[joshu]

It's a forum. Most of the threads are started with a link to discuss but not all.

I mean, how is it useful as bookmarks, social or otherwise? Are you able to save something so you can return to it later?

There are lots of bookmark lets that have nothing to do with bookmarking. It's just a way to execute some JavaScript in the context of a page.

Most of the sites there aren't social bookmarking, either. SU has the functionality, though.

For what it's worth, I'm the one who coined the term.

[pvg]

When people get into discussions about the meaning of social bookmarking, I often giggle remembering an early del user who wrote in to complain about the inappropriateness of some of the links because he thought 'social bookmarking' meant 'bookmarks on social issues'.

[jacquesm]

Check the 'saved' link on your profile page.

So, yes, you can return to those pages at a later point in time.

[joshu]

I'm not even sure how to get stuff on or off that list.

Again, in what way can you use this site as your bookmarks? You save an obscure documentation page and a mod deletes it, and then what?

HN (like digg, reddit, etc) is social news, or something. People who confuse the two think so because the delicious front page and digg looked similar, or whatever.

[jacquesm]

Obscure documentation pages are most likely not going to survive, I agree with you there. But I definitely do use it to 'bookmark' technology news and it is very rare that a link gets deleted.

The bigger risk for deletions seems to be not tech related stuff but rather non-tech related stuff that manages to get a couple of upvotes.

HN is social news simply because the audience can define it as such.

The main ingredients, the ability to post links and to discuss them and to revisit them at a later stage makes it such that some users will come by and use it in that way.

All the stuff you submit and upvote goes on that list, you can't remove stuff from the list if you've upvoted it, you can't remove stuff from the list after a certain time has passed.

[joshu]

Since when are discussions necessary for social bookmarking? Delicious doesn't have this.

Like I said, it's a forum.

[jacquesm]

They're not necessary but they don't hurt either.

As the coiner of the term, you may want to update the wikipedia article which, after listing the basic requirements says: "As these services have matured and grown more popular, they have added extra features such as ratings and comments on bookmarks".

So there seems to be a convergence of terms and services here.

I think the major difference between social bookmarking sites (of which I see HN as one, and you obviously don't) versus a forum is that on a forum the vast majority of the topics is not started with a link.

On HN the vast majority of the topics is started with a link.

[joshu]

Can you please provide a definition for social bookmarking that includes the uses you are but is also not overlapping with other things? (Otherwise, you wouldn't need the term as distinct from other definitions, obviously.)

The confusion stems from when Kevin Rose started calling Digg social bookmarking to help raise VC, and was adopted by people who are only understanding superficially (the front pages look kinda similar, so clearly they're the same thing!) Kevin then stopped using the term.

I think you either understand this superficially as well. There are many things that I could use to serve some obscure purpose without that being the primary purpose.

Or perhaps you are just trolling.