Many people at news.yc with interesting thoughts have no contact data in their profile. It's a pity. | Hacker News Reader

Many people at news.yc with interesting thoughts have no contact data in their profile. It's a pity.

12 pointsivan32 comments

View on HN

From what I've seen so far, I don't really see a lot of interesting thought here. The things said here are interesting in comparison to the outside world, but once you read for a while, you realise that you're reading the same old shtick over and over again. That's MY interesting thought of the day ;)

perhaps because we are all frogs in a well - and with PG the bullfrog? :)

I'd describe pg more as the french man who pulls out one frog every now and then. To fame and fortune, we are led to believe...

Will he eat them like a Frenchman too?

I've thought of adding messaging within news.yc. Would people use that?

No. Email does a better job. I don't want to have yet another medium to check and use.

Many dont list their email though. I guess it leaves the option to stay private but I suspect ppl often dont list it simply out of laziness or they forget.

Being a startup site, where people may be looking for contacts, co-founders, advice, etc, I think having a tool to get in touch with each other would be very useful. I vote yes do it, but KISS.

Point the Author link to a supplied website or the author's choosing instead of the profile, and problem solved.

URLs in the profile are live.

Yes, but I'm not interested in visiting the profile, because as you say it's usually blank.

The person's website though would be something I would visit, and most people don't hide their websites on blogs.

EDIT: I should clarify: When a person writes a comment, it's the comment itself that would lead me to wonder what this person is all about. I'll click on his name. I'm not interested in a "profile", I'm expecting a website. The fact that I get the YC profile means I stop looking, and go back to reading the article. As such I never really figure out who the person is.

"No. Email does a better job. I don't want to have yet another medium to check and use."

Many times I'd rather call someone up, but I may only have their email. Point is, there are usually always better alternatives. However, choices make the end goal more possible than it might have been.

Many times I expect those people would prefer an email as it doesn't interrupt them and they can deal with it in their own time. There's a balancing act between convenience to the caller and inconvenience to the callee.

The free text box in the profile lets the user give an email address, or their home page, or anything else including their phone number. The point is, they can limit how you can contact them. I don't think adding private messages on news.yc helps.

If I wanted to be called by strangers from YC, I'd put my phone number in my profile.

It was a general analogy and had nothing to do with this site. Actually, it especially had nothing to do with this site.

Personally, I'm a big fan of the "Don't call me unless I know you" ethic.

I think it would be convenient, if there would be some sort of an inbox number next to your name. It doesn't even need to be complicated. A ping/pong kinda system is more than enough -- at least enough to develop a rapport, and then, if necessary, trade emails.

I a little more paranoid regarding privacy matters, but I am sure I'm not the only one.

A bit over a month ago i wrote a barebones PM util "addon" and submitted the link here. The feedback was generally good, while it was on the frontpage, then it whittled. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18437

(it still exists, and I think still works, unless you changed the login mech).

As for stats, around 16 messages in the first 48 hours of the submission. Perhaps they were mostly test posts, but I did receive a few messages and an offer to trade email. Unfortunately he didn't check back when I sent him it :P

Just thought you'd know.

c.f. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zawinski%27s_Law

I would, especially if I was alerted via email when there were unread messages in my inbox.

I am generally reluctant to email people directly for minor comments that I'd rather not post in public. I wind up just not communicating at all.

I also prefer to limit where my email address is posted online (obfuscated or not).

For serious things, email is generally worth it, but there still might be issues with spam filters or accidental deletions.

I'd use it.

Me too

Yes, like on reddit.

Experimentation is the spice of life.

I'd assumed the email address I entered on my profile was public. It was only on logging out to check just now I realised it wasn't. Perhaps I'm not alone. I've now copied it into the free text as well.

E-mail address in profile is a big secret for me also :) This is probably question for PG.

It would not have been nice to publish everone's email addr on the web for spam crawlers to find. But if you want to put an email addr (or anything else) in your profile, you can.

You could also make it visible only to logged-in users, or users with karma > n...

... or simple form for logged-in users sending your message as an e-mail to particular member :)

Yeah. I'd like that. A remailer service is ideal and mind numbingly simple. If there is a email spam problem I'm sure PG will think up a solution.

Thanks for the reminder, I didn't even realize there were profiles on news.yc!

Sure, I understand you can have real reason for this.

I have my email there! But unfortunately I have no interesting thoughts, sorry.

That's the reason why you are here

Reply on news.ycombinator.com