Ask HN: How can a community like HN be more immersive? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How can a community like HN be more immersive?

1 pointdesertraven5 comments

Some of us (including myself) live remotely - this makes encountering likeminded people difficult.

I’m very fortunate to know and participate in the HN community, and I’m looking for ways to increase my immersion.

Even when I visit cities, venue layouts are designed in a way that discourages collaborative discussion. And few and far between are places which promote civil discussion of progressive ideas.

VR isn’t to the point where is HNers could just immerse themselves into a medium such as a digital cafe or book shop.

Is there another medium you view a community such as HN existing in? Perhaps a 3D world where users upload their custom .obj character model and physically congregate at different areas in the world. Not so different from an MMO, but with the sole purpose of civil discussion and collaboration.

Living remotely, I feel at a disadvantage, and would love a more immersive, socially nourishing version of HN.

HN is more analogous to a town square than a community. People stop by to see what's new, do some window shopping, interact with others a little bit (maybe start a fight!) and then get on with their lives. Very few people get to know one another through HN, I would imagine fewer still end up forging friendships.

It sounds like you are looking for something more like a club or at least an informal social group. The online equivalent to these are web forums and chat rooms. There are loads of these and they tend to fly under the radar. I have handful of hobbies and the best communities for these are _well_ outside the borders of the mainstream social media sites. They're frequented (mostly) by people who are friendly, knowledgeable, and generous with their time and advice, which is not something you typically see on facebook, twitter, reddit, etc. They're not secret or hidden, but you do have to go out of your way to find them.

"Civil discussion of progressive ideas" sounds like you want to discuss politics, which I can assure you never ends civilly! But if that's really what you're after, you should not have to go very far to find plenty or venues for that online.

May I ask what your hobbies are? And perhaps I phrased that wrong - progressive in a technology sense. But I suppose also politics, assuming civility remains.

I love the HN community but sometimes its very hard to know or find people here Like how you would find on social media

True! Yet there often permeates a respect between people, even those that disagree.

So while it’s rare to make friends, everyone seems to be for the most part friendly.

Do you think a more informal social version of HN would be appealing?

Yup I totally agree with you,

Everyone seems intelligent and smart here but it’s hard to make meaningful connections here

Reply on news.ycombinator.com