Comment by sim04ful

11 hours ago

This is indeed part of the something i've been internalising for quite a while. I've always felt i needed to improve my social circle by finding/making one, but i realised it's better to just have hobbies and skill sets that make me useful and relevant to a certain niche and then my circle would naturally arise from there.

It's also why i'm trying to participate more here, even with the crippling imposters syndrome that prevents me from contributing anything...It's so difficult actively participating in a group that seemingly got cultivated from a culture somewhat alien to my own upbringing.

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sim04ful

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skybrian  11 hours ago

I'm skeptical that posting on social networks will accomplish what you're hoping for. I've been fairly actively commenting on Hacker News for over 15 years and haven't met anyone this way. This is just recreational typing.

  • mannanj  9 hours ago

    I wonder about that. Why is this one of the few communities, that despite being so high quality in a technical sense has so little in person community connection?

    • xg15  9 hours ago

      Won't say this is all, but I think there are some design decisions that actively push it away from that:

      - No DMs

      - A UI that strongly deemphasizes specific posters and emphasizes messages in an abstract "discussion tree"

      - No persistent or "sticky" threads. Every discussion that takes place here will be off the front-page and essentially forgotten in a few days. There is no space where anything like "community lore" could develop. (*)

      All that strongly encourages you to focus on links and messages, but not on the people behind it or on longer-form discussions.

      (*) That's not quite true - if you're long enough here, you do see some patterns emerge, like reoccurring preferences or discussions emerge, and even "celebrities" whose pages get upvoted to the front page disproportionately often. But it's all implicit, observational stuff, there is not really a "water cooler" or "off topic" area for discussion. (Apart from the annual "Merry Christmas" thread maybe)

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