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8 pointsvolida7 comments

Excellent. To me, the real value (or potential value) of this site lays in the discussions centering around the links, rather than the links themselves, so I'll probably be using this as the default view from now on.

Might be an idea to make this view contribute 25% to the ranking of the main view as well? Quite a few decent discussions with few votes have popped up, so it might be a good idea.

'... To me, the real value (or potential value) of this site lays in the discussions centering around the links, rather than the links themselves, ...'

yes exactly. but alas it never seems to happen. the links are really just points of interest that attract good ideas, comments or insight. This was the heart of slashdot, perlmonks et., al.

I don't trawl sites for links, I trawl them for the "insight, opinions and ideas on the links".

On the positive side though, I do believe it will only take a few tweaks to the site (for instance adding active discussions to the weighting that determines the front page order) and maybe 30-40 regular contributers to get the critical mass for discussions going. I've noticed regular contributors such as Alex3917, python_kiss, rms and danielha (and of course pg) are constantly making valuable comments, just a few more guys like them and I think we'll be set.

'... On the positive side though ...'

I'm not being negative, just accepting the reality of the situation. You can't change human nature.

The system will always be playing catch-up using algorythms against people who want to hack with the system. I'm not saying this is a problem now but it might pay to think what happens the first time 'news.yc' gets slashdotted & overrun with the /. goths, vandels & huns.

It pays to think how can the software be written to enforce the culture? 'Artifacts of initial design' will have effects on future user interaction? [0]

'... I do believe it will only take a few tweaks to the site (for instance adding active discussions to the weighting that determines the front page order) and maybe 30-40 regular contributers to get the critical mass for discussions going. ...'

They have already started :)

'... I've noticed regular contributors such as Alex3917, python_kiss, rms and danielha (and of course pg) are constantly making valuable comments, just a few more guys like them and I think we'll be set. ...'

No. It was an interesting listen to Joshua Schacter at Startup school [1] talking about the energy required to counter the noise. But this a positive story The best thing aside from the comments to come out of YCNews may be the tools, algorythms developed, created to manage the sig to noise problems that will occur.

Reference

[0] Joshua Schacter, 'Startup School talk'

http://notelab.infogami.com/startupschool2006

[Accessed Thursday, 22 March 2007]

[1] Joshua Schacter, 'YC VC presentation, APR 2006'

http://wiki.ycombinator.com/presentations/apr06/Joshua_Schacter.mp3

[Accessed Thursday, 22 March 2007]

I've been using this page pretty often for the last couple days and it's worked well. Will we see a link on the the main page soon, Paul?

Maybe, but there may be better ways of showing the same info.

hey, can we add this to the top nav bar so I don't have to bookmark it separately?

and maybe show on the listing page how long ago the last comment was?

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