Ask HN: Why is there so little programming related content on HN?

Re:Ask HN: Why is there so little programming related conten... by michaelt on Monday February 05, 2018 @05:21AM (#16307857)

HN suffers the same problems that almost all voting-to-rank-submissions based social media websites suffer.

Namely, because each user gets one vote, having 100 users want to give your post 1 point is more valuable than having 10 users want to give your post 10 points.

As long as you've got enough technical depth that people will give you 1 point, it's appealing to a broad audience, not catering better to a core audience, that will get you to the front page.

Hence, there's no room on the HN front page for an article that turns a 9/10 Whatever user into a 10/10 Whatever user - only for articles turning a non-user into a 2/10 user, with little to interest a 9/10 user.

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Re:Ask HN: Why is there so little programming related conten... by chx on Monday February 05, 2018 @05:50AM (#16307965)

Very often this is true for books as well. There is way more market for a book which starts you on an application or language. But if you are very deeply into a topic, getting to the next level won't be a book. It'll be blog posts, Stackoverflow, blood, sweat and tears. I haven't bought a book since the 3rd ed of Chris Date: SQL and Relational Theory (but that's a very useful book!).

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Re:Ask HN: Why is there so little programming related conten... by walterbell on Monday February 05, 2018 @07:30AM (#16308368)

Do conference presentations/papers help people who are deeply into a topic? F2F with mentors? Would you pay for expert/advanced content development, e.g. crowdfund in your niche? Alternately, would you contribute expert-level content to a crowdfunded book?

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Re:Ask HN: Why is there so little programming related conten... by chx on Monday February 05, 2018 @04:37PM (#16312445)

I would absolutely pay, through the nose, for a good treatise on more advanced SQL techniques like (recursive) CTEs.

And also, I would contribute in depth Drupal topics, I already wrote two chapters of Bookzilla (aka. The Definitive Guide to Drupal 7) and also wrote countless articles in the nineties, I've been a columnist later an editor of the biggest computer monthly in Hungary.

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Re:Ask HN: Why is there so little programming related conten... by dwcnnnghm on Monday February 05, 2018 @11:59AM (#16310104)

Do you have thoughts about possible remedies for this? I believe that HN has a great voting structure compared to other similar sites (for example, Reddit); though there is, as you point out, obvious room for improvement.

Would a supplementary AI system help? Maybe a simple "random sprinkling" of New/Rising posts on the front page(s)? Or do you think there should be a completely new ranking system altogether?

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