Propose HN: "Who Is Hiring" became too crowded. Set Karma Threshold. | Hacker News Reader

Propose HN: "Who Is Hiring" became too crowded. Set Karma Threshold.

8 pointsexim9 comments

I think HNers here are interested in job postings by HNers. "Who Is Hiring" became too crowded by throwaway/single-msg-poster users/recruiters.

I propose to set some karma threshold for top-level posts (jobs). For comments it is OK.

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There's this perception, and I saw it on Slashdot, Plastic.com, Kuro5hin and plenty of other sites back in the day, that sites should stay how they are. It doesn't happen. Even if you stopped having new members here, people change. It's a community site. It serves the community, but as the community changes, so will the site.

Don't try to make Hacker News serve your own needs by trying to restrict aspects to old hands. I've seen it tried, and it works, but the more restrictions, the quicker the community moves on to somewhere else.

Instead, find ways the site can help you even as it changes, and try to make it better, instead of keeping it good. If something else can help you more, find it, or build it (your a hacker, after all).

I will say that I do know one thing that seems to have worked fairly well in terms of keeping a site working, but that may be more because of the nature of the site, and the nature of the people, and less because of the restriction. Metafilter charges a one time fee for new members.

I think you might find that someone without a job is interested in jobs from any source. Having a crowded job board is not a bad thing. If you think some of them are fake or scams, you should vote them down or point it out.

Then there will be no difference from other crowded IT job boards. Personally I prefer existence of more unique job boards with their individual characteristics. It is way more easy to find your "dream job".

>> I think you might find that someone without a job is interested in jobs from any source

Totally agree about that

And since the thread frequently gets posts for atleast 2-3 days after it's created, I make use of the upvotes to keep track of the postings. I upvote the posts once I've read them. So the next time I visit, I can just skim to find unread posts.

There's nothing special about the "Who's Hiring" threads. They're not even officially sanctioned. Somebody just posts a thread with that title at the beginning of each month, and since HN happens to be a good place to hire from, people post positions they have open. Any karma limit there would have to apply to all posts unless PG decided to make them an official thing.

The Jobs tab is something different — it's for job listings by YC companies, each listing gets its own post, and you can't comment on those at all.

Actually, as I'm aware, it is posted automatically by bot (I suppose).

As the site grows in popularity and 'Who's Hiring' grows with it, the quality/quantity issue will only grow with it.

I'm a fan of the thread however I think it has a limited lifespan in its current format.

I'm going to shamelessly self-promote http://www.hackerjobs.co.uk. Tons of HN users advertise their roles with us and to date HN is our number 1 traffic source. Consider it a UK-centric version of 'who's hiring' except prettier and searchable.

What about an account age threshold instead? Sort of like the /classic link.

I think this is a better idea. I've been lurking HN for a year or two but only made an account around 4 months ago and to date only have one post (this is my 2nd!). I'm willing to bet there are many other individuals hiring who browse HN like I do :)

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