Show HN: Hacker News like site for South Africa: ZA-Coders

zacoders.net

12 points·jrgnsd··11 comments

I think all the adverts lower the tone a bit. One of strengths of HN - especially when it started - is that it was an altruistic initiative by PG.

I'm also not so sure about the design - did you consider using Arc? Download it here: http://ycombinator.com/arc/arc3.tar and check out news.arc

I may be missing something, but why wouldn't they just use the real thing?

As a South African I found myself asking the same thing.

As a fellow South African, I support the idea simply because ZA needs more sites like this.

Check out siliconcape.com.

I like being part of the HN community, but I'd also like to be able to discuss HN-like topics with a South African flavour with South Africans.

There's a few factors that makes coding and running startups in SA different:

* Relatively low broadband penetration.

* High costs to most telecommunication / internet services.

* Distinct socio-economic classes.

* Cutting edge technology lag and lack of penetration.

Doesn't look anything like HN to me.

Looks aren't everything :)

I don't use HN for it looks, but for the articles and discussions. Yes, the aesthetics contribute towards that, but at the end of the day, it's about the content.

But yes, maybe it's overdone. UI was never one of my strongpoints.

Maybe he meant the HN minimalistic design which is awesome. I wish every site was more like HN (more information & less content).

I wonder if HN adoption is at the point where HN subs would be an option. Maybe not wide open like reddit.com/r/ but a controlled set of HN sub sections.

Are there any hacker meet up groups in SA?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com