Comment by 7moritz7

22 days ago

HN is a social network

I have nothing against networks that are actually social. I hate the ones that are only social in name, but are actually just a way to serve ads to people, and are filled with low quality (often AI generated) content. That's why I put quotation marks around social. Maybe I should have said "so-called-social-networks", but I thought it was commonly understood.

I want to disagree: HN is social media, but it is not a social network.

For it to be a social network there should be a way for me to indicate that I want to hear either more or less of you specifically, and yet HN is specifically designed to be more about ideas than about people.

  • Excellent point. I've never made the distinction really, but you're right. There's no relationship building here, just sharing and commenting.