Ask HN: Is HN Still Relevant? Why or Why Not? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is HN Still Relevant? Why or Why Not?

3 pointsrockyperezz9 comments

Many people have told me to get on HN as they claim the visibility is great for up-and-coming projects.

However, I usually see the good stuff on here barely makes the top. I thought they would have put better safeguards in place to prevent manufactured upvotes/engagement.

To those who regularly use HN, do you still find it useful or relevant? And what's the best way to make use of this space?

Thanks

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I think you answered your own question - if you personally feel that the content here that gets voted to the top is not what you would have put there, then HN is not relevant to you. It is certainly relevant to those who agree with the content that makes it to the top.

But the question is completely subjective. If you personally find value in the content shared on HN, great. If not, that is fine too. But if your goal is to use HN to build visibility of your own product and content, that might be a flawed approach. HN is good for feedback and critique, not for marketing your work.

thanks. that's a great way of putting it. Especially about it being a good place for feedback and critique (vs marketing as an intent).

HN can't have the qualities "relevant" or "useful." Those words describe individual and subjective judgments of the site's content. Since HN consists of an ever-growing pile of loosely-related articles and links, I don't think you can make meaningful judgments about the site as a whole.

I find enough content on HN that seems relevant or useful to me, so I continue scanning through it. Based on the frequency of posts and lively comment threads I think many other people also find the site relevant and useful, to them.

true. I think that was what threw me off in the beginning - it being a potluck of random article, sites, info, and news that didn't have the organization/categorization present in other types of community-driven sites. I will explore it a bit more, as I have found useful and interesting topics to me, they just usually are further down the list (kinda like nuggets of gold imo). thanks for the insight!

"And what's the best way to make use of this space?"

Read it once a day whilst you are in a meeting that you have nothing/not much to contribute to or takeaway from ;)

ahahah. nice one! I mostly use it to fill voids of time instead of engaging in social media "doom scrolling".

What would be example of good stuff that does not get to the top?

to some, i guess. i like the tech news, but i gave up applying to yc haha.

oh no! why'd you give up though? you can always try again (with better metrics/proof of concept), no?

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