edw519 & rms Interview with Andrew Warner from Mixergy about Hacker News | Hacker News Reader

edw519 & rms Interview with Andrew Warner from Mixergy about Hacker News

blog.mixergy.com

39 pointsedw51927 comments

An interesting dichotomy occurs when he mentions "optimizing" for digg versus how to optimize for hacker news. Ed (edw519, I presume) says.. no.. just... be yourself. Be sincere. Don't try to game the system.

For a super-high traffic site like digg, it becomes absolutely paramount to get your hooks into people because you don't have alot of time to make an impact. An extra marketing once-over on the submission is virtually required (not to even mention going a step above to rigging the system with some quid pro quo or dummy accounts). It makes digg largely unappealing to me from a submissions stand-point because, first, the traffic is of low quality, and secondly, it seems... uhm... unsavory.

For a lower traffic site like this with a super narrow focus, it's much easier to get noticed. And the traffic is of extremely high quality (presuming you are on topic...) You are in the new queue long enough that your story is going to live or die on its own much more than the magic title, etc.

Good point. Digg's top users spoke at one my Mixergy Forums. They were very clear about what it took to get to the top of Digg. No hesitation at all.

If I had a trick, I would have shared it...

Unless I'm missing something obvious - that is not an interview.

The audio is at the bottom. The video is like an intro :)

Thanks for clarifying that. I wonder if there's a better/clearer way for me to show videos in the future.

Cool... nice that those silly karma points finally were useful for something.

Scroll down far enough and you will find my picture on a CD jacket. That picture and the quote from pg are both from this thread:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=202096

Congrats, you are a celebrity! I can tell it is already going to your head with this shameless self-promotion of your picture.

Thanks. Sometimes it's hard not to make an ascii of myself.

Oh no. That is an unfair characterization of yourself.

How long ago did the interview take place?

A week ago Friday

I need to turn these interviews around faster. This one took me longer than usual to post because I love this community and I didn't want to misrepresent it.

It was kind of tricky from your perspective... you definitely did a good job with your write-up.

Ed, RMS this is not fair to us. We need to see your faces. Pretty please.

Since there's nowhere to do that here, I guess I have to start my blog. I promised alaskamiller that I would start one last April, but I've been busy coding almost every day since (shame on me). I always thought if I had something to write, it should be compilable, but I now realize that I have to make the time to blog as well.

I'll take a break this weekend and figure out this wordpress thing. Stay tuned...

I can't help but notice the massive karma boost your sudden celebrity's gaining you...

It seems to be a vicious circle. :-P

It is amazing how listening to people talk can then affect the way you read their comments. It is like you have a better/newfound understanding of the person they are based on their speech pattern, speed, accent, inflections etc.

He talks a about meeting in person. Am I missing something? Or is it just that I'm living in the wrong place?

Startup school functions as a defacto Hacker News meetup, plus there have been some Pittsburgh ones.

Sucks to be in Europe :-)

Or maybe Europe needs their own meetups.

Free Beer for Hackers here in Innsbruck:-)

Listening to this reminds of how sites like this remind me of sports talk radio, commenting on the latest play (link). Always better with more people around.

If you want to see their faces, facebook them.

edw519 & rms thanks for doing this interview. I loved the conversation.

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