Poll: Is HN your main online news source? | Hacker News Reader

Poll: Is HN your main online news source?

112 pointsjaxn76 comments

Reading the thread on whether or not HN should be a "general news" site I can't help but wonder if that opinion is affected by whether or not HN is your primary news source.

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HN gives me the news that I care about. Lots of tech, some science, and only a tiny, tiny bit of world events. This mix means that only really good science articles make it through, and only really really good worldnews articles make it through.

I usually wake up every morning and check HN to make sure that the world isn't ending. If North Korea launches a nuke at South Korea, despite it not being technology news, I'd bet that it makes it to the top of HN within a few minutes.

Recently I also started using an RSS reader that I wrote a while ago (I wrote it, then pretty much forgot about it): http://newsyndicated.com/a/reader it aggregates my favorite feeds (including HN, which is how i found this thread to begin with), and also allows me to submit directly to HN.

and only a tiny, tiny bit of world events.

I don't think articles about world events are bad -- but the way they're done in most of the media is: country x is doing y to country z. Who cares? Standard international bickering is just that: standard. Relatively few articles go beyond surface phenomena to figure out what's really going on, and those are the ones of interest that, as you point out, will sometimes get voted up on HN.

Those standard events you mentioned are not making their way here. And believe me, North Korean excesses are pretty non-standard.

I really want an "I don't have a primary source of news" choice.

I use a variety of sources and can't really pick favorites, I use HN for hacking, reddit for fun, sfgate.com for local news and sports, NYTimes for more metro news etc.

I didn't want to complicate the poll. If HN is not your primary source of news, then it is a "no". If you don't have a "primary" source, then it is a "no".

Not really?

For general tech? Sure. For open source? It's hard to beat the in-depth coverage of http://lwn.net and http://www.groklaw.net I have become increasingly disappointed with Wired over the last few years, it has gotten to the point where I deliberately avoid them even though they have soem great writers.

I'm from Ireland but not living there at the moment so my go to source for quality reportage of all things Oirish is http://www.irishtimes.com

I like to dip into The Economist for geopolitical stuff but it's surprising how many of the stories that would interest me from The Economist hit the main page of HN anyway.

I have been on /. for many many years - I have a 5 digit UID :) - but I stopped going there religiously a number of years ago. Having said that, I have returned there more and more often recently as I have noticed an unusual amount of group-think on HN when it comes to certain matters and that kind of irks me.

I go to to http://counterpunch.org/ to counterbalance the establishment reporting of the traditional mass media. This because I find that my political, social and economic views (which I know to be held by most of my peers) are underreported and underrepresented by the corporate media.

There are other niche sites that I visit but these are particular to my tastes. There are a couple of blogs I follow on RSS because I like the author's style and voice, these are all political, philosophical or literary in nature.

Supplemented with Reddit.

Search engines are great for answers. Reddit and HN are great for questions I didn't think of.

Yeah, I feel that proggit has really gone downhill. I still enjoy a handful of other specific /r/ s thou - like soccer and boston.

I can't believe I never thought to check if there was a Boston subreddit, thanks for mentioning it!

It is a little slow, but sometimes there is good stuff on there.

try /r/coding or search out more specific subreddits.

Hacker News is the only thing I am guaranteed to read every day. I will occasionally click over to Google News if I wish to know what is going on in the world or Slashdot if I need something else to look at. But Hacker News usually satisfies me in knowing what is most important to me in the world, which has the same basic tech emphasis as here; the other content that shows up from time-to-time usually matches what I wish to read about fairly well.

For `tech' news, yes.

For `news' news, the BBC (Radio 4 and http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/).

Well since we're discussing non-tech news - bees, wikileaks, and the TSA - that'd be a no to the poll.

I'd call it my primary professional news source, along with Twitter. HN gives me a lot of useful information about trends in the startup world, in (mostly web) technology, and so on. And it's interesting seeing what people here think about the world news that makes it through.

But my real primary news source is probably my RSS reader. There's a LOT of news out there that I care about which doesn't make it onto HN. A lot of national and world news doesn't make it here, and I like being generally informed about what's going on. I also keep up with local news, and the current events in various scientific subfields which are relevant to my interests, but not the web startup crowd here.

HN gives me `what matters`. No much time for anything else after finishing daily dose of HN. When I really got nothing else to do, Reddit.

If it's really a daily dose, the HN front page provides a mere subset of "what matters." There's so much good stuff that never makes it out of /new or that flies off the front page within a few hours..

I tend to treat news sources like rivers that I dip into - I'm always going to miss something. But it's always a little depressing when I skim a few hours back with something like HackerSlide and see what great stuff I "missed" while sleeping, etc.

I had the same problem. Solved it a few months ago by using one of Jeff Miller's HN RSS feeds ( http://feeds.feedburner.com/newsyc50 ). More info : http://jeffmiller.github.com/2010/07/23/a-cure-for-hacker-ne...

