
Let's update the HN circle on Google Plus (the proper way) - clone1018
http://hngp.axxim.net/
======
antimatter15
I compiled this into an actual shared circle.

[https://plus.google.com/116347431032639424492/posts/BGk6DaqU...](https://plus.google.com/116347431032639424492/posts/BGk6DaqUdgp)

I scraped the site with

    
    
      [].slice.call(document.querySelectorAll('a[href^="/track"]'),0).map(function(e){return e.href.replace(/.*\//g,'')}) 
    

and then I use

    
    
      var src = ["104448221006262595331", "102308414709447205951",...]; /*insert urls from above here*/
      var blah = src.map(function(e){return [["",null,e],"",[]]});
      var x = new XMLHttpRequest();x.open('post','https://plus.google.com/_/socialgraph/mutate/modifymemberships/?_reqid=333888252&rt=j,true);x.setRequestHeader('content-type',"application/x-www-form-urlencoded");x.send('m=['+JSON.stringify(blah)+']&a=[[["REDACTED"]]]&r=[[]]&at=REDACTED&')
    

To update the circle.

Edit: Updated the script to reflect site changes

Edit: It looks like sharing a circle doesn't include future changes.

Edit: you can skip the first step and instead use
<http://hngp.axxim.net/home/json>

~~~
clone1018
Oops! Just changed the URL format for the profile to
<http://hngp.axxim.net/track/116007950197156995894> sorry!

I've also updated the site to include this circle.

Added a public list of the GID's <http://hngp.axxim.net/home/json>

~~~
sycren
Anyway to make it easier to add everyone? Does Google+ have shared circles
that someone can create, maintain and update to everyone else?

------
danso
Wow. I don't want to start another debate on this, but am I the only one to be
surprised at the near-complete lack of women on this contacts list? I'll admit
that I don't subconciously think that every username on here has an even
chance of being male or female...but I did assume that HN _at least_ matched
the male/female ratio at my computer engineering program (90/10).

I guess the G+ list might contain only the subset of women who feel
comfortable with making their online identity public...but that's actually
worse of an implication.

~~~
bitcrunch
I'm only one, but as a woman - a woman in tech - I do not put my identity out
in public. If I can't use a pseudonym I don't use a service or even RSVP to an
event. Many tech events now require a Facebook RSVP; I just delete those
invitations and don't attend.

I've had the creepy stalker thing happen to me and now anything requiring my
legal name is a service/event/circle/platform I don't (and can't due to real
safety concerns) use.

~~~
danellis
I'm sorry for the cliched phrasing, but doesn't that mean the creepy stalkers
have won?

~~~
bitcrunch
That was my initial feeling, and I continued to do what I did. After several
years of it now, I'm tired. I'm tired of having someone at my door, showing up
where I am, joining groups and communities I'm in, and friending my co-workers
and vendors, sending notes to my employers, and so on.

They're doing nothing illegal these days (with one exception about four months
ago), but when I surface it's always causing just one more thing to deal with.

Once I decided to actually use my privacy, it was refreshing. Aaaaah, the
calm. Aaaah, the amount of freedom I felt going that first stretch of months
without incidents.

Also, after dealing with this for just over four years it's pretty tiring to
always be told that I'm the one who is doing something wrong.

I wasn't necessarily a "privacy advocate" before, but understand that
viewpoint more and more.

It's kind of frustrating dealing with your vendor at Google who sends you a
note saying "hey, I can't find you on g+ - let's use hangout" and saying
something (nicely) like "yeah, I'm not on g+" and then leaving it at that.

Admittedly, I get somewhat cranky at all the questioning about my choices and
my behavior and it's all I can do not to respond "because g+ use is completely
optional and no one is forcing me to use it, according to Eric Schmidt".

I give up the interaction with my friends, vendors, co-workers and potential
friends, vendors, co-workers, etc. in return for lack of harassment and
stalking. I'm not super-happy about it and it's not a perfect solution but
don't feel I should have to justify it. Yet I did once again (* /em
headdesk*).

