jonathanrstern

thanks!

There ought to be a dedicated IMDb for podcasts, just as there is one for books

Apple doesn't have a list of the 1,000 best episodes all-time

Apple also doesn't offer any sort of community around individual episodes/shows

Certainly true of many episodes.

But still think there could/should be a top 1,000 all-time list — filterable by category.

Moderately successful but not a smashing hit in my book

That sounds very similar to what we're considering building for v2!

Thanks for such a thoughtful comment. I think I'm going to need to let this one percolate for a while!

Agreed. We'd be happy to host a conversation on that topic!

Culture + Tribalism + Most internet forums reward the opposite (outrage, insults, lack of nuance)

We recognize we're fighting an uphill battle.

Here's why I'm hopeful: All across the web, I see people trying to have conversations. Really trying to engage. I think we just need better platforms. Twitter is good for some things, but it tends to lack nuance and amplify outrage. Reddit is good for other things, but it's noisy.

I may be delusional but I think there's room for another Internet community to emerge. One where nuance, civility, and substance are incentivized and rewarded.

Yep, that's exactly why we haven't pursued something like this in the past... we're still sorting through the logistics!

Thanks for the link for an example of how not to do it!

We'll be sure to make this a top priority. We mean it when we say we're committed to including as many people (and perspectives) as possible, but there is always room for improvement so thank you for bringing this to our attention. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have suggestions for artists, teachers, union members, organizers, members of the working class, local politicians, etc. that you'd like to see on Pairagraph. We would be thrilled to get them involved!

Some people love the current layout; others hate it. I'll confess that at this point we're leaning towards making everything vertical, but there's something I love about the horizontal flow. Really appreciate your feedback.

I think you're right that Pairagraph in its present form probably won't be 'the last word' on a given subject. That may be a point in favor of expanding the format and allowing >2 people per dialogue.

Thanks! I think The Economist used to have a point/counterpoint series. Perhaps FT too.

Couldn't agree more.

We're proud of what we've built with Pairagraph v1, but the conversations are definitely limited by two things: (1) who is involved, and (2) the format: 2 authors, 4 installments, each 500 words, A-B-A-B.

I floated this idea in response to a different comment, but what if we allowed readers to vote on who they'd like to hear from in the future? Or what if we tweaked the format to allow more than 2 authors to participate in a conversation?

I think there's definitely a fun angle to explore here.

Right now, everything is asynchronous. (Authors post at their own convenience.) But I wonder what would happen if we tried to host an event once a week. Something, say, for an hour or two one evening. It could be the top two people in a field, but it'd probably be interesting to bring in a few different types of folks as well.

Right now, the format on Pairagraph is 4 entries, each 500 words, created by alternating authors. But we've recently thought about what it would look like to facilitate dialogues with more than 2 participants.

Do you have any ideas for how contributors might get paid? Could crypto facilitate something like that?

Yes, that would be great! One of our most important short-run goals is to figure out how to increase user engagement. Allowing users to follow dialogues/contributors is definitely one way to do that.

Comment sections are another idea we've had; however, we've noticed that most comment sections tend to degrade quickly. Substack is doing better with a pay-to-comment model, but still, I think we're going to stay away for the time being.

Well, we definitely have a difficult path ahead!

I don't expect platforms like Pairagraph and Letter to change the world over night. But I really do believe that they could have a profound impact. As Carter and I have said in the past, our dream is to live in a society where it is commonplace for people who disagree to make genuine efforts to have conversations with one another. Our goal with Pairagraph is to create a place on the web that facilitates this.

If we get there, it will be inch by inch.

We love Intelligence Squared. It's one of our favorite 'competitors', along with Munk Debates!

You're exactly right: It's not obvious at all that Jason's response is coming soon. And it needs to be. Thanks for the great suggestion.

If there's anything specific you'd like to see on the site, we'd love to know: https://www.pairagraph.com/suggest

A handful of people have used our Suggest page for feedback, but that's not ideal. We'll set something up soon. Thanks for bringing that to our attention.

Also, my email is [email protected]. You're right... we should probably add contact info to the site.

Thanks! 'Voting' is definitely something we've considered, but yeah, I don't think it's the right direction for us at this time.

Hadn't heard of Improve the News... Will definitely take a look!

There are so many fledgling companies out there trying to improve the news, the quality of social media, etc. I really hope at least one of them succeeds!

Building something like this would definitely boost user engagement, which is something we've talked about wanting to do. I just worry that it could turn Pairagraph into something adversarial. At its best, we believe Pairagraph is a place for exploratory conversation rather than debate.

It might be interesting to allow readers to vote on who they'd like to hear from in the future... Maybe that's a way to maintain a high level of dialogue quality while still allowing users to have a say about who and what is discussed on the site. What do you think about that?

Hey HN! I’m Jonathan, co-founder of Pairagraph.

Pairagraph is a platform for written dialogue between pairs of notable individuals—politicians, CEOs, philosophers, novelists, technologists, religious leaders, and more.

We love Twitter, but it can be annoying. It’s loud and noisy, it’s replete with echo chambers, and 280 characters is not enough to make a real argument. Pairagraph is our attempt to push back on these trends and build a proper town square for the digital age.

We’re still fairly new but already have hosted 60+ dialogues, with contributors like Niall Ferguson, Joe Lonsdale, Balaji Srinivasan, Francis Fukuyama, Martin Gurri, and Om Malik.

In the short run we’ve decided to keep our community closed—only certain people are able to participate in dialogues. The idea here is not to exclude anyone but to establish a track record of quality discussion before opening it up. We think that if we start with quality and move gradually to quantity, we’ll have a better shot in the long run of preserving both.

The good news is that we are discussing opening it up, so there is some chance we will do so soon. We're also contemplating allowing dialogues with >2 participants.

To recap: For now, Pairagraph is gated, but we’re wary of elitism and committed to including as many people (and perspectives) as possible. This is also why we have a ‘Suggest’ page on the website for readers who are interested in recommending future authors/topics.

If you’ve read this far, here are a few of our favorite exchanges:

https://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/354c72095d2f42dab92bf427...

https://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/77d7e5451ea3467eaed19686...

https://www.pairagraph.com/dialogue/5e569e6fbc944e998c795028...

Along with adding more content, we’re focused on three things:

(1) Improving retention and expanding reach

(2) Polishing the site’s design/UI. Neither Carter (my co-founder) nor I are expert designers, we’ve done almost all of it ourselves, recognize that it needs help, and are working every day to add polish and professionalism

(3) Eventually turning enough of a profit to make Pairagraph sustainable

That’s our grand vision, but ultimately we’re just two friends from college working on a project that we think matters. What do you think?