Comment by sillysaurusx
3 years ago
It’s already been around since 2007. How many decades does HN need to be around before people realize it’s an institution?
3 years ago
It’s already been around since 2007. How many decades does HN need to be around before people realize it’s an institution?
The reason it's an institution is because it hasn't been bought by some corp trying to squeeze value out of eyeballs, which is why it hasn't really changed much.
However, it takes money and time to keep it around in a not for profit way, so it will be an institution as long as it's funding is the same.
Yeah I really hope that if Ycombinator ever wants to pull out, that they don't sell it but let the community pull together to support it. I'd gladly donate to keep it running as it is.
It would be even better if they just keep doing it as they are though <3
Considering the hardware it's running on, it wouldn't cost much to keep it running.
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Slashdot has been around since 1997 and people still rave about its moderation system today. However, while I have high hopes for HN, it could very well go the way of digg overnight
I doubt that though. Digg was hyped way too much and the inevitable decline that comes after a hype killed it. Some things are good enough to survive that phase but Digg wasn't. HN never had a hype phase, just slow but strong & steady growth. And not growing too much either.
It seems the perfect circumstances to really last. It doesn't have an invasive business model, or investors screaming for ROI either. That's the kind of thing that often leads to user-hostile changes that so often start the decline into oblivion.
Also, I would imagine it's pretty cheap to host, after all it's all very simple text, I don't think it hosts any pictures beside the little Ycombinator logo in the corner :)
Change of ownership is inevitable, as people don't live forever. When that happens, if the new owners aren't interested or motivated to keep funding HN, it could easily go the way of the dodo.
Hopefully archive.org is involved in archiving HN, though unfortunately archive.org's future itself is in jeopardy.
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