[dang]

All: it's not clear yet whether we should have "Screenshot Saturday" and "Idea Sunday" as regular features, or whether they should be weekly if we do. Happy to hear arguments pro and con, though perhaps not in this thread. (Edit: On second thought, we might as well discuss it here and keep it at the bottom.)

If are going to have these regularly, we'll ask the whoishiring account to post them automatically. That's the only account currently allowed to make bot submissions, and it seems better to extend an existing system than create a new one.

In the meantime, we changed both the title and the text of this submission to be closer to previous editions.

[coffeecodecouch]

Currently I like the idea of Screenshot Saturday. If I'm not mistaken Hacker News wants more user created content. Screenshot Saturday allows the community to know what each other is working on, and can even help people build traction for their projects. I wouldn't be surprised if in the future people have their weekly Saturday posts prepared in advance with links to their email list sign up and Twitter handles. I do still think though that it should be named "Side Project Saturday"[0].

I'm indifferent about Idea Sunday, so if you were to remove one to keep the automated submissions to a minimum I would ask that it be that.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7580150

[cjbarber]

I'd like to propose a Problem Thursday's, in addition to Idea Sunday.

Topic: What problems are you experiencing that you want solved? IMO this is more conducive to creation of solutions and idea generation than Idea Sunday.

1) Sharing of problems doesn't impose any constraints on the solution, allowing readers to identify their own solutions (and thus feel more attached to the potential solution). To explain another way, my hypothesis is that people would rather come up with their own idea (aka solution) to a stated problem, than build out someone else's idea of a solution. (Even if the leap from problem -> solution is one cognitive cycle and nothing revolutionary).

2) I'd rather see people solving problems

All that said, the Idea Sunday thread is great, too.

[brudgers]

It seems like positive activity and reduces the pressure to try and game the 'Show HN' mechanism.

[tomek_zemla]

Personally, as somebody who constantly works on small side projects I find Screenshot Saturday both entertaining and educational. I would assume that it should be reserved for early concepts or work still very much in progress while Show HN be used for finished or at least MVP level projects. In other words I hope Screenshot Saturday stays here...

[rokhayakebe]

While we at it, I would love to see Seed-fund HN monthly. It would be quite easy at this point for 1 or 2000 HNers to throw $50 each each month and fund one or two projects.

Idea Sunday, Screenshot Saturday, Problem Thursday, etc, the Invisible Hand [1] will probably regulate their worthiness and the right frequency.

Some will be have more discussion around them (Ideas, Problems) than others (Screenshots, MVPs,etc..) just because it is easier to talk the idea than to implement it. However Screenshots and MVPs benefit from the exposure of a single thread on the front page, I call this co-Marketing.

I think what we see here is the HN community expressing a need for more tools and ways to fully benefit from the community. The community wants to share ideas, show off their work, get help in solving problems, hire hackers. I would like to see more of all these.

[mirkules]

I love the idea, and it makes me push myself harder when I see submissions that are light-years ahead of my project. It's almost to the point of intimidating how good some of these are..

[seizethecheese]

One pro argument is that if the quality of these goes down hill they will fail to make the front page anyway, so what's the down-side?

[dang]

I suspect that's wrong and that they'll make it to the front page regardless.

[seizethecheese]

Wrong from whose perspective? It's strange that "wrong" things make it to the front page. By definition wouldn't that make them "right?"

[dang]

If only it were that simple. HN is about optimizing for intellectual curiosity, and that is only one of the reasons why stories get upvoted.

[seizethecheese]

Yeah I understand that perspective. I really think that these are the type of posts that won't be upvoted like some post about Elon Musk or Bitcoin. I guess there's a good potential for promotional upvotes since there are so many people invested in the post being seen. Would it be possible to not count upvotes from people who post comments? (Not comments of comments, however.)