~~~
BadassFractal
If you ever get around it, you should share your stories and takeaways with
the rest of the community. I've never realized that women in tech had to deal
with all these issues on a daily basis. Raising awareness can only be good,
right?

~~~
bitcrunch
I'm unsure how to take your phrasing "never realized that women in tech had to
deal with all these issues on a daily basis."

On any other board I would assume that phrase to be argumentative and
patronizing, but HN people always seem to be earnest and helpful, so I will
take it on face value.

Many people have that kind of issue. Most of them are women. Women exist in
tech. :) It's just more frustrating and sort of ironic when you're the one
working on the products.

Not sure there's anything I can add that danah boyd hasn't covered on her many
privacy presentations or that wasn't already "done to death" during the past
"women in tech" arguments on Techcrunch, HN, etc. If there's something new or
revealing that I can think of I'll share it, though!

ETA: Also, I didn't bring it up during the g+ name controversy on HN because I
honestly couldn't add anything new. The pros and cons of the policy are out
there for everyone to read. I watched it go on and decided what was right for
me, which is to not engage in that medium due to the way it works and the
intentions (that is, that g+ is an "identity service").

~~~
BadassFractal
I apologize if my reply sounded patronizing, I'm notorious for getting the
wrong tone across the Internet.

What I had found interesting about your post was the level of detail of what
you described. This clearly shows my ignorance of the subject. I was aware of
the G+ pseudonym issue, but I imagined that the harassment was limited to your
personal information being looked up on the Internet and certain people
sending creepy / unwarranted messages to you online.

Again, I must have been very naive about this, but I didn't realize that women
in tech with any level of Internet exposure had to continuously deal with
stalkers in real life, following you home, to meetups, to your workplace and
so on.. It's quite awful, borderline terrifying. I thought the harassment was
mostly verbal and impersonal, still unacceptable obviously, but at least not
nearly as dangerous as what you described.

~~~
bitcrunch
Online and offline ("real life") are inextricably tied to each other, though,
particularly where real-world identity is imposed in online
(indexed/searchable/social networking) platforms. What starts online can lead
offline and what starts "in real life" can continue online.

I've been a die-hard citizen of the internet for over 15 years, I know how to
handle things. If you have a threat in real life call local law enforcement
and show them. If you have issues with someone online, use the privacy tools
at your disposal, don't escalate things with the person, make reports to the
service you're using if the other person violates the terms of service, but
don't cause a scene (because that's often exactly what they're looking for;
they want to rattle you).

I believe after the first in-real-life police episode the other party realized
that they could not do anything physical to me. The odds are low that I'm
currently in danger of a physical assault (in my opinion).

But back in 2008, when the Huffington Post suddenly decided to index the name
of everyone who contributed to any political campaign by first name, last
name, middle initial, address, and employer, I did feel that I was under
physical threat. Their intentions were noble; have transparency about where
political dollars were coming from. What they ended up doing is making the
entire first page of Google results for my name all of the information about
me that someone who really wanted to hurt me would need. I sent in four
requests asking for it to be removed, re-indexed with my street number or
first name removed, anything, and let them know I felt I was in real-life
danger... but I never got a response, so for a year the first result on my
name in a Google result was a map to my house, neatly pre-expanded in the
first result. I moved, and I will never contribute to another political
campaign again, in order to have that never happen to me again.

The annoyances that one can make on another without actually violating a law
or getting banned from a service are enormous. It's a quality-of-life issue.

When my employer gets a call from someone for a reference for me, is it that
person or a legitimate reference? When I get a friend request on Facebook,
LinkedIn, or somewhere I have an account, is it that person? Or someone sent
by them to find out where I'm currently working or living or hanging out?

The worst is when they get a bit bi-polar and start contacting my
acquaintances out of the blue and asking if I'm okay, saying they miss me, and
telling them all about our history. That happened to me when Facebook decided
one couldn't hide one's listed friends. Over a certain threshold of people
around me getting that type of communication about me and perception of me is
permanently tarnished. It's not fair, but it's true - people think that the
person being harassed must have done something to deserve it, or are "just
handling it wrong" or something. It hurts my reputation, which impacts my
ability to network effectively. Also, it makes me sad.

I still get LinkedIn friend requests from people I don't know: for instance, a
college student from two states away. Is that last year's intern whose name I
don't remember, or someone sent by this person, and I spend an hour finding
photos of them to be sure... not a dangerous situation, but why should I have
to deal with this until one of us dies? (Based on a follow-up Inmail, turned
out to be someone sent by them, who thought that I'd welcome them putting the
two of us "back in contact", ugh.)

I loved commenting at my local newspaper's website and a local online
community blog/zine and had had an account/handle there for years. "In order
to raise the quality of comments" they transitioned to Facebook commenting, so
I don't do that anymore.

Based on advice from a psychologist, I left our old mutual acquaintances who
didn't know the situation on my Facebook friends list back while things were
still scary. Better to just stay status-quo than to provoke a reaction with a
de-friending where you might cause more problems by having to explain to
someone else the whole deal who isn't even aware there is a situation.

I actually was able to use Facebook with custom filters for updates, closing
my wall, going to "just me" for every visible setting. But then Facebook came
out with a new notification that randomly and without prompting posts a notice
on your friend's activity feed that you're playing a certain game or using a
certain app; there is no option to set that to a filter and I had no idea it
was going to happen.

When that fired off without my knowledge I woke up the next morning to a bunch
of comments (from mutual acquaintances who hadn't seen an update from me in
two years) asking me where I'd been. The friend requests and attempts to
locate me resumed, so I assume some of them asked around and let this person
know they'd seen activity from me on Facebook so I must be using it.

If I stay un-searchable and off of "real name" social networks they seem to
lose interest. I go about my life freely and don't even think about it for
weeks at a time. When I surface, or my name shows up somewhere things tend to
escalate.

I love talking to people and being on the internet and am passionate about
social media - so flying under the radar may never be possible for me without
a real-life name change. It doesn't feel fair that I'd have to do that,
though.

But even then, I wouldn't join a public industry circle under my legal name,
or RSVP to a public event under it, now that I have had this learning
experience.

Not because I'm physically afraid anymore, but because I do not want to have
to explain away anything that person might say or do. I don't want to have to
be harassed or concerned about harassment when all I want to do is talk about
fantastic ideas with smart people.

I don't want strangers or acquaintances to know my email, phone number,
general location, employer, or where I'm going to be at 6:00 on Thursday
night. Like most people 20 years ago, those are things I share with my
friends, not the world.

There's only been one "incident" this year, but it was a doozy. Maybe it will
calm down for me, but only time will tell. Privacy is not dead, but some of
the greatest parts of the internet are unusable to people who desire it.

Sorry to be so long-winded, but it felt important to give an accurate picture.
Now, hopefully to transition to a lighter mood and ring in the New Year! Happy
2012 to you!

