HN Explorer

Ask HN: What about Think HN?

42 points by netgusto ↗ HN
Often times when I have an idea about something I dare not submit it on "Ask HN".

The reason for that is that I noticed that the tone of answers on Ask HN is mainly affirmative and definitive for the person writing an answer.

Which makes it up for good debates about stuff, but not so much for constructive exchanges about burgeoning ideas.

Wouldn't it be a good idea then to normalize some "Think HN" side channel, where ideas would be constructed together rather than assessed and answered ?

11 comments

[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 30.4 ms ] thread
gtirloni
It can be frustrating if you're trying to have a conversation in a relaxed way, not so much proving your idea's worth (or yourself). That will invite thoughtful commenters but also haters and very critical people that aren't trying to contribute to your success... But that's life.

Just post as "Ask HN" and clarify you haven't finalized your ideas and that you're looking for constructive feedback.

Using prefix "Think HN" Looks like a good idea as a way to signal that but I'm afraid it would lose its appeal quickly.

IMHO, it's better to carefully craft your "Ask HN" submission in a way that invites the most useful feedback... And just ignore the rest.

rayalez
Could you just write and submit a short blog post? If people are interested they'll discuss and contribute.
matte_black
IMO this is hackernews, not hackerchat. If you want a place where people can discuss something that is not anchored around some kind of news, then you need to find another platform. I don’t even like AskHN for this reason.
rocky1138
I started KW Hackers for this reason and also as a springboard for Kitchener/Waterloo Canada hackers to share neat new stuff that they've built. You are more then welcome to join. It's a GNU Social instance, so it's part of the fediverse.

https://kwat.chat

ploggingdev
I don't think that's a good fit for HN. A chat room format might make more sense and I'm actually trying to build something similar to what you described : a chat room to discuss anything related to tech and startups. It's appropriately called Hackers Chat [0]. It's currently a single chat room, but I'll be adding support for user created chat rooms and try to become "Discord for cryptocurrencies".

[0] https://www.hackerschat.net/

rapnie
given your interest for cryptocurrencies, shouldn't you make this a decentralized app.. or is it?

but then it would be like Mastodon and already exists :)

ploggingdev
It's not decentralized, just a simple website built using Django. The idea is to host chat rooms for people (including non-technical folks) who are interested in cryptocurrencies. I'm still figuring out how to differentiate my website from Discord/Gitter.im and one of the ideas I'm considering is to have widgets that display the prices for btc, eth etc.

> but then it would be like Mastodon and already exists :)

Yup, IRC and Mastadon and a whole lot of other services exist but they are not easy to use for non-technical people. Web based chat is much easier to use.

ju-st
i think a HN Discord server would be cool for stuff like this
zer0th
I've been thinking about something like this years ago. Basically I wanted to implement de Bono's "Six Thinking Hats" as a website that would assist an individual to work through a problem with the help of a community. So a user would not state his problem to wait for complete solutions suggested by others. Instead, s/he'd, for example, try to explain what s/he wants to achieve and ask for strategies. The community would then suggest some options ("yellow hat thinking"). Next, the community could weed out bad options ("black hat thinking"). If there were any ideas left one could ask how everyone feels emotionally about the remaining options ("red hat thinking") and then pick the most popular one. In a next step, they could brainstorm creative ideas to mitigate possible problems with the chosen option ("green hat thinking"). Afterwards the OP could summarize the outcome and state what s/he is going to do. If after a while some more thinking turns out to be required one could continue the process again. For instance, you could discuss how to deal with unforeseen challenges or - if the chosen option turns out to be futile - investigate one of the other suggestions in more detail And so on and so forth ...

However, I worried that most people would not have the time/patience to really get involved with a problem. Furthermore, the process might be to cumbersome and rational for real world problems.

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