The ascendancy of Hacker News & the gentrification of geek news communities
anarchogeek.com
anarchogeek.com
Digg is a newbie. There are others. Slashdot for example caught on in the general population after the hoards of readers would bring down servers after a single post ~ http://pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/office/stans/slashdot.html and news organisations through Journalists started using Slashdot as their geek filter and quoting it in news.
"... The whole gentrification argument doesn't really hold well with the definition of gentrification ..."
Depends on what you mean by gentrification. I think in this case it might be the gentrification of ideas, implementation and audience. An inability to improve the quality of the site. Slashdot at the start (suid 2774) when I joined was full of new and interesting ideas. Full of readers with technical backgrounds who you could pose questions you would never get the answers to reading a book, news groups even the source. You had to be on the ball to answer or you would be howled down with logic and facts. I left slashdot when the discussion and flow of new ideas deteriated into low quality opinions. Just like this one.
But the idea of gentrification to me still means that something old and busted becomes new again by an influx of cash, people and culture. Not necessarily in that order.
The argument that sites are are doing it, seems backwards. The sites that were good, become worse through the influx of people and potentially cash.
I will admit there is a sort of parallel. I keep trying to prove it to myself, but i always hit snags.
Oh, and Slashdot PT Cruiser. 'Nuff said.
Wow. It was partly your posts & ideas I was reading back then. Great stuff.