Ask HN: Are there sites that are like HN, but for science, music, history etc?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14734664

by fhe • 9 years ago

38 24 9 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

s_dev2• 9 years ago

Trying not to be a smart ass but aren't you just looking for reddit? i.e. HN for X?

yread• 9 years ago

I wanted to smartassedly point the user to concrete subreddits that would fit, but are there any, really?

/r/AskHistorians is great perhaps even better than HN in signal/noise ratio but it only has "news" on Wednesdays (and that feature is not very popular).

/r/AskScience has a similar problem and /r/Science is getting too many jokes/memes/regurgitated press releases.

I don't even know where to start for music, /r/WeAreTheMusicMakers/ ?

Tenobrus• 9 years ago

For music, the place for discussion OF music (rather than about making music) is /r/letstalkmusic, which is actually one of the highest quality discussion subs I know of. It's got a relatively slow but incredibly high quality stream of discussions, of all aspects of music history, various bands, philosophy and psychology surrounding music, etc.

For music discovery, /r/listentothis is alright (although it has declined greatly since becoming a default). /r/listentous is sometimes much better and sometimes much worse, by the nature of the sub (elected recommenders). The real best places for discovery are the genre-specific subs however, i.e. /r/metal, /r/futurebeats, etc.

s_dev2• 9 years ago

Sub reddit discovery isn't a solved problem but the subs you're looking for probably exist.

kirarpit• 9 years ago

yup, it's called Reddit

DKnoll2• 9 years ago

If you're interested in discussion on those topics the relevant Stack Exchange site would probably be a good place.

klez• 9 years ago

I wouldn't second this suggestion. Stackexchange sites are for Q&A, not for discussion about a topic.

DKnoll2• 9 years ago

We're having a discussion in response to a question right now. It is not for general discussion (except in chat), you're right.

godelski4• 9 years ago

I get what the OP is getting at here. Reddit's system is a little different than HN's. I honestly think the limiting in the ability to downvote helps this space. And I do find that the community is better here than Reddit. The main subreddits of those topics tend to have a lot more armchair types. One of the reasons I love HN is that the majority of users are more informed about the topics than the average person. There are a lot more thoughtful discussions, and more advanced topics being discussed.

I mean ask yourself, why are you here in the first place? If you're claiming is that this is just Reddit, why are you here?

gorkonsine3• 9 years ago

And I do find that the community is better here than Reddit

No, it's really not. It's much worse.

Reddit is not a single community. It's a collection of tens of thousands of communities (or hundreds even). Each subreddit is really a different community. Some are awful, others are good. And each one is focused on a certain topic.

The main subreddits of those topics tend to have a lot more armchair types. One of the reasons I love HN is that the majority of users are more informed about the topics than the average person.

And this place doesn't have armchair types? Sure, for programming topics you'll find real experts here, but when it comes to some other type of science or engineering, the users here are know-it-alls who really don't know what they're talking about. Programmers are infamous for this kind of behavior; they think that because they know CS in and out that this also makes them an expert on civil engineering, biology, genetics, etc. People here may be more informed than the average person, but that's not saying much since the average person is a drooling idiot. But if you want to find thoughtful discussion on some engineering topic that isn't computer science or programming, this really isn't the best place for it. I've seen way too many examples of people making terrible arguments about things they really don't know about because it's not their field, and then defending these dumb arguments endlessly.

At least on Reddit you have a better chance of the people in that subreddit being actual experts in that field, instead of just a bunch of Silicon Valley programmers who think they're experts on everything.

shallot_router• 9 years ago

How about "the community is better here than Reddit's default subreddits", then?

Reddit has exactly the same problems as the ones you describe HN has, even in specialty subreddits populated with experts. People always think expertise in one field extends to expertise in others.

kfk• 9 years ago

Well, I don't know anything of the quality of hn, but if you are interested in analytics we could kick off one.

oyeanuj2• 9 years ago

We are building something like that, for all the fields out there. We've built an interest graph that allows for it to the targeting to be hyper-relevant that really gets at exactly what you are interested in (so what era/region/aspect of history rather than just 'history').

We are launching our beta in the next couple of months, but until then you can sign up on http://shuffle.do to stay tuned. Happy to answer any questions.

godelski4• 9 years ago

How are you keeping the community focused? And how are you dealing with armchair types? I don't expect you to ever get rid of them, and they can be useful, but is there a way to keep the real experts higher priority?

oyeanuj2• 9 years ago

Good questions! Highly simplified but when you come in, we ask you a few specifically-designed questions about what you are interested in, which helps us drill down into very specific interests. Through those questions, we can also recognize folks for whom that field/interest is a less serious pursuit.

And then when you post, you select the topic/community and our algorithm does the targeting/distribution accordingly. This keeps your feed hyper-relevant as the network grows.

We've studied different network and community dynamics, and taken them into account when designing Shuffle as our aim is to become the hub for all of the fields out there.

nahumfarchi• 9 years ago

I asked a similar question a while back specifically for art related topics (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=625854). I remember having this feeling that I found some "secret" community when I first discovered HN, and I think that's essentialy the reason this comes up every once in a while.

An interesting point is that communities are about people, not technology. However, it's the technology that sets the tone. Take for example how the discussion here is text only, which encourages more thoughtful responses (or at least less memeful). Or the monologues people are sending each other on whatsapp. Or the <= 140 character quips on twitter. Obviously, just having the option to upvote and downvote has an impact too.

I think that maybe the consolidation that's happening on the internet is hurting the formation of these organic communities and is limiting how we interact through technology. But anyway, to answer your question, did you try Quora? The format is more of a question and answer site, and the quality largely depends on whom you're following. For music for example you can try Ethan Hein and Hans Zimmer.

type0• 9 years ago

If you're after niche kind of forums I would suggest these:

physics -

https://www.physicsforums.com/

photography gear -

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/

evex• 9 years ago

https://barnacl.es: News for bootstrappers, not VC hackers

Ask HN: Are there sites that are like HN, but for science, music, history etc?

Related Stories