Hacker News comments don't require the blood, sweat, and tears involved in writing a 1,000-word well-edited essay.
Additionally, Hacker News comments aren't used by the owning website for potential profit. (Y Combinator as a brand is likely hurt by HN comments anyways)
> Y Combinator as a brand is likely hurt by HN comments anyways
Comments are the price some websites pay to encourage higher levels of engagement, and the high level of engagement here on HackerNews makes it a more valuable resource to its readers (more submissions, more voting, and sometimes informed comments from the community) and thus it has a halo effect on YCombinator. Thus the comments in the grand scheme of things are surely a net positive.
Reddit and YouTube are built in part on comment driven engagement even if a large majority of the comments are poor.
I dislike not being able to leave a comment. Yes, I'm outspoken, strong-opinionated and I want to express myself. I liked the HN community before realizing that YCombinator is an incubator, etc. I am/were/came here for the community.
"The HN crowd" has become an online meme for man-child Silicon Valley programmers. So I'd say there is at least a danger of that overflowing to perceptions of YC - just not for anyone YC probably cares about.
Really? My perception is that "the HN crowd" is known for being pedantic know-it-alls criticizing every minute detail of anything. "Man-child" seems much more Slashdot/Reddit/Digg/4chan plus the rest of the internet.
Good point! My comments are somewhat ephemeral to me. I'm not a very prolific commenter, and I don't feel all that attached to the content. To concede the point in practice, I'll just go for it with a long reply. I do wish comments were somehow a part of my own complete archive though. That seems like it would obviously be better.
Although I think the quality of discussion on HN is interesting, it's not that the HN brand is explicitly about the quality of the comments. The writing interface is pretty dissimilar from what Medium offers. To me there there appears to be an obvious conflict: if you're all about attracting brilliant users wouldn't those users also want to retain complete ownership over their content? Isn't that the smart long-term thing to do in a world of quickly changing services?
What's especially fascinating to me is the role that design plays in these services. Medium has clearly spent an exceptional amount of money to create a particular user experience. Without commenting on its quality, it seems that the aesthetic they have chosen has almost become a red flag. Spent all our money on design? Don't worry, we're going to sell you out anyway!
That should come with the disclaimer that I'm trained as an architect. Design is important, but most important is the tool. In so many cases design is just a way to send messages that distract from the actual workings of the tool.
The reward for commenting on HN is generally engagement and discussion.
I've been casting about myself for a suitable platform. I've actually mostly settled on reddit as it's got a community, some of whom are interested in the topics I am, good search tools, and a serviceable posting infrastructure. Markdown, Imgur for image links, semi-embeddable images with the Reddit Enhancement Suite, and a Wiki for more structured content.
I've also got a more traditional blogging platform (Dreamwidth).
Since I prefer to operate pseudonymously, self-hosting is not a good fit, though I could do that if I chose. And finding a good mix of platform and tools is tough.
As for layout, I've got enough CSS chops that I can shove the more annoying bits of a site out of the way, at least to my preferences.
There's quite a bit of difference between annonymous ramblings in some corner of the internet and long form journalism that took you serious amount of time and money to put together.
Additionally, Hacker News comments aren't used by the owning website for potential profit. (Y Combinator as a brand is likely hurt by HN comments anyways)