We just launched Hacker News India at http://hackernews.in
Hacker News is awesome but there are lots of local issues that Indian hackers need to discuss (such as local events, infrastructure issues etc) that don't get good visibility on HN. We have started HNI to fix that.
It's a not for profit initiative. Please checkout the site and contribute to it (by commenting or posting questions).
Any suggestions are welcome. Would be lovely if they are posted there :)
The name 'hacker news india' may deceive at least a few people into believing that the site is somehow affiliated to the original site.
Furthermore, I don't think that using the same name will somehow make the site in par with the original hacker news. It will be the quality of the discussions that will decide the fate of the site.
I believe that the same name was used with the best of intentions, but now that the mistake is being pointed out, it is better to change the name.
"Hacker News" is a name used by PG for his webapp and you shouldn't use it (or variants) for yourself without getting explicit permission from him (You didn't did you?).
Imagine setting up a "Google India" or "Stanford India" site and claiming "if they want to operate these sites they can, we are not making any money off this". If those are shady, so is this.
If you just want an HN like forum, why not use the open source arc code but make your own name?
While I am not convinced there are issues that are exclusive enough to "Indian hackers" (shudder) that need a separate forum, others may have such a need. Good for them.
But please don't steal the name of a successful site without explicit permission from the owner.
Overall an amateurish move, if not illegal. (All purely imo - my fellow "Indian hackers" can downvote)
My response = flip bit. Move On.
But I think a local flavor is surely a good idea and more counties / geographies should create their versions. Just in 3-4 days the Indian HN has gotten a lot of traction.
I would strongly support this initiative.
There's a certain valley skew here because of the people engaged by HN, YC and PG, but it's hardly exclusive.
As for answers, post according to your target market. Surely if you post while fellow Indians are awake you'll get answers from them? How many users are on hackernews.in that aren't on news.ycombinator.com?