I love HN and was wondering about other communities/forums similar to HN (hopefully with similarly high signal to noise ratio)
The only other one I am aware of is certain groups on tumble (funnily which I got from reading about sam bankman fraud's alleged girlfriend's tumblr archive).
So please share any other forums you are part of.
Cheers.
Slacks are fantastic, if you can find focused ones with good moderation. For example, the Rands leadership slack is, bar none, the best place to go for engineering management advice: https://randsinrepose.com/welcome-to-rands-leadership-slack/
I presume the same is true of focused discords, though I haven't really found any of those that stand out.
I miss the crosstalk between print media and online community. It wasn’t too long ago where I would go into a venue and find the local free weekly paper that led me to trawl for more online. Sites like this one fill the need broadly, and I’m getting better every month at learning to filter what I see on HN.
Location-real or virtual-is often the first way we apply a filter for interests, and it feels counterintuitive when the location has gotten dumber/more mediocre than last time I was in. Like a millionaire buying the art house theater or radio station and ruining it with scale.
I like HN because it isn’t solely tech-focused - it’s inherently focus-less - and is a jumping off point for deeper discussion as well as deeper linking to related data points. I’m not sure this is what you are looking for in a community, but your question made me think for a sec about why I value HN so thought I’d share.
I also like the sentiment I heard on related thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34406075 “I try to think of commenting and participation more as just talking to one person rather than trying to score points from the community.”
I don't have personal experience with the Recurse Center community, but I imagine it's pretty close to what you're looking for. The Recurse Center is a community of 2000+ technically inclined people. They have a very active Zulip forum.
It's free, but very difficult to get in. You have to first apply and then dedicate at least 6 weeks of your life to learning.
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Also: I've learned a lot hanging out on the Svelte discord: https://svelte.dev/chat
There's a handful of arrogant know-it-all "oldtimers" that does an excellent job driving newcomers away.
Every time I tried to get into that place, it feels like stepping into a secret meeting of Eton College students discussing the meaning of poverty. Feels a little detached from reality to be able to take that place seriously.
I frequent the Economics and AI section. Those sections have a high signal to noise ratio.
Can get snobbish sometimes, you are right.