
Ask HN: How do you *use* HN? - oldmanstan
1) How often do you check it (and for how long each time)?<p>2) What's your routine while on HN? Do you just browse through the highest voted articles, or maybe go through the new, or just ask HN, or different?
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DanielBMarkham
HN has a very high almostSignal-to-Nosie ratio. By that I mean that it has a
lot of stuff that looks _almost_ like something very important, but it's just
not directly applicable to me at the moment. Kind of like talking to a really
super smart interesting person -- but only about stuff they'd like to talk
about. It's great to be here, but information is engaging and scattered all
over the spectrum. I would say it's like drinking from a fire hose, but a fire
hose goes in one direction. This is more being a great swimmer and jumping in
a raging ocean. Lots of stuff to enjoy and keep you busy.

Because of this, I'm writing my own app for processing the web. A "browser for
the easily engaged". It pulls the articles from all the major tech sites,
including ranking, then it pulls the target articles. It learns what I like
and don't like by doing Bayesian filtering on the client-side. Sort of a meta
meta tech news app.

After all, how _would_ a hacker consume news, if not by hacking it?

~~~
petercooper
_It learns what I like and don't like by doing Bayesian filtering on the
client-side._

As a fellow geek, I like this _idea_ but I've checked out similar systems over
the years and found I could never fully get on board.. why? Because I ended up
checking the source _anyway_ to make sure I didn't miss anything that I might
find interesting but that the filter filtered out anyway.

I can trust filtering for e-mail, since it wipes out _non-content_ (usually).
But filtering out content I "might not like" is tricky - I learn more about
the world by being exposed to things I don't (initially) appreciate so I like
to see a little noise in the mix. HN provides a sort of filtered noise that
strikes just the right balance for me.

~~~
DanielBMarkham
Yep I'm right there with you. I agree with everything you say.

So instead of filtering, I'm starting with Bayesian ranking. I agree about the
pop-back-over thing too, but I wonder why? I'm really curious to see why I
would pop back over to the regular site. As I identify these reasons, I can
decide whether or not these are good reasons or not.

------
tlrobinson
Between twice a day and twice a minute depending on how distracted I am.

I usually look for titles that catch my interest, gradually working my way
down the page and becoming less selective.

Often I read the comments first.

~~~
skowmunk
pretty similar case here.

~~~
Yzupnick
Just up vote please. Replies are for adding to the conversation. If you are
just going to agree, that is what the up vote is for.

Note: I do realize the irony of this post. I assume this is a new HNer and I
hope to help educate him and all those who happen to read it, instead of just
down voting him.

~~~
skowmunk
yup, I happen to be a newbie.

And I appreciate and welcome the consideration to educate (no sarcasm
intended, mean it).

------
adrianwaj
I use my own site to check HN, <http://hackerbra.in>

In terms of grabbing top comments quickly for articles that take my interest,
it's unbeatable.

edit: if someone is interested, they should make a plugin that scrapes HN, to
allow hovering over a HN item to see the top comment(s). (it can also scrape
my site if it encounters a temp ban on HN -- although Javascript can scrape
anyhow, so it could be done client side.)

\-- in fact hovering or right-clicking over any Comments links around the web
to reveal comments would be awesome instead of having to be forced to click
through all the time, including in the rss reader. Also, bookmarking or
somehow recording any particular useful comment would also be great. You could
also use that bookmark data and similarly send it to a central site, to build
up a new social news site based on comments. (it could end up looking like
<http://hackerbra.in/links> and <http://news.ycombinator.com/bestcomments>).
Headlines are linkbait now, stories are poorly written, but comments can and
do have insight.

Another use would be in hovering over shortened links. OTOH, it could be
something webmasters install. The Backtype API would be useful for this, but
it is too limited at present (no url lookups.)

