
Ask HN: Will this community avoid an Eternal September? - w0de0
If so, how?<p>Is it not a risk for this community? Why?<p>Is the idea too nebulous for this to be a meaningful question?<p>Reference: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Eternal_September
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psyc
Regret to inform you that HN's Eternal September passed circa 2011. Before
that, according to my recollection, the community was mostly YC founders and
employees. Discussions were mostly about web startups, ideas, and tech. Tone
was professional, comments were substantive, and people used their real names.
Best of all, people were free to share their experiences without being
harangued at every turn by the "citation needed" and "my science is more
science than your science" cargo cults that became entrenched here at some
point.

~~~
psyc
Almost forgot: Paul Graham used to comment frequently, and now he comments
never.

~~~
fabrice_d
He's too busy since he joined the resistance...

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jasonkester
We're something like 8 years beyond HN's Eternal September, and seem to be
doing fine.

Early on, this was a place for entrepreneurs to share actionable advice about
building startups and software businesses. Over time, the developer-friendly
nature and hostility-free discussion attracted refugees from Slashdot and
Reddit.

Over time, other people from those communities trickled across, and many of
them were just average developer folk without any real interest in all this
entrepreneuring. But there was the occasional Haskell story here that they
could discuss, so they stuck around.

Eventually, the less civil members of those now empty communities arrived,
bringing their attitude and inclination to snark and pun threads with them.
You'll notice them voted down by the grown-ups, but less frequently than
before.

Still, it's a generally good vibe, and nothing yet has emerged to take its
place.

But it's a little late to worry about the word getting out. This is now the
most popular place on the internet to discuss tech.

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greenyoda
> _" Every September, a large number of incoming freshmen would acquire access
> to Usenet for the first time, taking time to become accustomed to Usenet's
> standards of conduct and "netiquette". After a month or so, these new users
> would either learn to comply with the networks' social norms or tire of
> using the service."_

This phenomenon is unlikely to occur in a moderated forum. Articles and
comments that violate HN's social norms (off-topic, uncivil, etc.) get flagged
pretty quickly. Users whose behavior is persistently bad get banned.

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bigiain
Your question assumes it hasn't happened already...

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angersock
I think that has already been answered by
[http://www.n-gate.com/hackernews/](http://www.n-gate.com/hackernews/) rather
conclusively.

~~~
soneca
I think the author doesn't read the same comments that I do. It is easy enough
to have a deeply cynical view of the world, especially if you chose to ignore
all things that contradict your cynicism.

