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by appleorchard46 502 days ago
The problem with 'HN but for [x]' sites is that what they offer is just a subset of HN. Game dev posts might not be the most popular here, but they're still allowed and do get some traction from time to time - so there's little incentive to post somewhere that has even fewer eyes.

IMO for a site like this to succeed it needs to offer something HN doesn't. Chat, subforums, personal promotion section, something.
2 comments
andrewmcwatters 502 days ago
I used to think this, but after reading about engagement numbers elsewhere, Hacker News is actually very small when compared to other venues.

Depending on where you're reading, it's Hacker News that's a subset of just about anything else.

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appleorchard46 502 days ago
Exactly - you can only add so many inner matryoshka dolls before they're not big enough to sustain critical mass.

If HN is a subset of other sites (though arguably its approach to UX and moderation offer something different), a site targeting a subset of HN's users seems unlikely to get much traction.

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Larrikin 502 days ago
Who cares about engagement numbers?

The things this site used to offer was there might be an article about a security breach, a brand new highly anticipated feature in a major product, a historical article about a long forgotten but major technological achievement.

Then a key person from that story would chime in with their take about what the article got right or wrong, offer to answer questions. And that is assuming they didn't directly make the post.

Nobody actually wants to read self promotion blog spam, besides other people pretending to be engaged so they can do the same

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johnnyanmac 501 days ago
Personally, I do just really want a "HN but for gamedev". The frequency of games content here is my personal weakness.

But the invite only structure is limiting. I like the mentality behind it, but for so, so, so many of the communities I browse, the issue arises from size before any of the problem invite only solves.

And I don't need crazy frequent posts. Just something where I check after 2-3 days and it's not just 1 post with zero comments.

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