News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:The value of not getting to the point (2015) by tyg13 on Thursday October 08, 2026 @04:23PM (#50011637)
I don't think it's that people online need to have more unstructured discussion, or "not get to the point" -- it's that there's no real sense of community in a lot of online spaces. Why would I spend a bunch of time idly having Seinfeldian conversations with strangers with whom I have no rapport or continuity? The vast majority of people who will read my social media comments will be completely invisible to me. All the years of commenting and interacting online have predictably resulted in precisely zero lasting relationships.

If the point of not getting to the point is to build trust, then there has to be a relationship in which that trust is invested. Otherwise, not getting to the point is just more invitation for someone to take issue or dismiss what you're saying, to divert the discussion, or to completely miss the actual points you want to discuss.

Re:The value of not getting to the point (2015) by dale_glass on Thursday October 08, 2026 @04:35PM (#50011831)
It worked quite well for me!

The trick though is to gravitate towards places where there is a community and where you end up talking to a few of the same people. HN's probably not going to be it, an IRC channel, Discord, forum, etc, where you keep talking to the same dozen regulars is much better.

Re:The value of not getting to the point (2015) by bluefirebrand on Thursday October 08, 2026 @05:15PM (#50012408)
I had so many good times doing this when I was younger, on IRC and Forums back in the late 90s, early 00s. I haven't had much luck since then though unfortunately.

Any advice for finding the smaller communities? I've been trying to join larger more public communities to make the initial connections with people but mostly I find that they are either ghost towns with thousands of people but no one is active, or they are so active it's just noise that no one is really keeping up with

Re:The value of not getting to the point (2015) by 20after4 on Thursday October 08, 2026 @07:46PM (#50014032)
Find a really niche subject, project or activity.
Re:The value of not getting to the point (2015) by Jbird2k on Friday October 09, 2026 @09:45AM (#50020476)
I’ve found such places on Telegram but that platform seems to be loosing popularity. It also has been overrun with unsavoury characters.