)
"I guess I can write it but I already write like this in HN. The procastination of writing specifically in a blog is something which hits me.
Is it just me or is it someone else too? Because on HN I can literally write like novels (or I may have genuinely written enough characters of a novel here, I might have to test it or something lol, got a cool idea right now to measure how many novels a person has written from just their username, time to code it)"
I literally got the idea comparing that I may have written some novel (0.66 of GOT here :) quite a lot less than you but still)
Personally, I like to think that HN definitely helped me with grammar and definitely lots of aspects & also you don't have to think of it as an if-else.
You know how to put in the efforts of writing! You have written 5,09,412 words (just searched through it) and I feel like somewhere my point is that you are capable of writing. You know how to put in the efforts within writing & I feel as if, if writing novels is something that interests you (as I remember your novel idea from another comment you have written here :]) . You are definitely capable of writing & I really suggest for you to go through it and have the confidence to do such!
Good luck writing my friend! :]
> I just looked it up, and apparently War and Peace is about 590,000 words. A book that is a joke in every 90's cartoon as something "really heavy to drop on someone's head", and apparently I've written almost that much arguing with people on a programmers forum.
To be honest, I find it funny how people from outside programming (who might not know programming so much) think that its all the same but in reality we see the amount of nuance through such forums. I really found it funny to think upon.
And to be honest, the things which we argue, where I feel like we expose each other to new nuanced opinions & solidify our opinions by some evidence etc. is something which I really appreciate.
I use Hackernews a bit differently where I use it as a way to expose to new github projects (usually) & I found the ability to find Open source projects (or create when there are none, this project's MIT licensed also I wouldn't call myself author now thinking about it given that I essentially used LLM to write it so time to redact saying I am author or similar xD)
But my point is, that I have found so many great open source projects & communicated with many interesting people which would've been hard to do so without this forum so a bit feeling greatful for this community! Thanks Hackernews <3 (Much love)
I think I may be reading onto this a bit deeper but I feel like sometimes people don't appreciate Software Engineers because a lot of it (still?) feels like (black box?) to the public.
Everyone instinctively knows to appreciate a Doctor. They save lifes, so do Nurses, Paramedics, Firefighters, Army and so many more on which we can live a stable life on.
We all know what each of them do by heart. I feel like all of us can imagine a scene of them saving lives.
But the idea of a CS engineer saving lives is really hard to have a universal picture for. Much of our effects are downstream.
Right now, I am thinking of a Hospital which saved money by using Open source technology to hire more doctors & nurses which can save lives.
I am not sure if I can think of any way where it directly saves lives but it really impacts life so so much.
Now, Discord is something which I don't really appreciate that much but (personally prefer Matrix) but I can see something like discord being used by people to connect to each other and even seek therapy (when the hospital system is booked/overcrowded) and those help the impulses that people might have. It's not the best system agreed but I do feel like it's underappreciated if you ask me.
Maybe the people who write websites/code for non profits for them to be visible and get funding for their right causes (red cross etc.) are some engineers.
I do wish that when you write into this. It isn't some superhero CS engineer saves the world. I wish for it to finally conjure/create an image of how CS engineers can have an Impact on the world.
Anecdotally, I wanted to go into finance but then started using Open source/Linux. I then pivoted into CS engineers. Do you know what my dream was? (still is?) to work on an open source project while being on a beach reviewing commits / writing commits :]
I really respect each and everyone who open source things. You can actually see my struggle about impact. Quite frankly, I don't know how to say this but I am really not interested by money (and if I am, its to have impact down the line or well survival). I just want enough for myself and have a very decent line of knowing how much (usually) & wish to help others then just for the sake of it or perhaps I am too ideal :]
This submission is essentially what I really wish: >>45558430 [Ask HN: Why are most people not interested in FOSS/OSS and can we change that]
I would genuinely read your book if you can show if CS engineers can have positive impact because I do feel like CS engineers have power & power corrupts many of (us?)when we feel like the benefits of working towards mass dystopia individually somehow both lifts us from the moral repurcussions and also pays us in power/monetary value (which is essentially what society is going towards, one really can't be moral because our society is now favouring power over all means and even a facade of morals is feeling bleak at this point)
How I feel like this is the ability of being fair and sustainable within CS (which is usually not really preferred imo because I mean we are in a VC [ycombinator] forum and the idea of growth over everything else even at money burning is quite common in tech)
So I guess my point is how I really end up this whole thought process (which once again ironically is something that I have done a lot in HN) is to essentially summarize on being fair & transparent & sustainable within any business I might ever do. I wish to be reasonable & I will be honest about how much money I get to hopefully someday do things that click with me [the beach idea sounds lucrative again :) ]
The reason I say all things a lot is to really have some accountability if I might ever do something which can be considered scummy.
Because the way I am thinking is that if I ever do anything scummy for money (the lure of dark side being too much) and people call me out respectfully. I will try to revert it as much as possible. So I guess I can be considered selfish for writing this comment :)
Though I guess if I give a picture of saint (because I felt like I may have given too much of it, I mean I am only human after all), that would be wrong too. I am still motivated by survival/the need to feel important/respectful within my community/extended family/having money to have hobbies in the first place/buying a house for myself.
