
What are your rabbit holes on the internet? (For instance, HN one we all share) - textread
If some of yours are controversial, please don&#x27;t sit tight - make a throwaway account
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chollida1
For me it's
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics)

I'm an engineer by schooling but I've worked as a quant for the past 10 years.
This means that I know a whole lot of "applied" math but will get tripped up
by the formal terminology used.

This usually means I google a term and end up on wikipedia, where learning
that term leads me to realized I need to look up the formal definition of
another term, rinse and repeat.

As an example from my browser history, I was just reading

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statistics)

for fun which lead to:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_tendency](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_tendency)

which lead to:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_mean](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_mean)

which lead to:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbitrarily_large](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arbitrarily_large)

~~~
percept
My complaint about mathematics (and similar) articles is that they seem to be
written for technical correctness, but not for instructional purposes.

So people who already understand the concepts can nod and agree "I find
nothing (further) wrong with that," while learners definitely fall down a
rabbit hole of successive links. At times it seems more like lawyering than
teaching.

I've considered the argument that Wikipedia isn't meant for that purpose, that
it's simply a repository for formulas and such, but I don't believe that
agrees with any idea of human advancement and learning, and the site's own
mission statement reads "to collect and develop educational content."

~~~
monknomo
I for one, would find a lot of value in a mathematics encyclopedia slanted
towards learning instead of mere technical correctness.

Wikipedia's physics articles suffer from the same problem.

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clavalle
[http://tvtropes.org/](http://tvtropes.org/) As an fiction writer wannabe,
this site is both inspirational and disheartening. There are no new ideas
under the sun but the variety and potential for new combinations is dizzying!

[https://boardgamegeek.com/](https://boardgamegeek.com/) All the information
about boardgames you could consume in about four thousand lifetimes.

------
banterfoil
Not 100% sure what you mean by rabbit hole tbh. But here goes:

[http://pastebin.com/trends](http://pastebin.com/trends)

[https://github.com/trending](https://github.com/trending)

[https://security.stackexchange.com/](https://security.stackexchange.com/)

/r/datahoarder /r/stallmanwasright

IRC _

------
pinouchon
[http://lesswrong.com](http://lesswrong.com)
[http://www.semanticscholar.org](http://www.semanticscholar.org)

And more recently, the homepage of some researchers, including:

[http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~rsalakhu/publications.html](http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~rsalakhu/publications.html)

[http://web.mit.edu/cocosci/josh.html](http://web.mit.edu/cocosci/josh.html)

[http://people.idsia.ch/~juergen/](http://people.idsia.ch/~juergen/)

[http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~hinton/](http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~hinton/)

So much good stuff

------
smuss77
[http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/](http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/)
Economics/politics/finance blog by yves smith
[http://www.zerohedge.com/](http://www.zerohedge.com/) Anti-establishment
finance/economics/politics

~~~
LyndsySimon
I used to love ZeroHedge, but their signal:noise seems to have gone way
downhill in the last year or two. There was always more than a healthy dose of
paranoia and unconfirmed news, but it's gotten harder and harder to find the
"good stuff".

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robertelder
The question isn't restricted to technology sites, but I'll restrict the
context of my answer that way. I've struggled to find sites that are similar
to HN. Subreddits are about the closest thing:

[https://www.reddit.com/r/programming](https://www.reddit.com/r/programming)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/coding](https://www.reddit.com/r/coding)

\+ Numerous other subreddits for every language/technology.

I really wish there was something just like HN, but for videos (like hour long
talks). Does anyone know of any?

~~~
c0nducktr
You might like the Lectures subreddit.

[https://www.reddit.com/r/lectures/](https://www.reddit.com/r/lectures/)

------
odabaxok
[https://www.quora.com/](https://www.quora.com/)

------
jgeerts
[http://waitbutwhy.com/](http://waitbutwhy.com/)

Gives great insights in various matters for simpletons like myself.

