Invite only Hacker News.

Posted by July2008 on Wednesday May 07, 2008 @02:07PM
from the self-post dept.

I think the quality of Hackers News posts has been changing for while now. This is very normal given that the site is growing, and the audience is more diversified. I remember when HN was still a few weeks old, and I can tell you my experience back then and now is completely different. I think they are key players here and people who are really interested in learning/sharing and not just ranting. Thus I proposed a closed for-ever-invite-only HN. The top leaders on this site would be automatically subscribed and given each permission to invite (with limits). I am frankly not sure I will be invited myself, but I would certainly love to and I would be appreciative that a group of smart individuals think I can add value to their "secret" community.

Disclosure: This is no attempt to start a New World Order or Some Tech Masons...but it is an attempt to gather like minded highly intelligent intellectuals who love to observe, analyze and resolve different problems using technology

( 12 comments | 2 points | on HN )

Re:Invite only Hacker News. by pg on Wednesday May 07, 2008 @02:29PM (#183665)

Going invite-only is a retreat. I'd rather just make/keep the main site good.

It doesn't seem to me the stories are any worse now than they were at first. The quality went down a bit a few weeks ago when we were mentioned on Techcrunch and got a lot of new users, but it seems back up now. I suppose I should write something to display the top stories from the past to make sure this is true.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Invite only Hacker News. by mixmax on Wednesday May 07, 2008 @03:42PM (#183773)

I think everything is just fine. I take away a lot of good stuff from this board everyday, and get good intelligent responses from other users. And this is probably the only place I have ever encountered where people willingly admit their mistakes and change their views if they are intelligently countered. This is a very good thing.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Invite only Hacker News. by Alex3917 on Wednesday May 07, 2008 @02:27PM (#183652)

People just need to use the down arrow more. Good writing should say something worth saying about something worth saying something about. If you think there is a signal:noise problem then just start downvoting every comment that you're not a better person for having read. This goes more for root comments than for replies deep in a thread, which I don't think need to be held to quite the same standard for a variety of reasons.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Invite only Hacker News. by bigtoga on Wednesday May 07, 2008 @03:18PM (#183748)

Most people don't have that option though, do they?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Invite only Hacker News. by breily on Wednesday May 07, 2008 @03:47PM (#183779)

I believe everyone over 25 karma can downvote - I would guess that'd be most people.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Invite only Hacker News. by noodle on Thursday May 08, 2008 @01:58PM (#184791)

i can't downvote articles. only comments. and i have well over 25 karma.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Invite only Hacker News. by breily on Thursday May 08, 2008 @06:06PM (#185034)

I believe the parent and parent's parent were talking about comments - I don't know if anyone can downvote articles.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Invite only Hacker News. by bridgetroll on Wednesday May 07, 2008 @03:18PM (#183746)

I'm new here. I don't know anyone. I found HN purely by accident on a google search. I get a lot out of this site and am trying to contribute constructively.

I apologize if I'm pointing out the obvious but a major risk of making HN a gated community is blocking out new ideas and prospective startup hackers.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Invite only Hacker News. by prakash on Wednesday May 07, 2008 @02:16PM (#183629)

Funny you say this, what made you come up with this idea?

Interestingly, a few members from the old Joel on Software forum started such a closed community to share, interact and keep a much higher signal/noise ratio, and people were usually more honest since it was a closed, invite only forum.

This sure would be an interesting experiment.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Invite only Hacker News. by epi0Bauqu on Wednesday May 07, 2008 @03:13PM (#183742)

All the statements about Hacker News quality going down hill I have seen have been anecdotal. I would like to see actual evidence, or at least a list of tens of stories that made the front page that people think are not worthy of being there.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Invite only Hacker News. by babul on Thursday May 08, 2008 @08:44AM (#184436)

I have been rading HN for a while and finally decided to participate after several friends got in YC (07, 08).

I don't agree with invite only but do think there should be greater seperation of topics.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Invite only Hacker News. by noodle on Wednesday May 07, 2008 @02:12PM (#183621)

/signed

[ Parent | on HN ]