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How do you use hacker news?

6 points by andrewtbham ↗ HN
I have never really made any friends online and very rarely have meaningful back and forth with anyone online. So my question is how do you use hacker news? For instance, do you spend more time reading comments or the stories... Have you ever made a meaningful friendship from hacker news or reddit or any other sites like that? do you interact mostly with people you already know in the real world? I feel like I'm missing something.

8 comments

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bartonfink
I spend more time reading comments than stories, and because of that my favorite posts are the "Ask HN:" variety. The userbase here is interesting and intelligent enough to generate content that makes me think.

I have not made friends here, and I don't expect to. Not that people here aren't friendly - indeed, HN is the most civilized discussion group I've seen. Rather, I just don't enjoy making friends for the sake of making friends, and don't go out of my way to add people to my real-world social circle.

I have made one "friend" from the old Joel on Software discussion board. He's a guy who I convinced to take a shot at grad school in computer science after a bachelor's in Chinese didn't take him where he wanted to go. Unfortunately, he lives in LA and I live in Denver, so we haven't met yet - but I would consider him worth meeting in person.

andrewtbham
Yeh i also read more ask hn than stories...
jcr
You make friends by being one.

It's really that simple. The circumstances, places and methods of communication are entirely irrelevant.

atomical
I use it to keep up to date. There may be some obscure (or not!) project detailed here that may benefit me either now or at some later date. A lot of things that are written about here aren't yet stable on the hype curve but it at least provides food for thought.
agnesberthelot
I am very new here and not sure about establishing friendship here. Honestly I don't have a lot of time digging into every piece of news. I think I spend more time reading the comments than the stories themselves ... very often you learn much more reading people's reactions.
t3chg1rl
I'm new here too. I had lurked for awhile but finally made a username. I come here for the particular mix of stories that inevitably interest me, but more for the comments. I don't comment much yet, both because I'm new and also I feel a little intimidated at times - everyone here seems very smart and experienced. I'm intelligent but the experience, well I guess that will change with time. :) I'd like to make friends, I guess we'll see there too.
agnesberthelot
Yeah, I think "intimidated" is the word! Very often, I find others knowing a lot more than I do and talk a lot more intelligently than I do ... but hopefully this will wear off a bit with time.