Ask HN: If metaverse HN existed, would you hang out here?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33895832

1 6 4 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Let's say the admittedly somewhat shallow version of meta's vision of the future plays out.

In that future, a Hacker News space in the metaverse opens up and enough people have hardware to utilize it. Imagine a log cabin nestled in fourier trees next a river of 1s and 0s (or just a regular log cabin in a regular forest next to a babbling brook).

Would you hang out there? Wait to see what people discussed? Chat about stories of the day? Take in the sights?

JacobThreeThree• 4 years ago

Is a metaverse defined only with respect to the VR medium through which the virtual world is experienced? Metaverses (virtual worlds) already exist all around us online, and yes I already hang out in several of them.

uberman• 4 years ago

Perhaps if there was some shared goal like those presented in an online game was presented that would motivate me to join a virtual world. Absent that though my answer is "No, not to just read or participate in an online forum or even a chat".

PaulHoule• 4 years ago

No. The appeal of HN is that I can jump in when something is compiling, type in comments so fast that I break keyboards and then jump out.

There is nothing I dread more than "come to our Discord for support" for many reasons, but live chat just doesn't scale. One boorish person can deprive everybody else of use the room, there is usually some lifeless loser hanging out in the chat room to introduce themselves to newbies when nobody else is doing so (I have been that guy), and sexual harassment becomes an absolutely pervasive problem in a simulated VR environment.

sshlocalhost982• 4 years ago

Yes sir / ma’am I agree with your point especially on the pervasiveness of harassments. It’s as if cyber bullying isn’t enough, VR may increase the effects of it.

sshlocalhost982• 4 years ago

Actually maybe, I like the idea of hanging out with people whom may share common ideas for example Reinforcement learning or control theory.

ninethirty• 4 years ago

All the visual information presented would be of no value. Do you really need to see my facial expression, what I am drinking, and how I am sitting as I make this comment?

The use case for VR requires the visual information add value. Games, concerts, maybe certain online courses, movie tie-ins (behind the scenes on the set of a movie), maybe meetings where a power-dynamic is conveyed visually.

Ask HN: If metaverse HN existed, would you hang out here?

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