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Ask HN: Why no tags on HN? Is there a 3rd party HN index with subject tags?

27 points by qwerty456127 ↗ HN
I often find myself willing to look at a list of everything that was posted on HN on a particular subject. E.g. machine learning, neuroscience, privacy, education, Android or whatever... Is there such a list somewhere?

27 comments

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capocannoniere
Tagger News might be what you're looking for: https://www.taggernews.com/

It was a TC Disrupt hackathon project that generates tags using AI, and seems to still be functional.

gnulinux
Wow it's classifier looks very accurate. I think everything on the front page had nonsensical tags as of right now.
qwerty456127
Thanks. Looks exactly what I'm looking. Just sad the set of tags is so humble.
PurpleRamen
Humble is bit of an understatement. Enough of them are just assigned wrong.
iamben
I'm glad there's no obvious tagging on the front / new pages. I open way more links because something sounds interesting in the title. I'm sure if there was tags it'd bias my clicking...
amelius
Funny that you say "machine learning", because that's exactly what you can use to replace tags with.
qwerty456127
I know but I find it rational to check if there actually isn't a sufficiently good implementation of your idea already before you start "inventing a bicycle".
screye
This may sound snobbish, but I love the barebones design of HN.

Makes it very inaccessible, and the only ones who stay are those that really want the content.

Acts like an artificial barrier that keeps the more trigger happy out.

arthurcolle
Excuse my simple mind, but how would that possibly sound snobbish?
screye
Because the UI is innately designed to be exclusive and not inclusive, and I would like for it to stay that way.

The implication here is there are certain well intentioned people who the community would rather not have on HN.

Clearly only tech-savvy people and those with a knack for sticking with things with a learning curve would stay on HN.

This makes the nature on discussion here wired towards people of that kind. These people (for better or for worse) on an average tend to take questions at face value and answer them than assume an ulterior motive behind an opinionated comment.

I like that about HN, and would not want it to become like other internet comment threads.

hluska
That's a very kind, respectful answer. I'm only a sample of one, but I feel you'd have to work hard to actually sound snobbish. Great writing! :)
screye
> Great writing!

You have no idea how much this compliment means to me.

I have a bad habit of being long winded in the way I write and speak.

Part of it is learning English as a 2nd language (only sort of), and using it mainly during class speeches and debates.

I am glad my writing style isn't a road block to getting my point across. :)

Thank you.

hluska
That's quite amazing - you write like a native English speaker. I would not have imagined that English is your second language! Very, very impressive work and you should be quite proud of yourself.
krapp
There's nothing particularly "exclusive and not inclusive" about Hacker News' UI, it's just a basic forum. If it only offered an API and required users to write their own clients, you might have a point about it filtering out nontechnical users who are willing to deal with a learning curve, but literally anyone who uses the web knows what they need to to use this site - type into a textbox, push a button.

4chan has an equally simplistic layout with arguably more of a learning curve than here, yet its culture doesn't have the qualities you describe.

The inverse correlation you're trying to draw between the simplicity of a site's layout and the intelligence of its userbase appears to be contradicted by lobste.rs, a more deeply technically oriented forum than Hacker News, which uses tags. Also by simply reading most threads here, you'll find little more depth or intellectual insight to them than a similar thread on Reddit might provide.

beatgammit
lobster.rs requires an invite, no? I know it's not hard to get one, but that's an actual step you have to take in order to engage, which keeps the lazy out.

The same thing goes for HN. Why would you go through the effort to make an account for an ugly site when there are better looking options available (Reddit, Facebook, etc)?

Yes, it doesn't have much to do with intelligence, but it certainly drives away many of the people who would otherwise make low-effort submissions. In fact, I wish it were even _more_ barebones (e.g. remove the user points in the corner).

I used to think HN should have more features, but then I used Reddit and came back wanting fewer features. I like how it's simultaneously inclusive (anyone can create an account) and exclusive (somewhat ugly, no memes).

krapp
>Why would you go through the effort to make an account for an ugly site when there are better looking options available (Reddit, Facebook, etc)?

The effort is minimal, and I don't think most people choose whether or not to join a site based on how pretty it is. Just look at Craigslist for instance.

>but it certainly drives away many of the people who would otherwise make low-effort submissions.

I don't think there are actually a lot of people being turned away from Hacker News because of the layout who otherwise might join if it had more features. Remember that the entire pool of potential users for Hacker News includes anyone who even knows that it exists -- this is not a mainstream site and it doesn't have a lot of exposure outside of technical circles. No one browsing the main subreddits or Twitter or Facebook is likely to ever see it even mentioned.

That an "ugly" layout keeps low-effort users away seems to be a common belief and I think it's one espoused by pg, but the claim seems a bit like that made of a tiger repelling rock ... the only "evidence" that it works being the absence of any tigers.

Although... Hacker News has plenty of low-effort submissions, and people who complain about it "turning into Reddit," which was once cited as a "common semi-noob delusion" in the site guidelines, it's such a common occurrence.

qwerty456127
>Why would you go through the effort to make an account for an ugly site when there are better looking options available (Reddit, Facebook, etc)?

IMHO HN looks and feels a way better than Reddit and Facebook is just complete crap.

DoreenMichele
Presumably, that's a factor. But I doubt it is the entire explanation.
xfitm3
My same argument for IRC over Slack.
DoreenMichele
There's a search box at the bottom of the page. Have you tried that?
cmroanirgo
For what it's worth, I prefer it without such lists. Although HN has guidelines on what are acceptable posts, I like the fact that quirky, interesting and completely irrelevant posts occasionally make it through.

If HN had sub-lists, I'd feel compelled to use them, and I'd miss out on a whole bunch of things.

I also agree that keeping a simple UI is what helps keep, in part, HN exactly what it is.

piocho
I prefer to not have tags on HM. -> Keep It Simple