~~~
danso
Thank you for sharing this...I was half-expecting a "What difference does it
make if a HN participant is a male or female, we're all equal, right?"
response to my question and I think your comments make a case for why gender-
awareness is still an important thing to have.

Even if in cyberspace each gender were treated equally, in real life, that's
not the case. And that's an issue we have to be aware of and vigilant in
changing (for the better)...But we can't if there are virtually no women
involved in our otherwise interesting and thoughtful discussions.

------
Achshar
Suggestion: we should only be able to add ourselves. Google+ API. Because this
will make sure only active users are added. Everyone knows celebrities like
Mark Zuckerberg and Linus Torvalds. This way the list remains short and spam
reduces. Like, i see people added their brand pages.

~~~
araneae
I notice there's some random guy on there named Paul Graham. He seems confused
as to why so many people have added him to their circles...

------
Raphael
It's a pity that Google+ is not designed for this use case. Facebook and
Friendfeed have groups that people can join with no hassle.

------
DanielBMarkham
Could somebody explain to me how to use this? I'm assuming if I wanted to make
my own HN circle I'd have to click on each profile and then add?

~~~
instakill
This is one way. Another way is anyone that has over 100 HN people in their
circle can share the circle publicly and post the link here, ala:
[https://plus.google.com/100400925087503963196/posts/GugsHSGb...](https://plus.google.com/100400925087503963196/posts/GugsHSGbtQd)

------
navs
Fine use of Twitter Bootstrap.

