Invite only Hacker News. | Hacker News Reader

Invite only Hacker News.

2 pointsJuly200812 comments

I think the quality of Hackers News posts has been changing for while now. This is very normal given that the site is growing, and the audience is more diversified. I remember when HN was still a few weeks old, and I can tell you my experience back then and now is completely different. I think they are key players here and people who are really interested in learning/sharing and not just ranting. Thus I proposed a closed for-ever-invite-only HN. The top leaders on this site would be automatically subscribed and given each permission to invite (with limits). I am frankly not sure I will be invited myself, but I would certainly love to and I would be appreciative that a group of smart individuals think I can add value to their "secret" community.

Disclosure: This is no attempt to start a New World Order or Some Tech Masons...but it is an attempt to gather like minded highly intelligent intellectuals who love to observe, analyze and resolve different problems using technology

Going invite-only is a retreat. I'd rather just make/keep the main site good.

It doesn't seem to me the stories are any worse now than they were at first. The quality went down a bit a few weeks ago when we were mentioned on Techcrunch and got a lot of new users, but it seems back up now. I suppose I should write something to display the top stories from the past to make sure this is true.

I think everything is just fine. I take away a lot of good stuff from this board everyday, and get good intelligent responses from other users. And this is probably the only place I have ever encountered where people willingly admit their mistakes and change their views if they are intelligently countered. This is a very good thing.

People just need to use the down arrow more. Good writing should say something worth saying about something worth saying something about. If you think there is a signal:noise problem then just start downvoting every comment that you're not a better person for having read. This goes more for root comments than for replies deep in a thread, which I don't think need to be held to quite the same standard for a variety of reasons.

Most people don't have that option though, do they?

I believe everyone over 25 karma can downvote - I would guess that'd be most people.

i can't downvote articles. only comments. and i have well over 25 karma.

I believe the parent and parent's parent were talking about comments - I don't know if anyone can downvote articles.

I'm new here. I don't know anyone. I found HN purely by accident on a google search. I get a lot out of this site and am trying to contribute constructively.

I apologize if I'm pointing out the obvious but a major risk of making HN a gated community is blocking out new ideas and prospective startup hackers.

Funny you say this, what made you come up with this idea?

Interestingly, a few members from the old Joel on Software forum started such a closed community to share, interact and keep a much higher signal/noise ratio, and people were usually more honest since it was a closed, invite only forum.

This sure would be an interesting experiment.

All the statements about Hacker News quality going down hill I have seen have been anecdotal. I would like to see actual evidence, or at least a list of tens of stories that made the front page that people think are not worthy of being there.

I have been rading HN for a while and finally decided to participate after several friends got in YC (07, 08).

I don't agree with invite only but do think there should be greater seperation of topics.

/signed

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