------
sheraz
On a more lighthearted note, I've given more time to slither.io than I would
like to admit...

~~~
jpindar
It's a great game to play locally on my phone, but I find the online version
usually lags so much as to be unplayable.

------
patmcguire
Matt Levine's Money Stuff: The further down the link stack you go the weirder
it gets.

Slate Star Codex: A bit out of the mainstream, and he clearly has much more
contact with people far, far outside of it.

~~~
fellellor
I really enjoy Matt Levine's work. His articles on insider trading are simply
some of the most enjoyable stuff I've read.

------
dudul
Wikipedia. I will often get there looking for something specific, and end up
following multiple links, opening dozens of tabs and spending several hours
reading about various topics.

------
nickserv
I like to read the major online news sources from different countries and
compare:

[http://www.liberation.fr/](http://www.liberation.fr/)

[http://www.lemonde.fr/](http://www.lemonde.fr/)

[http://elpais.com/](http://elpais.com/)

[http://www.bbc.com/news](http://www.bbc.com/news)

[http://www.npr.org/](http://www.npr.org/)

[http://tass.ru/en/world](http://tass.ru/en/world)

It's really quite surprising the differences you'll see as far as what is
covered, how it's covered, and the placement & size of the articles. Not to
mention of course the content & bias of the articles.

By combining the different views, I like to think I'm able to get a more
complete picture of the "truth", although as you can see I read relatively
left-leaning publications (apart from TASS, obviously) so that is not to say
my worldview is completely fair and unbiased.

Other than that the usual techie stuff: ars technica, phoronix, nautilus, etc

------
LyndsySimon
My biggest one is "Arfcom" \- ar15.com.

The General Discussion forum
(www.ar15.com/forums/f_1/5_General_Discussion.html) there is my primary source
for breaking news. The community is big enough there's almost always someone
involved in whatever is going on, but small and targeted enough that there
isn't a lot of arguments and tangents in those threads.

While it is a US-centric gun forum and very heavily conservative/libertarian,
the community is far more tolerant of differing views than you would think.
It's been interesting watching the older members adjust as niche groups have
formed and made their presence known - LGBTQ people, bronies, furries, and
anarchists off the top of my head. Finally, while you may get piled on if you
post anti-gun views, you're not going to be banned for not agreeing with them.
It's honestly one of the more tolerant and valuable forums on the net in my
opinion.

~~~
drivingmenuts
Somehow, I am unable to picture an AR15-toting furry. Not that I'm trying very
hard, mind you, but still, the concept boggles my mind.

Also, AR15-toting bronies (although, my naive mind is thinking fathers with
daughters).

~~~
LyndsySimon
> Also, AR15-toting bronies (although, my naive mind is thinking fathers with
> daughters).

Note the avatars and usernames:
[http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1887509_Score___.html](http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1887509_Score___.html)

Come to think of it, the only bronies I know I met through that forum - so I
can honestly say that all the bronies I know own AR-15s.

------
CM30
Well, people have already mentioned TV Tropes and Reddit, but they're
definitely two places I can spend hours on end browsing for content.

Other than that:

[http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/](http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/) \- If
you like obscure games, this will keep you reading for hours. The amount of
Japan only arcade games you probably never knew you wanted is insane.

[http://www.spriters-resource.com/](http://www.spriters-resource.com/) \- And
its various associates for 3D models, textures and sounds. I can easily get
sidetracked just looking for examples of strange games, tilesets or enemy
sprites. If you're making a fan game or game mod... you'll probably spend more
time here than actually making the game.

Various Wikis in general. Super Mario Wiki, Zelda Wiki and Bulbapedia can keep
you reading for weeks if you're a fan of those franchises.

[https://tcrf.net/The_Cutting_Room_Floor](https://tcrf.net/The_Cutting_Room_Floor)
\- A very large wiki for unused content in games. There's a lot of fascinating
stuff there, and just looking for ridiculous developer rants can take up a
fair amount of my time.

