6 ms·

Are people really serious when they talk about the fabled Hacker News of old? What could it possibly have been like? I'm imagining something like zombo.com, o

Are people really serious when they talk about the fabled Hacker News of old? What could it possibly have been like? I'm imagining something like zombo.com, only with lower contrast text.

drblast 12y ago
The way I remember it, it was like this site but more frequently updated and focused mostly on Haskell: http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/ http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/ If you read a few rows down on that page, you'll see this: "For the debate about MS being evil, you can head directly to HN where you'll also find an explanation of what bootstrapping a compiler means." And that about sums it up. For a while I didn't even create an account because I didn't think I could add anything without sounding stupid compared to everyone else. Now I try to refrain from commenting for...different reasons.
- saraid216 12y ago
  > And that about sums it up. For a while I didn't even create an account because I didn't think I could add anything without sounding stupid compared to everyone else. Now I try to refrain from commenting for...different reasons. Same here. Though I refrain less. At some point, I'd like to go and find my first comment on here just to see what got me to make an account.
  - walrus 12y ago
    https://hn.algolia.com/#!/all/forever/prefix/0/by%3Asaraid216%20date%3C1274328000 https://hn.algolia.com/#!/all/forever/prefix/0/by%3Asaraid21...
    - saraid216 12y ago
      That is the most disappointing thing I have seen all day. Oh well.
- icebraining 12y ago
  People keep saying how much better HN was, but I'm just not seeing it: https://web.archive.org/web/20071115044647/http://news.ycombinator.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20071115044647/http://news.ycomb...
  - GhotiFish 12y ago
    Good catch, articles are saved as well. I don't notice a shift in tenor from the crowd of old and the one we have now.
baddox 12y ago
To my recollection, it was pretty similar, but with a lot fewer general news stories and a lot more stories about specific YC companies.
onedognight 12y ago
See for yourself. https://news.ycombinator.com/classic Often the content on the main page is quite different.
- 0x0 12y ago
  Is there an explanation of what's going on for that page somewhere?
  - Terretta 12y ago
    Articles voted up by old timers.
    - riffraff 12y ago
      is there a definition of "old timers" ? N years old account? signed up before year X?
- icebraining 12y ago
  That's biased by the fact that many people who were upvoting back then have since left the site. If you want to see for yourself, the Wayback Machine is a better sample: https://web.archive.org/web/20071115044647/http://news.ycombinator.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20071115044647/http://news.ycomb...
protomyth 12y ago
Slashdot was fun back in the day (Id 64578), so most sites do that progression. I think HN has changed in that general social stories show up more. I do think the weekends are a bit weirder now.

Are people really serious when they talk about the fabled Hacker News of old? What could it possibly have been like? I'm imagining something like zombo.com, only with lower contrast text.

drblast 12y ago

The way I remember it, it was like this site but more frequently updated and focused mostly on Haskell: http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/ http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/ If you read a few rows down on that page, you'll see this: "For the debate about MS being evil, you can head directly to HN where you'll also find an explanation of what bootstrapping a compiler means." And that about sums it up. For a while I didn't even create an account because I didn't think I could add anything without sounding stupid compared to everyone else. Now I try to refrain from commenting for...different reasons.

saraid216 12y ago
> And that about sums it up. For a while I didn't even create an account because I didn't think I could add anything without sounding stupid compared to everyone else. Now I try to refrain from commenting for...different reasons. Same here. Though I refrain less. At some point, I'd like to go and find my first comment on here just to see what got me to make an account.
- walrus 12y ago
  https://hn.algolia.com/#!/all/forever/prefix/0/by%3Asaraid216%20date%3C1274328000 https://hn.algolia.com/#!/all/forever/prefix/0/by%3Asaraid21...
  - saraid216 12y ago
    That is the most disappointing thing I have seen all day. Oh well.
icebraining 12y ago
People keep saying how much better HN was, but I'm just not seeing it: https://web.archive.org/web/20071115044647/http://news.ycombinator.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20071115044647/http://news.ycomb...
- GhotiFish 12y ago
  Good catch, articles are saved as well. I don't notice a shift in tenor from the crowd of old and the one we have now.

baddox 12y ago

To my recollection, it was pretty similar, but with a lot fewer general news stories and a lot more stories about specific YC companies.

onedognight 12y ago

See for yourself. https://news.ycombinator.com/classic Often the content on the main page is quite different.

0x0 12y ago
Is there an explanation of what's going on for that page somewhere?
- Terretta 12y ago
  Articles voted up by old timers.
  - riffraff 12y ago
    is there a definition of "old timers" ? N years old account? signed up before year X?
icebraining 12y ago
That's biased by the fact that many people who were upvoting back then have since left the site. If you want to see for yourself, the Wayback Machine is a better sample: https://web.archive.org/web/20071115044647/http://news.ycombinator.com/ https://web.archive.org/web/20071115044647/http://news.ycomb...

protomyth 12y ago

Slashdot was fun back in the day (Id 64578), so most sites do that progression. I think HN has changed in that general social stories show up more. I do think the weekends are a bit weirder now.