It's just that I really want enough & I feel like having more than enough might help sometimes (the definition of enough itself can change) but its that I really wish to have some good positive impact before I die to essentially not have regrets. I wish to have less regrets before death.
Witold Pilecki's my hero in this sense. His quote is something I deep down wish to live by. "In the hour of death, I feel joy rather than sorrow" & Honestly, I wish to feel complete before death. Not having regrets (or many regrets, you will still regret things no matter what you do but one can only try to minimize it, have a good intention in life) is something which to me essentially satisfies Pilecki's quote and essentially somewhat of a philosophy of mine & while at it, have a meaning of life for myself. I am a bit of an existentialist :)
Although nothing is crystal clear, the karma system is not 1:1 for submissions.
<>>29024032 >
Comment upvote +1
Comment downvote -1
Submission upvote >0 && <1 (not documented to prevent abuses)
Submission downvote not possible (only flagging is allowed)Seems simple enough, while searching I came across this snippet you can paste in the console, and gives you a sorted list of most upvoted/downvoted comments: >>36107028
Sadly requires hitting news.ycombinator.com rather than the API, but only way to get the actual points as you mention.
Maybe I'm expecting the wrong thing? Reading it wrong? I basically don't understand what people see in this. If the agents were talking, collaborating or what not, which I thought it was about, I'd kind of get it. Is it just broken right now, wrong example or something else?
A prominent example of a laconism involving Philip II of Macedon was reported by the historian Plutarch. After invading southern Greece and receiving the submission of other key city-states, Philip turned his attention to Sparta and asked menacingly whether he should come as friend or foe. The reply was "Neither."
Losing patience, he sent the message:
If I invade Laconia, I shall turn you out.[4] The Spartan ephors again replied with a single word:
If.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laconic_phrase?utm_source=chat...
I don't know, you have 10 years in this writing, I have 15 years. I've gained so much from 15 years of conversations with people about the topics that come up on HN. That's a lot different than writing an equivalent amount by yourself on a topic you hope others will find meaningful.
So many geographic maps turn out to be just population maps (1). I wonder how much different these rankings would be if you divided the number of words by the account's lifespan. We're all talking about the most "prolific" commenters here, but are we really just talking about the oldest accounts?
I'd love to see two overlaid graphs. One is the top 1000 as currently implemented. The other is the age of that account.
(To be honest, I saw your github and saw your about and "Multi-disciplined software developer, some even call me a polymath." I think I also remembered before you changed your about me HN page that you actually talked about being a polymath in your HN about me as well. So I ended up thinking damn this guy's good at everything he does xD )
But I was also doakes and feeling the suspicion.
https://files.catbox.moe/xl75gu.jpg [When you know emsh might be an old HN user but you can't just prove it]
Here's the Query that I ran on play.clickhouse.com (Please note that both the queries that I am about to give are AI generated)
SELECT id, argMax(karma, update_time) AS current_karma FROM hackernews_changes_profiles GROUP BY id ORDER BY current_karma ASC LIMIT 5
№ id current_karma1 1 Proven -247
2 VentureHawk -89
3 adamyormark -50
4 oldpersonintx2 -45
5 sevenstar -35
So proven has the lowest karma.
While at it, Here's the query for the most upvoted (karma) people on hackernews
SELECT id, argMax(karma, update_time) AS current_karma FROM hackernews_changes_profiles GROUP BY id ORDER BY current_karma DESC LIMIT 5
id current_karma 1 tptacek 414947
2 jacquesm 235042
3 ingve 214146
4 todsacerdoti 204814
5 rbanffy 184030
I remember tptacek because he is the second person of all the people (behind dragonwriter) and he has written 14.37 Volumes worth of game of thrones.
Hope this helps. I just ran the query because I was curious to find the results :D
I can add this query to the website, but one of my worries (even with this post) is that people might try to now benchmark it which wasn't my intention & it will fail to be a good measure (someone mentioned the goodhart's law which is correct/apt here)
In fact, if I make a proper leaderboard by that metric, you are #914. And #731 if we only consider accounts older than 60 days.
Here's the data: https://pastes.io/name-words
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46829029#46875831
It's essentially comment karma (total up votes)/words ratio. I do think that I have a less karma ratio but that's probably because I write a lot of words which sometimes not even land a single +1 but I don't think that I would be a plain spammer. If you want I can try to find the highest ratios if that's what you like but I feel like that might have the issue where people with less words but with very high upvotes might have the likelihood of being spam/scam too when you think about it? Essentially, I feel like I can provide the query & then you can run it/modify it on the things that you might be interested to find.
Hope it helps!
One thing HN used to have was a karma/comment score on your profile. I'm currently at 3.68.
Of course that includes stories as well but I have a small fraction of karma from there. Cool!
0: https://play.clickhouse.com/play?user=play#U0VMRUNUIDU3OTYvQ...