I'd like to make a feature request. Please add a field for HN username/profile
so I can better stalk my new friends :)

------
tokenadult
I notice that I have been missed by these attempts even though I list my
Google+ profile link in my HN profile. (I added that link after an earlier
attempt by another participant to show a list of HN participants.) I use the
same screen name I use here at two other sites I visit fairly often (I chose
the screen name to fit the first of those sites several years ago), but of
course I don't know who else uses this screen name at other sites I've never
visited. In most places in cyberspace, and of course on Facebook and on
Google+, I use my real name. It's interesting to see which connections between
differing online names are readily made by Google, by HN participants with
scripts, or by educated readers, and which connections are missed.

------
Achshar
Wait, for a n00b like me can someone explain what is this? My best guess is
that its a list of HNers who are on google+? if thats true then what is the
use of this? almost every HN reader would have a google profile.

~~~
leejw00t354
So people on HN can share and view content with each other and make like
minded friends.

~~~
Achshar
Thanks! And there is a FAQ page there now. It answers that :)

------
veyron
What exactly is the HN circle? Are you referring to each of us going through
and adding the same group of people to a circle, or is it a public group?

------
karpathy
Excellent idea. As a meta-comment I'd love to see a similar list made for
Twitter. I'm sorry if this has already been done and I missed it.

------
palebluedot
Some of the entries are obviously added by others, and not even necessarily
even the right profile. For instance, Paul Graham is in the list (and in the
shared circle), however it is not pg:
<https://plus.google.com/114939270563299965266/posts>

~~~
clone1018
Yes I see Mark and those, but I can't exactly prove it's NOT them, and can't
two people have the same name?

~~~
palebluedot
True, it is possible that two people have the same name. I guess the uptake is
to just take the list with a grain of salt. And, thanks for compiling the list
- even with possible errors, it is nice to have.

------
levesque
The problem with this kind of thing is _I_ can add all the people listed here
to circle I will call HN, but the people who get added by me will have no idea
who the hell I am. They would have to check this list to verify if the guy
adding them is from HN or not...

~~~
instakill
This problem should alleviate itself. If you add everyone in the list and
someone adds you, and you hover on their profile and see that you have 5, or
10, or 15 mutual connections (usually with foreign names), you can infer that
it must be someone from HN that's adding you.

------
clone1018
Just made this so if you find any bugs let me know please.

~~~
shanmoorthy
Nice. You might wanna include a way to remove duplicates based on G+ IDs. Also
some way of removing yourself from the list? Maybe use Google accounts to
connect too, so you can verify the profile owners and don't have to ask for an
email addy?

~~~
zaidmo
I updated my G+ profile after adding myself to the HN list. Updated profile
does not reflect on the HN G+ page.

------
udp
I see you've added a field for HN usernames now - maybe you should have
assigned us with a key to replace existing entries.

~~~
clone1018
Yes, huge flaw in the system, what I'll do is write in a Google auth system,
and send out ONE email so people can have a chance to do that, and then manage
it, remove their profile, etc.

~~~
udp
Google auth system is a very good idea - it seems the spam is already kicking
off (or at least, people are adding profiles that don't belong to them).

Good work getting this up and running so quickly, anyway.

~~~
clone1018
Here's to hoping Linus, Tom and Richard browse HN :P

------
scottm01
Much nicer, thanks. I've just shared a circle (to that circle) of everyone
listed as of a few minutes ago.

~~~
levesque
The problem is you shared the circle to people who already had that circle (or
part of it).

~~~
drumdance
Now the circle is an infinite loop <rimshot>

------
ralph
The pop-up profile bubbles disappear off the bottom of the web page for those
on the bottom row.

------
dools
Haha what! Is Richard Branson really a member of hacker news?!

~~~
clone1018
I hope! Sadly there's no way to know for sure since I don't require
verification :(

------
js4all
Great idea, but how is this made into a circle?

~~~
clone1018
I'll see what I can do. The problem with just dumping the emails out to
people, is it not only gives spam bots a giant list of actual emails, but
would allow someone here to pitch their startup to xxx number of people
instantly.

~~~
udp
You could have people add a code to their HN profile in order to receive the
list (and perhaps require X karma).

------
codesuela
all profile links are broken (opera mobile) edit: this must be one of the
issue the opera devs complained about a while ago

------
beaumartinez
Would be cool if it included HN usernames.

~~~
clone1018
It now does!

