HN vs Reddit: 50 vs 15000 visitors. Shall HN add new channels?

[cheshirecat]

When I posted my project on HN there were 50 visitors. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4333014

When I posted it on Reddit there were 15000 visitors. http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/comments/y77hi/so_i_built_a_minimalist_forum_with_some_strange/

The problem is no one reads "new" on HN. Either you are on the frontpage or you are doomed. I have seen many quality submissions in "new" with 1 vote. A number of them are arguably more interesting than some of the blogposts on the frontpage.

Probably HN shall consider adding one separate channel for "Show HN", and another for "Ask HN". Currently there are just too many people competing for the frontpage. And different people are interested in different kinds of submissions.

[yehanyin]

There are many and many tricks about how to play with HN and force me to follow the tricks.

Usually I read HN news via RSS reader and glad with the quality of feeds. So in this case it's not bad to provide me the good contents to read. But I do agree that there are also many interesting posts in /newest when I started to submit the posts myself. There are no perfect solution but I hope there would be a better-work solution.

BTW, I posted a question on news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4412393 and want to know whether there are any places for me to get into segmented articles. It doesn't have to be in frontpage as long as it's related. It's ideal but would like to see what happens.

[ScottWhigham]

It's weird that I'm the only one saying this but the purpose of HN isn't just for getting publicity/visitors. I know that, when I view "Show HN" posts, the only ones I click through are the ones that (a) seem interesting, and (b) seem like they are wanting to feedback for specific things that I think I can address. I like supporting the community as much as possible but a "hit" from me for a service/site/product that I'll never use is a waste for us both, right?

So #1, for me, if that I looked at your two submissions* and they don't do those things. "Show HN" works better when you are asking for help/ideas or seeking to be a part of a community. I know that your second post ends with the feedback request but, if that's what you wanted, you buried the lead, plain and simple. Both of your submissions read like press releases (and not very good ones). If you posted the same links/descriptions over on reddit, I'd guess the reddit hits were made up of 14950 spiders. That's just not text that inspires anyone to click.

And #2 would be that you don't have clickable links or even spell out a full http:// address in your posts. You are thus forcing people to type it in the address bar, or to click the title and hijack off of HN to the site. After years of being here, I can tell you that it's always better to put the links in the description as well as make a comment with a clickable link. For whatever reason, pg doesn't make description URLs clickable but does make them clickable if they are in a comment.

All of that being said, I wouldn't be against a wider tag/attribute/categorization. I don't think there are enough "Ask HN" and "Show HN" submissions to warrant a separate forum for each though.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4333014

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4354876

[cheshirecat]

Thank you for the reply. I think I need to use very different styles for the submissions for HN and Reddit.

[ig1]

There is one. The "ask" link on the top bar will take you to a page containing only self-posts (ShowHN/AskHNs).

[cheshirecat]

Thank you. Unfortunately it seems most of the visitors won't check it :(

[rlpb]

I don't think this is a problem. Some things are of different interest to different audiences. HN is one audience, and that's where its strength is. If you want a system that supports multiple audiences, why not use Reddit?

[cheshirecat]

I agree with you. The only curious thing here is I feel the project might be a bit interesting for HN as well. HN and /r/programming should not be that different...

When it's first shown on Reddit there were tens of visitors in the first few minutes, far more than the case for HN.

[SuperChihuahua]

It was the opposite for me: 8000 from HN, 0 from Reddit

[cheshirecat]

Very interesting. What are the real differences between HN and /r/programming? Seems the users from one site despise those from the other.

[PommeDeTerre]

The main difference between the two communities is the ratio between what I'll call the 'experts' and the 'fools'.

'Experts' are people who have a solid background in the topic they're discussing. When it comes to technology, these are often people who have one or more degrees in fields like math, science and engineering, in addition to other more specific training. They have years of experience in industry working on real systems, or working in advanced research labs. They know what they're talking about. When they post a comment, it has real, intrinsic value.

'Fools' are the opposite. They have limited, if even any, relevant education or practical experience. In many cases, they're so ignorant that they're completely ignorant of the fact that they're ignorant. Thus each and every comment they make is full of nonsense.

So here at HN, there are a very small number of 'fools' for every 'expert'. That's why the quality of discussion here is generally so much higher. There's real insight in the discussion here, because so many 'experts' are involved.

It's a different situation at /r/programming. For every 'expert', there are literally thousands of 'fools'. Any relevant discussion from 'experts' is drowned out by the sheer volume of junk from 'fools'. Worse, the 'experts' often have their comments down-voted, which essentially removes any trace of intelligent discussion. All that remains is stupidity.

I don't think that people here necessarily hate /r/programming or its users. It's just that many here likely see it as a waste of time to deal with that community, and with the ignorance that permeates it. And it's hard to take them seriously because of the low-quality discussion that often happens there.

[cheshirecat]

The HN comments are of high qualities, but I feel the same could not be said about the voters.