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Comment by hhh | Hacker News Reader

World of Warcraft is what started my interest in programming. I was 6 when it came out, and when private servers started popping up I became interested in how to make my own npcs, and that’s how I picked up Lua.

I still have a lot of posts on the forum for that stuff (MMOwned), and one of the people that helped me learn then still posts semi-actively.

Compiling my own private server core was how I learned about compiling things, SVN, and how to apply patches (there was a bug related to mage’s fireball, can’t remember what it was.)

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> I still have a lot of posts on the forum for that stuff (MMOwned), and one of the people that helped me learn then still posts semi-actively.

Man, whenever I am reminded of the old forums I can't help but get nostalgic. Nowadays, it's like a good piece of the internet is replaced with dopamine-inducing social media apps and gated forums (e.g., Reddit).

I don't know why I still hang out here on HN, maybe mainly because it reminds me of the old forums...

HN threads die to quickly though. For the true old-forum feel we need fewer users with focused interest and threads that last for weeks.

>For the true old-forum feel we need fewer users with focused interest and threads that last for weeks.

There is 4chan.

threads can go for multiple years, if you do it right

Also, old forums didn't organize comments in tree structures, they were just flat chronological comments. This is technically inferior, but it helped keep everyone more focused on a single thread, as it were.

In most forums, one example being DPReview, the user can switch between threaded view and flat view. I choose flat view, because I usually read the whole topic if it interests me and I usually want to read the last updates without having to go trough multiple threads.

Also, flat view, mimics a real discussion between people.

You don't need to go to an unthreaded format, with all the attendant clutter and such, to do that. All you have to do is bubble up threads that have had recent messages to the top. That's why HN doesn't (or at least shouldn't) try something like that: it wouldn't be "Hacker News" anymore, so much as "Hacker Gossip" or whatev.

he's right tho — lack of notifs on HN means you won't know about replies to your comments or new comments in fav threads.

Tell HN: HN Replies is email notifications for comment replies, maintained by Dan Grossman.

https://hnreplies.com/

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=dangrossman

You can make a browser add-on or use a script to keep you in the loop.

Which is to say, always reply within two weeks.

Does anyone know of a thread on HN that survived multiple months?

I do wish more of the younger generation would be willing to hang out on forums/irc/etc. I would not install Facebook even if it cost me friends

Newer generation is on TikTok, not Facebook.

These are anything short videos, but not just the youth it's almost everyone and I have that damn problem

So far none in my social circles uses Tik-Tok, thanks $deity.

Never use Tiktok

We don’t know how old acheong08 is.

I am in the TikTok generation. I just forgot it existed

I was kinda hoping you would turn out to be >85 like my parents so would be saying "young kids like the baby boomers who use Facebook"!

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