~~~
sgt
It's funny how people are using the ".in" domain to complete english words. I
always read them as "hacker bra in india", though.

~~~
adrianwaj
Am I supposed to reply to that? I chose hackerbra.in over hackerbrain.com
(which I've also got) because after a while, you learn to ignore the dot. :)

Here's the logo: <http://hackerbra.in/upcom4.png> \-- no bra, no India (If
India was concerned, they would've placed proof of business entity
requirement, like with .com.au. And, big props to India for that wise
decision.)

------
jacquesm
If news is pot then HN is heroin.

So many interesting topics, so much stuff to learn, so many smart people.

Actual 'use' of HN? I've found a number of people here that I would not
hesitate to call friends, a much larger number of acquaintances and a few
people that I work with, one on a day-to-day basis.

If I have a question that matters to me I don't hesitate to post asn "Ask HN",
and for the most part they are answered in a way that is both enlightening and
of a different caliber than what I'd get from other sources.

------
Alex3917
Usually the HN icon is what I click on in my bookmarks bar when I need to open
a new tab in Chrome. So I end up glancing at the site a hundred or so times a
day, but usually not for more than a few seconds at at time. I used to spend a
decent amount of time on this site each day, but not very much anymore.

As I'm writing this comment, I notice that there are basically no stories at
all on the front page that interest me. I like the stories that are more
intellectually interesting, whereas everything on the front page is at best
topical, although most of it is very derivative even for topical stuff. Right
now I don't feel like there's a single story on the front page where I'd learn
anything interesting or useful if I read it, and the gossipy article are too
predictable for me to care.

------
Mz
I spend more time on the "new" page and the "comments" page than the top
stories page. I sometimes check the most active or highest voted lists. I come
here sporadically, sometimes not for days (or weeks) at a time and sometimes
several times a day. Often, a good comment on the "comments" page leads me to
find a very interesting discussion listed under an article whose headline
wouldn't necessarily grab me. My bookmark is to my own comments ("threads"
page) and I go there first and see if I need to reply to something someone has
said to me. Then I look around for other stuff.

------
nhebb
I like to look at HN and get some inspiration and keep my finger on the pulse
of the startup scene.

But the truth is that if you spend more than a little time here each day, then
it's no longer career research. It's just another form of procrastination that
keeps you from getting stuff done. So enjoy HN, but don't overdo it.

~~~
ronnier
I find that's where reading it on a mobile phone is great. I can read it while
I'm out and unable to do work.

------
bjonathan
I use HN mostly on my iPad even if the website isnt perfect for a touch
device..

Btw does somebody know a website to read HN on the iPad? (something like
iCombinator for iPhone but for iPad)

~~~
ronnier
Hi, I'm the creator of <http://ihackernews.com>. I believe the site works
pretty well for the iPad, but I don't have access to one so I'm unable to
verify it. Can you test it out and let me know what you think and if anything
is broken? I'd love a screenshot if you can and I'll address any issues right
away.

~~~
bjonathan
Perfect thx you! I'm gonna send you screenshot of course!

------
mdoyle
I check it at least five times a day, normally reviewing the comments.
Favourite posts for me are requests for help, e.g. to review sites or ask a
general question like this one, because you can generally learn something from
people's experiences of various problems.

------
ronnier
I enjoy reading HN so much that I ended up creating two sites[1][2] just to
make reading it more accessible on my mobile phone.

I read HN first thing when I wake up, right before sleeping, and all through
the day... often in little one or two minute bursts, saving links for items I
want to read later. I start out on the home page, move to /ask then finally
/new.

It's a great way to be motivated by reading about people who are creating
amazing products. I find myself being pushed to do more when I see others
talking about what they are creating.

[1] <http://ihackernews.com>

[2] <http://viewtext.org>

~~~
amirmc
Thank you for making these. I now read HN more often from my phone when I have
a few minutes spare.

I usually scan the comments before reading an article and if nothing's changed
since my last visit I then scan through the new submissions.

~~~
ronnier
Thanks! Let me know if you find anything that can improve the experience for
us all.

~~~
adrianwaj
A comments extractor would also be useful with VT (probably easier to do with
sites with a comments and rss feed, but you couldn't get all comments nor
their thread.) Also, getting multi page articles on the one page would be
cool.

~~~
ronnier
My number one priority is combining multiple pages into one. I'll try to start
on that today.

