[nottorp]

> Isn't game development already discussed here?

I'd say not really. Not in the detail that this site aims for. At least on the front page.

[sbarre]

That site aims for it, but the front page goes back a month or more. That's not a level of detail or activity that will compel people to go there regularly?

I get the desire to have quality users and posts, but the whole invite system feels like an unnecessary gate.

I am not a gamedev professional but I dabble as a hobbyist and am interested and would love to participate on that site but I don't know anyone on the site to get invited, and I'm certainly not going to beg publicly for an invite (which seems to be how their system works).

[nottorp]

Neither am I. Doesn't mean HN works as a go to for game development information. Or for web development. Or for embedded development.

HN is more of a collection of high level interesting facts about everything techy.

[sbarre]

I guess we've had different experiences on here then.

I've had really in-depth and fascinating conversations (or simply lurked the comments when I have nothing to contribute) on all kinds of game dev topics, or web dev, or others..

While the feed itself might be generalist, the people who choose to dig into specific topics on here are often experts (sometimes very notable ones) in their field, and it can lead to very enlightening and educational discussions.

[nottorp]

> on all kinds of game dev topics, or web dev, or others

Exactly. Every day another topic. Great for keeping yourself informed and running into the occasional insider insight that will help you 2 years down the road.

Not enough for a domain you're really interested in, whichever that is.

[sbarre]

I see your point.. I guess again we have different experiences, perhaps depending on how often we come to the site or how much content we're looking for.

I can barely keep up with the topics I'm interested in on here, I don't know that I could handle more... :-)

[bdhcuidbebe]

Invite system tends to do wonder for the quality of discussion, tho.

[sbarre]

Only if you actually get enough people in the door..

Plus sometimes invite systems mean you just get the "usual suspects", friends-of-friends, etc...

It definitely has value in keeping out the spammers and trolls though, I agree there.

I suppose it depends on how you want to handle moderation in the long run.

[genewitch]

Any dev based forum needs full markdown support where you can type ```javascript.

//js code here.

```

And it formats as js, say. Formatting stuff on here, reddit, and other sites that support only partial markdown is painful for me.

[genewitch]

Q.E.D.