HN Explorer

Anyone interested in starting an HN blog network?

46 points by hotmind ↗ HN
I notice there are a lot of insightful, readable blogs from the HN clan.

I'm thinking our blogs should join forces into one giant armada. We'll bum rush the other big blog networks.

What do you people say about it?

36 comments

[ 1.7 ms ] story [ 76.9 ms ] thread
aymeric
Love the idea. Something like liferemix.net.

Not all posts should be aggregated. There must be a manual filter in my opinion.

hotmind
I agree wholeheartedly.
hotmind
Any submissions to this new blog empire can be sent to bookmarkbroker@gmail.com, or leave a comment and link below.

If we get a good response, we should get a team together to make this happen.

Rhapso
I just submitted almost the same idea 20 minutes after you, without reading this post. I think it is a great idea!
arvinjoar
Ideas are worthless without good execution. ;)
Rhapso
I disagree, for without ideas there would be no executions. while they might have low value, they do in fact have a value of some type.
_exec
Love it. I'll keep an eye on this thread for updates.
thomasreggi
This morning I was thinking wouldn't it be great if we had a yay query / diggnation style audio or video podcast breaking down the top stories on hackernews weekly or daily. Has this ever been done successfully? Would y-combiner get mad? If your interested in making a pilot episode, see where it goes let me know. talktr@gmail.com twitter@thomasreggi or cmt with your info.
miguelpais
You would need a large group of different skilled people to be able to do it successfully in a way that good points about the stories arise in the show, given the broad range of different kinds of topics that get submitted to HN.

But for that you already have the comments on HN, so it would have to add something more.

Maybe teaching something, or adding new comments from people that did not comment the story but are able to make some good points...

It would be nice if well thought...

alec
I ran the left fold (http://foldl.org) for several months; it focused on the top technical stories from places like here. It was popular (a few thousand readers each week), but I didn't have time to continue it, and to be honest, the material gets very repetitive when you look at it hard each week to hand-pick articles.
adrianwaj
How about a group posterous blog?
olalonde
Or maybe a blog à la alistapart.com but for hackers.
aristus
alistapart is not a group blog; it's run actually quite like a print publication, with copy editors, style guides, high expectations and 5-month (!) lead times between submission and publication. Aside from being published on the web it is nothing like a blog.
jaxn
I hear Dustin Curtis has one we can use ;)
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sivers
Why?

1. to put ads on the giant armada site and collectively make a little money?

2. to make sure your blog posts are read by people of like-minds?

It seems that Hacker News is already taking care of #2, so is the only reason #1?

I'd be glad to cross-post to the giant armada when they seem of interest to other hackers/entrepreneurs. But I'll still be posting everything on my own site.

This is what I do at MusicThinkTank - maybe a similar idea. Example: http://www.musicthinktank.com/blog/after-15-years-of-practic...

There my music-focused posts get another audience that isn't checking my own personal site.

But then, if there was a Hacker News type site for “music think tank” type people, there wouldn't be a need for musicthinktank.com.

So is it just for the money?

chime
I think a filtered/non-spammy PlanetHackerNews would be a good idea. It would include RSS from people like PG, you, Patrick, DGG etc. When I'm in the mood to read good article, I just go there and read it. Each of those blog entries links back to the original site comments and hopefully the HN thread. That way if I miss a really good HN discussion on some article you wrote because I was busy working that day, I still get to catch up on the article + discussion later at my disposal.

As a reader, I don't care how much money any of the syndicated bloggers make or don't make. Sure, I could just add you guys to my RSS readers but that means I have to find all the good hackers and manually deal with subscription etc. Plus I lose on the HN discussions. A PlanetHackerNews would take care of that. Hell, if someone makes it work well, I'll pay $5/month for it.

nuclear_eclipse
I'm doing exactly this. PlanetHN.com is officially registered. Will keep status updated. No Ads, No Fees.
nuclear_eclipse
Officially accepting nominations for blogs to aggregate.
hotmind
I didn't think that far. I had the idea and immediately threw it out to the HN community.

I'm going to look at the possibilities and let the business model organically arise from that.

First thing first is deciding on a platform.

hotmind
I'm getting a lot of submissions via the bookmarkbroker@gmail.com email. I will review everything and respond to all emails.

Please allow me some time to look at the possibilities. If you are willing to invest time, resources and especially technical programming skills to this venture, communicate this to me in the email above.

Oh yes, and Thank You to everyone who has replied to this thread.

rmc
Set up your own blog planet software and add RSS feeds for things you're interested in. You don't need to ask people if they like it. Just do it yourself. If people like it they will ready it. After a while you will know from your visitor count if people like your idea.
sum1changdmypwd
It would be great if such a network helped startup entrepreneurs earn money through writing articles. It could mean giving technical / business advice to other people, or just doing reporting on the industry and markets within it.
ramchip
How about a "Hackers ring"? You'd have a "Hacker news" rotating gif picture on your page, with arrows that would point towards the next or previous homepage in the ring. You could also click on the gif to get the whole list. :)
ddrager
This is brilliant! I'll make a web page on Geocities to advertise it. Just got this cool animated gif of an "Under construction" sign emailed to me on my Hotmail account, will be sure to include that on the page as well.
jaxn
Sounds great!

That reminds me, I HAVE to forward you this hilarious email I got from my Aunt. Just make sure you really read all the way to the bottom.

callahad
Looks like user nuclear_eclipse just snagged PlanetHN.com and has it pointing toward a Linode VM. Hoping something awesome comes of this... :)
pg
What is a blog network?
aristus
It's like a webring, but with blogs. :D
adrianwaj
Check out http://roomcu.slinkset.com/ - all these users were part of a friendfeed room I used to run.

-- The best idea I can think of is this group blog I just setup: http://hackerbra.in (hackerbrain.com) and somehow populate it with the best hacker blog posts. It might have to be like Hacker Monthly, with someone spending time grabbing the best posts from a given set of blogs, and ask permission each time to cross post.

Zakuzaa
Introducing the first blog -- LOLhackers.com

:)