Just noticed you are in Israel. I was there last year, loved it.

~~~
adrianwaj
Check out readability: <http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/>
[http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/readability-
browser/id3755428...](http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/readability-
browser/id375542824?mt=8) Note, its bookmarklet applies some type of
stylesheet, no redirection of page.

------
iuguy
1) Usually once or twice a day. It's in my morning read and I read in the
evening after work. When I'm at home I read HN on my TV through a Mac Mini. If
I'm reading it at work over coffee first thing then I'll use my laptop.

2) If it's my morning read at work then I'll skim through the headlines on the
main page looking for information security related stuff, and use instapaper
for anything that looks like it's worth reading on the train home. Maybe 5
mins tops over coffee.

If I'm at home on the weekend I'll read the main page on my TV in the morning
for about 20 minutes. In the evening I tend to read the main, ask and new
pages for up to an hour.

------
petercooper
Despite being an RSS and Twitter junkie, I nearly always visit HN directly
(ditto for Reddit) and end up visiting nearly all of the front page items in
the course of a day except those I know I won't find interesting from the
title alone (right now, for example, the Django release news). I typically
visit between 1 and 10 times a day. More if I'm involved in an ongoing
discussion.

A few times a week I'll visit /new. This isn't enough but I find it too fast
and furious, especially with showdead on. I'd be more likely to visit /new all
the time if it only showed posts from users with >100 karma, say.

------
beaumartinez
I check it in the morning, and in the afternoon if I'm bored with nothing else
to do (otherwise, I'd be on it all day!).

I often stay around ten to twenty minutes on the site (as interludes to read
the comments as I read the highest voted articles).

As a bonus, I'd say that I'm as green as grass on HN; I made my account
yesterday after about a week of lurking. I think its signal-to-noise ratio is
higher than other sites (I'm thinking of Proggit here) and the comments make
for a _genuine_ discussion.

------
dsc
I ask a lot, because we all get something out of the answer or answering a
question.

I check it a couple of times a day, but rarely do I go the "new" (which I
think I should do more).

------
harscoat
Now using SmartPeople <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1584005> Site:
<http://nasr.ath.cx> (it goes to one of my non perso or pro emails), I have
selected to be alerted by what some of you are saying. It appears to be a very
interesting way to discover the good links & discussions.

~~~
harscoat
Result is that I am not checking HN every 10 min anymore in fear I miss some
good stuff, I outsource this to the ones of you which taste/judgment I trust.

------
kmfrk
I check once or twice a day, mostly using <http://hckrnews.com/> to minimize
the timesink.

I use it as metanews as often as news - if there's a big piece of news, I
don't have anywhere else to pick someone's brain about it than HN.

Sometimes I just browse the general index serendipitously - often with great
success.

~~~
ronnier
Did you create hckrnews.com? I really like it.

Edit: It looks like it was from @wvl. Wvl, please put contact info on either
your website or hn profile.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=wvl>

~~~
wvl
Yes, hckrnews.com is me (email in my profile).

I use it to read Hacker News -- I leave it on the 'all' filter and scan the
new items a couple times a day. The browser extension lets me see which
comment threads I've read that have new comments, and then highlights those
new comments for me. At the end of the day, I'll usually filter it down to the
top 20 to see anything I might have missed.

------
tectonic
HN is one of about 10 feeds that I have running through Yahoo Pipes and then
into my Safari RSS bookmark, which shows a count of how many new interesting
things I have to read. The pipe pulls a feed of articles that have more than
20 points (newsyc20) and then filters out any articles about zed shaw, lisp,
clojure, haskell, etc. (Nothing against these things if you're into them, but
I'm not.)