I do subscribe to other RSS feeds, but looking at netnewswire's "Attention" feed report, I do visit HN linked sites more than any other.

I think this is a function of how practically useful the information is to me personally.

Conventional news tells me about a lot of things I can't do anything about - I'm pretty much a passive observer. I mean, in terms of politics I get to vote once every year or two? And anything macroeconomic is far outside my control, but might inform me slightly of where people may spend money in the next year or two.

Contrast that with tech news and what gets posted on HN - it's stuff I can either pick up and use (new languages/concepts/scripts/etc.) or that people will actually go to me for advice on. I can take an active roll and have give and take - there are opportunities for interaction there that are manageable.

Hmm. I'd not really thought of this, but yes, it is.

I visit mainstream general news sites (Google, NYT, etc), Reddit, tech news sites, and others, but this is consistently the source of the highest quality information. The comments are news, too. If something happens and it's important, it WILL be on HN.

To me HN is like a huge and perfect filter - picking out all the interesting tech/science articles and showing only the really relevant 'general' news.

It's my primary source of tech news. I use Google Reader and still gave a fair number of feeds, but I use HN via the main page.

I used to read a lot of Reddit, but everything is too political there. I got sick of seeing 50 wikileak stories make it to the top of every sub-reddit.

I answered yes but I probably read about the same number of articles linked on Twitter but I don't "go to Twitter" for news. I've stopped using a RSS reader, Twitter does a better job of curating the content I want.

What is this "general news" you speak of? Between the hundreds of bookmarks on tech related articles, piles of RSS feeds, stacks of programming books around me, constant work and a single blog for local news on the state legislature, I can't remember when I last had time for "general news". Maybe Bush's 6th or 7th year in office? Back then I'd spend at least an hour on NYT. Now with the work load of two others I just don't have the time.

As far as HN's format, more "hacker" articles would be nice. I enjoy when my jaw drops at the thought of interesting or clever solution to a problem.

I figure my morning routine (when the goal is to get as up-to-speed as I need to be about the world in the most efficient way possible) is the best indicator. When I wake up every morning, I consult the following:

1. My BlackBerry, for several emails that come every morning with tailored news about what's going on in my field.

2. Google News

3. A number of Canada-specific news aggregators

4. The Toronto Star (I don't live in Toronto any more, but I still have some fondness for the paper)

5. HN

6. Twitter

So by that count, I'd say the answer is No. I consider HN to be my go-to source for interesting technology-related stories, but not necessarily for current news.

HN, reddit, Ars Technica, and several tech websites such as AnandTech and Guru3D.

World news and traditional media are just depressing. I got jaded at a young age and tend not to follow it (for better and for worse).

I had an RSS aggregator with around a dozen popular news sources like slashdot, digg, reddit etc but I've found that 99.99% of the interesting stories pop up on HN pretty quickly.

So I gave up on news RSS feeds and just have a tab with HN and a tab with a netvibes account with actual blog feeds from the likes of the eevblog, ben heck show, adafruit industries, hack a day etc.. stuff with unique content being added which I was interested in but won't hit HN every time they posted something.

As much as I enjoy HN, no, it is only one small part of my news consumption in a number of fields, which primarily comes in the form of RSS feeds. Currently I use Google Reader but I've used all kinds of readers. Since I prefer the Dave Winer-style "stream of news" approach I can trivially change readers since I don't generate a backlog. I've used "stream of news" since it was, well, the only choice since there was only one RSS generator and consumer and that's what it used.

I answered "Yes," but only in a convoluted reading of the question.

Most accurately, HN is the only online service I use that is mainly a source of news.

Put another way, I come here for the information and discussion, and it just happens to be a news site[1]. Before HN, I went nowhere (online or offline) explicitly to obtain news. After HN, I expect I will, again, simply do without.

[1] Which suits it well, IMO. I always flag old/repeat articles.

My primary news sources are drudgereport.com for insider news and politics, HN for tech, twitter for various topics and interests, podcasts for news and ultimate issues, cnn.com for big breaking news, and news.google.com for a general overview of the news.

It used to be reddit, but due to the hateful nature of the site, I had to stop reading it.

I can't stomach the level of discourse on /r/worldnews or /r/politics. I'm too young for my blood pressure to spike like that.

Yes and No.

I come here first, but I'm on Reddit as much. Never comment at Reddit though.

Digg is toast. Google News is just "news" so I don't really bother, and I've completely dumped all RSS readers.

I'm not going to "self filter" blogs when I can come to HN or Reddit and see what people have already "socially filtered" as the best stories for me :)

I like HN has the heavily tech articles float up. General news should really belong to Reddit.

Nope, it's one of many, although it is one of the most sticky ones.

Al Jazeera and BBC World for breaking news. Global Voices for more in-depth articles ( http://globalvoicesonline.org/ ).

It is kind of scary actually. I only read HN and a few blogs. I also don't listen to local radio or etch TV so if a natural disaster happened where I live or work I wouldn't know.

