Other sites like HN? | Hacker News Reader

Other sites like HN?

47 pointskreid135 comments

Looking for other sites like HN where articles and other interesting bits of information are shared. Hope this is ok to post! Thanks!

View on HN

Advice to myself (a while back when I wondered the same thing)... put the phone down once you've reached the end of page 1, and the first page of new submissions. Life is for living, tech is for 'doing', and anything more than 20 minutes online is procrastination.

You're a different person with different requirements, but I thought I'd just throw in my 2c.

PS: I rarely keep it to 20 minutes a day but I try

I think about this too regarding being a producer vs. consumer

Still I get to the point where I can't think/function anymore, and then find something to do/surf something/get those points

Something to keep in mind is that this is a balance, like everything else in life.

As humans we are integration machines. We need to take in novel information in order to combine it and produce new novel information. HN definitely helps with that, as the bullshit here is at a minimum with interesting technical information all over the place. Its honestly a gold mine, similar to what Slashdot was in yesteryear.

I have a similar question to OP: when HN dies like Slashdot, what's next?

Honestly my guess is that I won't get a solid answer in this thread, but some time after HN dies I'll just find myself on the next thing just like I found HN years after I left Slashdot

I'm curious is Techmeme in the ballpark or no?

Hackaday was already listed, that's nuts so much creativity on there.

IEEE video friday's is good imo regarding robotics stuff.

You're right, there is also Twitter

Wait, there's a 'new' button?

Well said. I've been thinking about my "information diet" a lot recently, and I've been wondering what I've gotten out of it. I spend so much time on HN, Twitter, YouTube, and Reddit--to the tune of well over ten thousand hours over the past few years, and that's a conservative estimate.

After all of that, I still want more and more, but I'm not sure what exactly I want more of and I don't know if I've gained anything from it in the first place. I don't even feel particularly satisfied visiting any of these sites--usually some mixture of frustration, anxiousness, or some other negative emotion. Occasionally I'll find an interesting thread here, a funny Reddit thread, or an informative Youtube video, but the "hit" goes away relatively quickly, I forget all about it, and minutes--sometimes seconds!--later I'm craving the next hit.

That's my long way of saying: Yes, I agree with you and with this advice. Put the phone down after hitting the end of Page 1. Don't refresh the page every few minutes. Don't aimlessly open tab after tab with articles and videos you'll "eventually" get to (I have over five hundred tabs open right now on this laptop). There's no end in sight, and the road itself hasn't been too satisfying either.

> so much time on HN, Twitter, YouTube, and Reddit--to the tune of well over ten thousand hours

Well, at least then you'll probably be really good at it.

I wonder if you put down a book after 20 minutes, too, because life is for living, and reading is for...?

I'm not sure this is an apt comparison.

If reading from paper and reading from a screen are materially different to you, could you outline the difference?

They aren't actually. The comparison isn't apt because we aren't debating the differences or merits of reading on a screen versus reading on paper. That's a false dilemma. There are a multitude of ways to waste time at a computer and the posts you are responding to provided a few of examples of them, including watching videos on YouTube and surfing Reddit.

If those activities are the same to you as reading a book could outline the reasons why?

If you curate your twitter using Twitter’s “List” feature you can create some great productive feeds

I’ve been using it for 3-4 years, I recommend checking it out if you haven’t

I use it to curate my tech news. Some example lists I have - Data Visualization - systems programming - Frontend engineering - NodeJS - Databases - Dev Conferences - etc.. -

Would you mind sharing your lists?

https://lobste.rs is the only one I think that would really compare

Send us layfolk an invite?

I can - send me an email.

I like to think of this site as 'pre news'. Its intended for artfully crafted, Rube Goldberg-esque ideas, that have some merit for a microscopic minority, of a) billionaires and/or b) comedians; c) and/or James Bond villains.

https://www.halfbakery.com

If a person did feel like they needed a HN alternative, they wouldn't share it in response to a question on HN.

Twitter, but you really need to spend your time crafting your feed and figuring out how to get around the algorithm pigeonholing you.

How does one do that?

There are a lot...many will be better once you add their filters or join the right sections/communities.

Steemit

Lemmy

Raddle

Tildes

Metafilter

Lancebase

Folkd

Pythonic news

Echo js

Littr.me

20-things

Lobste.rs

Hackaday

Southgate amateur radio news

Soylent news

Kottke.org

Federated thingies like Mastodon

(Drum roll please...)

Facebook groups

Twitter lists

Email lists

I am very curious about Facebook groups: did you find good ones? My experience with Facebook content has been total garbage and I'd like to know if my experience is just circumstantial.

There are some solid communities but for me it wasn't worth the price of being on that dumpster fire

Yep, there are some amazing FB groups out there still. Some of them are even still Public groups, which I lurk in only because of how the Public model works, but the content is incredible. SF books, SF movies, wargaming, some linuxes, specific ham radio models, specific niche meme groups too, and that's just what I've found useful. But also it's a terrific environment for retro things. Retro TTRPGs, programming languages you used to use a lot, stores you used to like, even.

(If you're into art, be sure to check out art and artist groups/pages. People wonder where Flickr went and it's right there, not Instagram.)

Keep in mind that some of these groups actively use their Files and Photos sections which can be like gold.

FB's participation model does incentivize things like simple brigading & passive-aggressive behavior, though (IMO), so it's also a good idea to get a feel for the quality of discourse and moderation before diving in if you are interested in participating rather than lurking.

It's really too bad the participation model has to be so static across the entire platform, because some of the groups are one or two customizations/tweaks away from being really epic with regard to community particpation. You could solve a lot of the social problems there with a more dynamic approach to the software design & provisioning.

This is exactly what I was looking for, thanks!

If you want multiple in the same page:

https://devurls.com/

https://sciurls.com/

https://techurls.com/

I mainly stick to HN, Lobste.rs, and a few tech related Reddits.

Couple more:

https://theweblist.net/

https://readspike.com/

May i ask for a tildes invite ?

Thanks

linuxfr.org (in french)

Touggourt? Are you from/in Algeria?

This question makes me feel like HN is becoming lame.

This reply makes me feel like you’re lame.

We are all lame on this blessed day after the Eternal September.

As a gateway to YC, Eternal September is a feature not a bug...HN is designed for people who are continuously curious about new things.

Unlike a Usenet group, there's not a topic silo. The cure for seeing 'the same old thing weariness' is submitting something that isn't the same old thing.

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