The bookmark RSS folder also contains my other aggregated, filtered feeds
which include Twitter friends that don't talk too much, mentions, a highly-
filtered list of affordable VPS deals, and a couple of good signal-to-noise
blogs.

~~~
slouch
i also read the newsyc20 feed that contains only hn stories with at least 20
points <http://feeds.feedburner.com/newsyc20>

google reader says 211 subscribers

------
itay
I'm subscribed to the RSS feed, and I click through the comments to each
article I find interesting. If the comments are interesting, I'll click
through to the article as well.

I've never submitted a link, but did a couple of "Ask HN" threads.

------
cies
the search function (by google) is a little bit hidden (in the footer and not
the top-right). yet is a door to a goldmine of wealth for people working on a
startups.

pretty much every typical "startup question" has ben answered there in great
detail.

besides the search i watch hn about twice a day. i actually started off with
giles bowkett's mini app[1] (makes daily overviews of new-posts-of-the-day) in
order to make reading hn less racey.. well, give that i now read hn straight
from the source, i now accept that i rather have it a bit more racey :)

[1] <http://hacker-newspaper.gilesb.com>

------
vaksel
I check it every ~3-4 hours or so. Usually takes about 15 minutes.

I go through front page and look posts that are interesting to me. Then I go
straight to the comments.

If the comments raise my interest in the actual article, I go read that.

On repeat visits, I tend to stick only to new stories, and stories where I saw
an interesting conversation developing.

In big threads, I do a CTRL F for "minutes", "1 hour ago", "2 hours ago", "3
hours ago".(would make my life a lot easier, if pg had some way to highlight
comments from a specific period...i.e. highlight every comment made within the
last [3 hours][V] <\---that's a drop down box)

~~~
adrianwaj
There's a plugin at bottom that will red margin new comments since last visit:
<http://hckrnews.com/about.html>

------
blazamos
I almost always start with the comments. If the discussion is interesting,
I'll follow the link.

That said, I usually start with the link on PG essays and YC write-ups.

------
GVRV
Scan the whole frontpage once a day (takes about 30minutes) and then come back
to check new submissions whenever procrastinating/taking a break. I scan the
frontpage and occasionally older submissions, open tabs for submissions which
seem interesting (and comment tabs for submissions which lead to discussion
[claims/opinions/etc.]) and instapaper big articles for later reading.

------
gecko4
About once a week. I just look at what's visible on the viewport and click on
what strikes my fancy. Occasionally I scroll "below the fold".

~~~
jacquesm
If you visit that infrequently make sure you visit the 'best' list
(<http://news.ycombinator.com/best>) and the archive
<http://www.daemonology.net/hn-daily/> .

------
clvv
I use Fivefilter's full-text rss(<http://fivefilters.org/content-only/>),
which scrapes hacker new's rss and convert it in to full-text version. I can
then read all articles right in my Google Reader. And I also jump to the
actual post on HN to read the comments if I find the topic interesting.

------
indu
I check HN for five minutes 0-5 times daily, open tabs that look relevant to
my interest, and read as I have time.

I come to HN to look for articles that describe how to do things
better/optimize tasks (generally that thing is/task relates to hacking/start-
ups). I then think of the broader applications of these ideas.

------
keyle
I try to only upvote posts that genuinely bring something interesting and
ignore the linkbaits!

------
photon_off
I use hn like everyone else. The one unique thing I do is I load the frontpage
and run my "hotness sort" bookmark which sorts articles by points plus
comments per unit of time. Same for ask hn. I also view long posts in threaded
mode to save scrolling.

------
_corbett
1) once a day, for five minutes 2) <http://news.ycombinator.com/news> opening
articles/topics in tabs, things which I find interesting I look at the
comments and possibly comment myself.

------
Tyr42
I come here after I finish what is in my google reader. I then look at the top
few pages for cool stuff, and read it. If there are lots of comments or I want
to talk about what I read, I go to the comments.

------
bluemoon
I check it probably 10 times a day, its much better than other "social sites"

~~~
petercooper
I agree, though Reddit can come very close _if_ you customize the Reddits
you're subscribed to. If you want to get a high SNR, you can unsubscribe from
"reddit.com", images, WTF, and things like that, and pick up programming,
technology, math, and so on.

------
amorphid
Twice a day, start of morning & end of day. Read headlines, and sometimes new.

------
jpspeno
I follow newsyc20 on twitter.

~~~
Keyframe
<http://twitter.com/newsyc20> \- same here

------
c00p3r
site:news.ycombinator.com keyword, keyword, keyword

~~~
petercooper
Do you actually use the commas? If so, does it make a difference? In my
experience it doesn't, but you might know more about Google searches than me.

