Tell HN: Hacker News India

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1908893

by prateekdayal • 16 years ago

30 18 16 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Hi,

We just launched Hacker News India at http://hackernews.in

Hacker News is awesome but there are lots of local issues that Indian hackers need to discuss (such as local events, infrastructure issues etc) that don't get good visibility on HN. We have started HNI to fix that.

It's a not for profit initiative. Please checkout the site and contribute to it (by commenting or posting questions).

Any suggestions are welcome. Would be lovely if they are posted there :)

gsivil• 16 years ago

Are you sure that you can just starting using this name?

rick_20474• 16 years ago

This name is owned by paul graham dude. And I don't think he will come in the way of gathering a few hackers on a news site.

prateekdayal2• 16 years ago

Also, we are not making money off this and if YC wants to run the place, we are more than happy to let them :)

cshekhar2• 16 years ago

What different things you are going to do with HNI ? I mean I wanted to know the purpose of creating whole new thing similar to HN. Also need to manage both accounts personally I don't like many accounts.

rick_20474• 16 years ago

I get the point the op is trying to make there. You see I was longing for a lot of time for something similar but which can also discuss local issues. I just feel left out when there is discussion only about the startup scene in silicon valley SF etc.

I would strongly support this initiative.

cshekhar2• 16 years ago

I am not against it but just wanted to know details :)

_b8r03• 16 years ago

If you don't like the silicon valley skew then post more non-silicon valley stuff here.

There's a certain valley skew here because of the people engaged by HN, YC and PG, but it's hardly exclusive.

prateekdayal2• 16 years ago

Please see this - http://hackernews.in/item?id=1

ramki2• 16 years ago

since it is new, i think you can get same id and passwd(?) on HNI :)

rick_20474• 16 years ago

Where is the ask and jobs sections? I love the first and long for an indian edition of the latter.

plinkplonk• 16 years ago

Bad Idea. I am Indian and I plan to stay away from this.

"Hacker News" is a name used by PG for his webapp and you shouldn't use it (or variants) for yourself without getting explicit permission from him (You didn't did you?).

Imagine setting up a "Google India" or "Stanford India" site and claiming "if they want to operate these sites they can, we are not making any money off this". If those are shady, so is this.

If you just want an HN like forum, why not use the open source arc code but make your own name?

While I am not convinced there are issues that are exclusive enough to "Indian hackers" (shudder) that need a separate forum, others may have such a need. Good for them.

But please don't steal the name of a successful site without explicit permission from the owner.

Overall an amateurish move, if not illegal. (All purely imo - my fellow "Indian hackers" can downvote)

My response = flip bit. Move On.

sathyabhat• 16 years ago

I agree with the idea, but disagree with the choice of name.

niyazpk• 16 years ago

Changing the name is the best course of action. The name 'hackers news' may not be copyrighted, but that does not make using the exact same name the right thing to do.

The name 'hacker news india' may deceive at least a few people into believing that the site is somehow affiliated to the original site.

Furthermore, I don't think that using the same name will somehow make the site in par with the original hacker news. It will be the quality of the discussions that will decide the fate of the site.

I believe that the same name was used with the best of intentions, but now that the mistake is being pointed out, it is better to change the name.

_b8r03• 16 years ago

I would agree, especially given that the site looks exactly like Hacker News with different colours. Quite a few of the articles up there look like they'd be fine here.

ramki2• 16 years ago

enough comments on NAME, hope they got it. I wish they could get someother useful suggestions.

guglanisam• 16 years ago

The fact that PG released HN code as open source means that he wants more people to use it. The issue about the name is correct, we shld think of a different name for HN India - so that there is no false impression of any affiliation with HN.

But I think a local flavor is surely a good idea and more counties / geographies should create their versions. Just in 3-4 days the Indian HN has gotten a lot of traction.

Tell HN: Hacker News India

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