

Ask HN: Idea Sunday - f0under

Didn&#x27;t see one created and found the thread quite valuable, so moving the series along!<p>From the previous one: &quot;A small HN experiment. Every Sunday, a thread will be started to share product ideas. Why? Because many people have ideas they will simply not have the time to implement, and many need product ideas to work on.&quot; -- https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=7616910
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hershel
it has been killed.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7693640](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7693640)

~~~
krapp
Ironically, killed because it was popular, and popular threads are apparently
a sign that the community is jumping the shark.

~~~
minimaxir
Popular is not the same as good. (a lesson that the internet learns
repeatedly)

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krapp
It's not the same as bad, either. It means users are engaged with the site and
want to share their ideas, projects and experiences on a regular basis. It
should be encouraged. Not killed because it might make the site superficially
too much like Reddit.

~~~
brudgers
When `dang made his post, my thought was that the activity was harmless and
made trying to game Show HN less likely. Thinking about if two weeks later I
realize how lame that is as an argument for keeping it.

For better or worse HN is run to meet YC's objectives. YC does not appear to
value engagement for the sake of engagement very highly. People can disagree
with that, But it remains a fact.

~~~
krapp
I would argue that it wasn't so much 'engagement for the sake of engagement',
as the content was at least relevant, and more engaging (at least to me) than
a repost of whatever Techcrunch published that day. Or another political
argument which inevitably devolves into whether capitalism is the problem or
anarchy is the solution. Or bikeshedding over languages, or paranoid
conspiracies about the American Racist Surveillance Hegemony. Or sexism in
tech. Or why if you're not y, then you're x.

Most of the reasons dang put forth as to why he killed those particular
threads could be applied to almost every thread on this site - depending
entirely on the opinion of whomever happens to be reading them at the time.

Granted, you're right - it's YC's sandbox and they get to set the rules. But
reading dang's post I can't help but wonder whether he's confusing diversion
for intellectual quality.

~~~
brudgers
I too argued "It's not that bad" as a reason for keeping it two weeks ago. On
the other hand I was not arguing with you at all today since we are in
agreement that it's YC's football and it would be absurd to assume that you
would argue that I don't hold the beliefs that I had asserted that I hold.

My opinion regarding what beliefs`dang holds is that the 'Idea Sunday' was
_consistently_ earning karma disproportionately to it's contribution to the
quality of HN and that this was creating a genre of similar high reward high
noise threads [e.g. Screenshot Saturday, Tweet Tuesday etc].

My guess is that he looked at the threads closely before pulling the plug, not
only because his post implies it but because it was allowed to run for several
weeks before he stepped in and moderated. By the time action was taken a
fairly detailed picture of who was looking at and participating in the threads
was available.

Is it the call I would have made? I don't know because I'm not charged with
that, (though I did flag this thread because of its poor quality) and I
haven't seen all the facts.

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krapp
Sorry, I wasn't arguing with you, I didn't mean to give that impression.

~~~
brudgers
No need to apologize. I know you were just writing what you needed to
write...expressing your disagreement with the decision 'dang made. My post was
just an excuse to write (and think since writing is thinking) and these are
good activities and perhaps you were to some degree even writing simply to get
better at writing.

Of course I may be just projecting what I do, and anyway this response is
largely driven by my need to think.

Your post fell into the form of argument because that's sort of what the
internet trains us to do. It's the path of least resistance when we want an
excuse to write another post after the one we are currently writing. It's the
primary game of internet fora.

One of the observations of 'dang and PG before him was that a problem which is
particularly salient in political threads is people arguing rabidly when they
agree...and those 'arguments' turning heated and nasty. In other words the
comments devolve to look like the rest of the internet. That's sort of the
reason why the Idea thread was problematic: the conversation could have been
happening anywhere. There were none of the elements that make HN HN.

And that's just what I used the opportunity provided by the reply button under
your post to write because I felt like writing, i.e. I was just indulging my
thinking habit...and working to improve my writing in more or less a free
writing exercise with writing as the topic.

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_writing](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_writing)

