

Ask HN: Could HN be monetized to the point of becoming its own entity? - wallawe

If so, why hasn't the successful model of HN been replicated for other niche topics besides hacking?
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proexploit
Could it? Yes. Should it? No (My opinion). Would it? No (I highly doubt it).

As for your interior question of why it hasn't been replicated for other
topics, I don't think it's simple enough to replicated. HN isn't monetized
traditionally so there isn't a successful business model to replicate unless
you include the entire company of Y Combinator.

~~~
wallawe
With 120k uniques and over 1.3M pageviews per day
([http://www.quora.com/Hacker-News/How-many-users-does-
Hacker-...](http://www.quora.com/Hacker-News/How-many-users-does-Hacker-News-
have)) would advertising revenue not bring in an ample amount of money
supposing you could bring in that kind of traffic?

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russell
Probably, but I hope not. HN has a community of people really knowledgeable in
a lot of areas who really try to maintain a high level of discourse. I fear
that the priorities of monitization would alienate many members. I couldnt
fault PG for wanting HN to pay for itself, but I hope the community itself
would justify its remaining as it is.

~~~
wallawe
I think in HN's case, it pays for itself with intangible branding factors so
there is really no need to monetize and like you said, it maintains the
integrity of the site. But I was thinking along the lines of a startup. HN's
model is so excellent I think it could be applied to a number of niche topics.
It would be interesting to know though, to what extent a site like HN could
make money if that were its goal.

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bdr
HN isn't being monetized directly, but it is bringing tremendous value to YC.
It's might even be their most valuable asset.

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md1515
At the very least it could be made into a business on donations alone I am
sure.

PG has a great thing going here that is far more valuable to him than money.
He isn't aching for food on a daily basis so I doubt he'll ever dream of
jeopardizing HN the way it is.

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mooism2
Why don't all the mini sub Reddits count?

~~~
wallawe
I looked into mini sub reddits because my brother said the same thing. But for
something like say, finance, there is all kinds of interesting information out
there that could be more concisely presented with a HN type of setup. Sub
reddits really don't do each topic justice and as you know dont carry the
level of discourse that HN does.

~~~
mooism2
Sorry, I don't see how information could be better presented through a HN type
of setup than through a subreddit: a subreddit _is_ a HN type of setup. What
differences do you see between HN and subreddits that mean information can be
more concisely presented on HN?

(I note your other point about the standard of the communities on HN -v-
Reddit being different, but I have no opinion on the level of discourse on
subreddits that would be off-topic on HN.)

~~~
wallawe
I've been using finance as an example. Here is subreddits finance page:
<http://www.reddit.com/r/finance>. As we have both agreed, you can tell
immediately the level of discourse and content quality are lower.

In regards the information presented, concise might not have been the best
word choice. I speculate that the user base for /r/finance are not the users
you would attempt to attract with what I am suggesting. I think if you could
bring out the wallstreet gurus, traders, entrepreneurs of all types,
economists, etc. as regular users, the site would provide a unique and
valuable experience.

~~~
chc
"Level of discourse" and "content quality" are almost purely functions of the
community. This means that there is no "HN model" that can be easily
replicated unless you have an army of Paul Graham clones somewhere that can
attract a similar community.

