Completely forgot about PhysicsForums.

Also this is a good example of the trend that has already been ongoing on HN since 2022. I think one other long-lasting HNer is working on a similar analysis of HN at the moment.

Edit: can't reply

> Appreciate some more details...

It's their story to tell. Not mine.

▲

throwayay58373 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Say more?

I've been reading HN since 2013 and the quality has gone down, kind of like eternal September.

▲

alephnerd 4 hours ago | parent [-]

2022 was when the degradation really took hold.

HN essentially became mainstream after the New Yorker profile, Reddit's degradation due to the mod blackout and API changes, and Lemmy flopping.

I've gotten my HN back to the pre-2022 consensus but it takes severe filtering, with around 200 posts being hidden a day. And it's those posts that drive the majority of discourse on the platform now.

The fact that throwaways like you are so normalized is a huge reason.

HN has also gotten divorced from tech and water-cooler conversations in much of the tech industry, and a lot of that seems to be because HN no longer has the same plurality of Bay/NYC/Seattle/Austin techies that it used to, and the userbase is way older than much of tech now (I was always younger than average on HN, but the amount of 1980s to early 2000s references shows that the platform has frozen in time demographically).

Ignore Reddit - HN has functionally become Slashdot (the fact that I even know what slashdot is highlights how the age demographics are so skewed on HN).

Edit: can't reply

> 2022 is when tech funding dried up...

Tech funding didn't dry up then. It just coencided with the time period that most vintages that originated in early 2010s were closing out and those that originated in 2016-18 were hitting their 5 year mark.

This meant a lot of dry-powder didn't get deployed until 2023-24.

> stands to reason that we ran out of hacker topics...

They are still being posted at the same rate based on my filtering. The difference is a massive deluge in non-"traditional HN" related content being posted, and the younger generation of techies and founders (those below 35) not using HN.

▲

win311fwg 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

2022 is when tech funding dried up, so it stands to reason that we ran out of hacker topics. The odd person still doing something cool in their basement for fun does not supply a sufficient stream of curiosities to keep the feed full. That required the unique time (ZIRP, etc.) when people were paid handsomely to explore cool things day in, day out.

HN was a product of its time.

> They are still being posted at the same rate based on my filtering.

"I rewrote X in Rust" isn't a hacker topic. Being able to draw some kind of connection to the tech isn't the same thing.

▲

throwayay58373 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

That's a good point. Fwiw, I use throwaways because I don't want certain types of users to know anything about me. I wouldn't have felt this way, say, 5 years back.

What tools do you use for filtering if I may ask?

▲

alephnerd 4 hours ago | parent [-]

I built my own system using both sentiment polarity analysis, hard-coded logic, and some semi-active tuning, but I'd rather not divulge specifics. IMO anyone can spin up their own similar system.

> I don't want certain types of users to know anything about me. I wouldn't have felt this way, say, 5 years back...

Frankly, most people DGAF about random HNers and (a general or meta-comment targeted at the reader, not you OP) if someone needs to use throwaways to post negatively polarized statements on HN, then they shouldn't even be on HN in the first place.

	▲	9rx 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> most people DGAF about random HNers It is never most people you need to worry about. > if someone needs to use throwaways to post negatively polarized statements on HN If it were only read by other HN users who understand that a user account is not a human then it wouldn't matter, but the world is not so simple. There are people, who do not understand that forum accounts are not humans, who are working hard to associate internet activity with humans and will use it against them. Of course, we already know how to identify individuals by their writing style, so a throwaway account probably isn't the screen the OP hopes it is. Still, it is the best source of making it as difficult as possible we seemingly have.

▲

rramadass 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

What is this "trend" and "similar analysis" you mention? Not clear from your comment.

Appreciate some more details.

▲

smt88 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I haven’t noticed a huge change since 2022, except perhaps that politics are discussed quite a bit less

▲

alephnerd 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Politics is discussed significantly more on HN after 2022 than before. I'll wait on that HNer to finish their analysis and post it on here, but they've also noticed the same trend.

	▲	Tostino an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		[flagged]
	▲	smt88 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		My impression for a while was that there were nasty political threads that devolved into flagging and name-calling. I have seen things about politics (elections, corruption, contentious lawsuits, etc.), but I haven’t seen the accompanying flame wars. There was also an experimental period where they’d banned all political articles, and then they reversed it.