354 sats \ 4 replies \ @elvismercury 14 Apr \ on: About mostly_harmless
You already know who I am, but I like your site! Cool vibe. Also an interesting idea to have comments pipe to SN -- I had suggested an idea of allowing SN comments on blogs, sort of like how Disqus used to do it before it turned into bullshit spam farming; but maybe this is close to as good.
This is a very powerful idea, and an optimistic one. If you're focused on being yourself and the things you care about, it inherently keeps you from having to get competitive with others. You're walking your own road and don't need to be threatened or upset by what others are doing. You don't need to be trapped by scarcity.
Easier said than done, but I think about it a lot.
Also an interesting idea to have comments pipe to SN -- I had suggested an idea of allowing SN comments on blogs, sort of like how Disqus used to do it before it turned into bullshit spam farming; but maybe this is close to as good.
Yes! I was thinking about this ever since I created my first blog post. We also have a very old ticket about it. I am planning to use my site as a testbed for this.
This is also related to me struggling with the question if I should just post a link with no context, copy the markdown content in here or do a 50/50: post the first half but then a "read more" with a link to my site.
The reason is that I like to show off my own site where I am in full control but I also know that stackers like to stay on SN.
But I think we shouldn't expect that people who already have their own sites copy-paste their content into SN. I think SN should embrace that people have their own sites like via embedded comments. I want to see original sites, not just original content!
Also, iirc, the original problem with contextless links was cheap behavior from people who posted links to content from other people, not to their own content.
I simply posted a link then since I also didn't like that I even have to think about this. I think that's a sign that a cult is forming, lol.
Easier said than done, but I think about it a lot.
Yes, the old tale of "jUsT bE yOuRseLf", lol. It's true but it's often very unhelpful and can make you feel even worse since it sounds so easy. But I think the problem is that people don't know who they are. How should they be themselves when they don't know what that means?
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Yes, the old tale of "jUsT bE yOuRseLf", lol. It's true but it's often very unhelpful and can make you feel even worse since it sounds so easy. But I think the problem is that people don't know who they are. How should they be themselves when they don't know what that means?
When I think about it there's an additional wrinkle -- it's not just "be whoever you happen to be, you special snowflake" but rather: you are a person with a very distinct configuration, and if you find ways in which that configuration can find a place in the world, nobody will be able to out-you you.
One additional wrinkle, though (there are two wrinkles, apparently) is that you -- whoever you happen to be -- isn't static. You can add things to your self, and refine it. That's the vibe underlying this post, actually -- what is it, exactly, that we should add or change?
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But I think we shouldn't expect that people who already have their own sites copy-paste their content into SN. I think SN should embrace that people have their own sites like via embedded comments. I want to see original sites, not just original content!
This is a very interesting idea -- it's like a more nuanced way for SN to inhabit the ecosystem: not all or nothing (either on SN or not) but little slices of SN projecting into the world in all these different ways. That's a cool vision. I wonder what the implications are?
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Hacker News biases it algorithm to favor external links (according to a tweet awhile ago by pg that I can't find). @kr and I discussed this recently. It's like the difference between an inside joke and one that's appealing more generally. It also lines up with dang's thoughts on what makes for interesting internet discussions, specifically that "generic discussion is not interesting, at least not on internet forums."
These days there should probably be some demotion for links to paywalls and trackers and pages with ads, favoring personal blogs and the small web.
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