My main sources of news are:

1) HN for news about technology, startups, and some programming

2) Reddit mainly for entertainment now, maybe a tiny bit of news, psychology articles

3) New Yorker for interesting articles about topics I would never think of learning about.

4) Economist to get a good idea of all important things going on in the world (I don't read them cover to cover, more just skim. Reading a full issue would take almost a day of my time).

5) Ny Times and WSJ rss, mainly just read the headlines and read occasional articles if they catch my eye

No, I primarily use 4chan.org/new/. HN is relevant to me because I live in SF and work at a startup, but I'm more interested in politics and world events than tech news.

I would hate for HN to become a "General News" site. There are plenty of places I can go to get "General News". I come to HN because it provides the exact type of articles I believe we all come here to find. This is the only site I check multiple times per day, and it's because I know there's no messing around. Quite often I'll read, or at least skim, 80% of the articles on the front page.

Let Digg do it's own thing. HN is a niche news site for a niche group.

Something Awful is my main news source.

Being serious, Hacker News shouldn't try to be a general news site "for hackers" because believing a hacker prototype exists is absurd.

I keep telling myself that I need to explore "real" news sites like the BBC or Guardian (or...), but never quite get there.

I primarily stick to Slashdot and HN but know full well that the views in the comments of the two sites can sometimes be very detached/different from the rest of society.

While this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it is something to be careful of and I'd hate to find the day all of my own opinions fit a site perfectly.

HN is where I go to find good discussion about topics in which I'm interested. For general news, the BBC still tops my list.

I read the Guardian as a primary news source as I have a great interest in world politics and it's the best source - their wikileaks coverage was pretty exceptional. nyt is ok but I find the layout too busy and there's rather a lot of obscure American politics that I don't care about.

Yes, HN is the main source where you can read sane comments about technology. Google news and Techmeme are ok. Techcrunch went down so quickly with its technologically challenged authors, bad site design, mindless comments from fanboys, astroturfers etc.

I think meta-aggregates such as popurls or googlenews should qualify as a 3rd option. It seems to me that both yes and no would apply if one frequently views the headlines of hackernews(et al.) through such an aggregate but rarely clicks on the stories.

Personally I don't think social bookmarking websites should be used for anything but entertainment. Because we only upvote things we want to see, so if submitted content is hugely important but rubs us the wrong way it wont get any traction.

I just came here from Reddit, but HuffPo is still my main news source. Most of what I've seen here (and can understand, since I don't have a programming bg) are "make you think" stories, and not a lot of news. Which is completely fine.

No, it IS my primary source for tech/startup/entrepreneur news but not 'general news'.

I'd say I use Google Reader more than HN since I have to read niche technical publications for what I do, like HPCwire, InsideHPC, The Register (for their enterprise coverage), plus a few finance newspapers.

Since HN has strict rules on behavior I think that's one reason why it makes this site so appeasing to readers. This site is mainly factual with the sharing of opinions that creates a setting filled with lush information.

HN and reddit.

I follow about a dozen news sources. HN is my favorite, mostly because I've been able to discover other interesting new sources/blogs (many of which I now follow on my RSS reader).

HN is my main source for "my kind" of news. Google News is my main source for mainstream news. (BBC gets in there sometimes for more of a world/different from U.S. perspective)

I primarily read my news via Flipboard these days as I find a much more enjoyable experience, HN being one of the first tabs I visit, alongside BBC, Wired and Sky Sports.

For me it is a mix os HN, Reddit and Techmeme, all consumed either from Twitter (any time) or from the occasional browsing (three - four times a day).

It is one of my many sources. If I had to pick one service that I depend upon a lot, I would have to pick TechMeme. But, HN is often faster than TM.

I find it very interesting that I always find articles on slashdot 3 days after I read them on HN. HN always seems to be super fresh.

I dip in to HN regularly because some interesting articles pop up, but I find the site design to be soulless and depressing.

I think HN is #2 after all the individual sources I got in my Google Reader; HN is great to find new sources though.

Answered no - HN, Twitter, and Yahoo News

http://memeorandum.com/

1- http://www.mcsquare.me

2- Hacker news

HN is my only "news" source. I wouldn't call most of it news though.

HN is one of the three:

1. Tech Crunch 2. Hacker News 3. Tech Meme

Love the odd article on economics that appears.

now it is that I figured out how to use it after 3 months of DH!

Twitter still is.

Fark comes first.

No Agenda

Reddit.

Yes

1.HN

2./r/worldnews

3./r/politics

4...More Reddit.

5.Twitter

I migrated from un-official feeds of HN on Twitter to here. It is better anyways because you can see the discussion behind it.

-Slashdot

-HN

-Drudge Report/Google News

-WSJ (Highest quality, but I like having the paper, which has eluded me recently)

I replaced slashdot with alterslash a long time ago...

Me too. It has just the right threshold.

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