For example, this rather amusing rant about warez teams and the demoscene:

[https://tcrf.net/Final_Fight_(Amiga)](https://tcrf.net/Final_Fight_\(Amiga\))

Forums in general. If I find a new forum, I'm probably not doing anything else
for the next weekend or so while I try (and sometimes fail) at catching up on
what happened over the last ten years.

[http://www.suppermariobroth.com/](http://www.suppermariobroth.com/) \- Yeah,
it's pretty obvious what my focus is when it comes to the internet. But it's
basically one very long feed of Mario tech gimmickry and randomness and it
makes for one hell of a trivia source.

------
lloyd-christmas
Compulsively reloading SO tags that I follow. Usually I can find questions I
can't answer, which leads down the rabbit hole of learning it. Maybe I can
even end up answering it by the end. win/win.

------
sbarg
The setup at [https://usesthis.com/](https://usesthis.com/) What do people use
to get stuff done

------
galaktor
A few times each year I come back to Randal Munroe's "What If" [1]. By then
I've forgotten where I left off last time and just kinda binge-read them over
the course of a few days. If anyone here hasn't seen them yet (or, like me,
hasn't checked in for some time), do yourself a favour and do it.

[1] [https://what-if.xkcd.com](https://what-if.xkcd.com)

------
bbctol
[http://fanlore.org/wiki/](http://fanlore.org/wiki/)

A wiki of nerd fandom stretching back to the 50s. I can spend hours just
hitting "Random Article" and seeing the minutes of a meeting on Starsky and
Hutch slashfiction in some hotel in 1978.

------
boneheadmed
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Drudge Report. I'ts like Hacker News
minus the comments, but for politics and also odd/unusual stories.
[http://www.drudgereport.com/](http://www.drudgereport.com/)

~~~
Spooky23
His ad networks have historically delivered too much malware.

We blocked it at work during one such episode many, many years ago, and got
crazy complaints from the call centers about IT being part of a vast left wing
conspiracy. Funny thing is that our boss was a county conservative party
chairperson.

------
unsignedqword
Twitter is a big one. Sometimes you just find that someone retweeted somebody
else or that someone replied to them so you just peek into their page and you
scroll down and occasionally find something interesting or funny; repeat until
I'm tired of it.

------
_nalply
[http://tvtropes.org/](http://tvtropes.org/) – click on the blue «Random
Trope» button (or it is a pill? — a trope!) and get bogged down in interesting
stuff about how stories are made.

------
tuned
Being and Time by Heidegger, a never-ending book; the same for
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del,_Escher,_Bach](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del,_Escher,_Bach)

------
evoltix
Currently, most of the links within this thread are becoming rabbit holes for
me.

------
agumonkey
[http://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?DougMerritt](http://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?DougMerritt)
used to be (not that particular page, even though it could)

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crablar
Software Engineering Daily www.softwareengineeringdaily.com

------
ddw
About once a month I start watching Larry Bird clips on Youtube, which sends
me down a rabbit hole of 80s and on NBA.

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dredmorbius
Internet Archive's texts collection.

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subpixel
englishrussia.com - some rather fascinating images from across the former
Soviet Union. From "Lugansk 2016" to "Famous Soviet Salads" and everything
inbetween.

------
IgorPartola
imgur.com for random entertainment

Wikipedia about random subjects I come up with

reddit.com/r/arduino and related for project ideas

hackaday.com

Edmunds.com car reviews, at least when car shopping

Random sites on Wikia about TV shows or video games.

------
tunap
For bizarre non-fiction I peruse the DI archives.

damninteresting.com

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rollcat
news.rollc.at, my personal feed aggregator. It pulls most content from HN &
Reddit, but there's also a bunch of random blogs.

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jtcond13
marginalrevolution.com, a blog maintained by two Economics professors at GMU
(more interesting than it sounds).

