HN Explorer

Poll: Cultures of HN

4 points by 8organicbits ↗ HN
I'd like to understand what cultural biases exist on HN. Can you share which region of the world you culturally associate with the most? This could be where you were born, where you lived the longest, or something else that makes sense to you.

Also, if you'd like to see the most results please consider up-voting this poll. Filling the poll doesn't automatically up-vote.

6 comments

[ 2.5 ms ] story [ 28.6 ms ] thread
meheleventyone
You’re probably aware but this is going to be horribly biased by the timezone it gets posted in.
defrost
If I identify with North American culture - does that mean the one homogenous culture of the USofA with it's single language and ethnic back ground*, the culture of Canada, that of Mexico, or one of the other 20 countries that form North America?

( all of these, of course, culturally homogenous )

* this is of course heavy with the /s

Is it culture you're attempting to track here, or merely a very rough geographic background?

8organicbits
I'd love to talk about culture, but listing every option I can think of will either be too long, omit too many, or everyone will answer "two or more".

I was struck by some recent comments that suggested HN was more heavily US-biased than I expected. Quantifying, even roughly, what cultures HN commenters are familiar with may shine some light on the voices we're not hearing.

smt88
This isn't going to tell you anything because it's way, way too broad and grouped haphazardly by landmasses rather than human demographics.

Asia by itself is literally 60% of the world, with hundreds of languages and thousands of distinct cultures. Sub-Saharan Africa is another 15%, so you're lumping 3/4 of the world (and more than half its countries) into just two groups.

And then there's... Australia/Oceania, which is 0.6% of the world's population.

What are the "cultural biases" of Asia, exactly? Or South America, for that matter? Why would Panama be lumped in with Canada and not Peru? Which option are Russians supposed to select?

8organicbits
Totally open to criticism, polls always need to balance completeness, clarity, and effort. What approach do you think would work better?

I notice that Asia is currently at one vote. Lower than the much less populous Australia/Oceania. If that trend sticks, I think it's meaningful.

Re. Russia, I suspect Western Russia would select Europe and Eastern would select Asia. As much as possible, I'd like the commenters to decide which feels right to them.

smt88
> What approach do you think would work better?

There is no approach that will give meaningful data on HN. There are multiple reasons.

1. Most users won't be interested in completing the poll even if they see it.

2. Stories have short periods of high visibility unless they are highly upvoted, so your poll was visible for likely just a few minutes before getting buried. This means your results are highly dependent on time zones.

> If that trend sticks, I think it's meaningful.

It's not for the above reasons. Your sample size is absolutely tiny, limited to a brief (and time-sensitive) window, and based on flawed questioning. I suspect a large percentage of HN users are of Asian descent, with varying degrees of Asian culture lingering in their lives, but live in North America and associate themselves with it. I am one of those people, for example.

> What approach do you think would work better?

You're asking about culture using geography. I have a devout Muslim friend who would identify most closely with North America, where he was born and raised. His response would tell you nothing about cultural biases on HN.

If you want to know about cultural biases, ask about them directly. A poll titled something like, "What are your biases?" might be provocative enough to hit the front page.