
Ask HN: Would you be interested in a “cyberpunk” inspired news site? - zabana
Hi HN,<p>I&#x27;ve been thinking about starting a blog &#x2F; news site covering topics like privacy, cryptography, robotics, software etc, with a critical view on their evolution and potential effects on society at large.<p>Ideally it would be made of long form, researched,  in depth articles and interviews with experts in those fields.<p>I&#x27;d also like to feature regular &quot;hackers&quot; doing cool stuff (like the guy who traveled to shenzhen to build his own iPhone)<p>What do you think of this idea ? Would you be interested in reading such a site if it existed ?
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brudgers
Everything I have read and heard about successful blogs is that people write
regularly for a year or two or more and eventually people care enough to pay
attention. There are probably several reasons:

1\. Writing and publishing everyday or so over a sustained period of time
improves a person's skill at writing in general and writing for an audience in
particular.

2\. One of the ways popular blogs capture first time readers is with a back
catalog of other interesting posts that suggest the site is worth book-
marking/revisiting.

In terms of news sites, pick a topic to start because I can go just about
anywhere for a random mix of subjects. Making one is probably harder than a
blog because a news site is competing with Tom's Hardware, Hacker News Reddit,
Google News, Facebook, and so on. Without staff, that will be really hard.

Good luck.

~~~
scryder
>I can go just about anywhere for a random mix of subject

You're not wrong that this is short-term easier to establish an audience, but
your long-term goal is to get to a point where a hypothetical reader of your
blog will say "Well, yeah, you could find that topic anywhere, but personally
I'm more interested in $NAME's opinion on the topic".

The best way to establish that is put out really good content until you've
built up enough blogger 'cred' that you can tell me about other parts of you
and I'll just wanna know.

~~~
brudgers
The quoted phrase was made in regard to creating a news site. I interpreted
the original question as considering a news site to be an alternative to a
blog. My apologies for the confusion.

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escape_goat
I think that of course most people here would be generally interested in
reading such content, and if you can make a compelling case that there is a
niche or intersection of interests that isn't well represented at a level of
depth/complexity, then you have an interesting proposal.

However, you are describing two very different things. With a blog, one simply
begins to write blog posts. There is no other approach to take, as you must
before anything else establish your credibility as a writer within a domain of
knowledge.

A news site is a far different proposal. Before you put a lot of effort into
it, you need to figure out what might be crassly termed a 'business model',
which in more general terms is simply, "here is my vision: what work is
required to make it a reality; how will that work be done; who will do that
work; why will they chose to do that work; how do I expect to benefit from
this; do I still like what I am envisioning."

I think there's still lots to be dissatisfied with in the current landscape of
content providers and aggregators.

For instance, a lot of nominal 'content providers' bulk up their content flow
with hasty recapitulations of content elsewhere; that this activity avails
them at all is, I believe, in particular, indicative of an unfilled niche in
content aggregation. One frequently sees, out in the boonies of the not-
directly-for-profit internet, knowledgable and useful summaries and
introductions of content hosted elsewhere. Fleshed out more thoroughly with a
contextualization of what something means, how and why it matters, and what it
should lead the reader to anticipate, such material could facilitate reader
access to expert opinion and information that would otherwise be beyond them.

As another example, editorial oversight, in particular, is in a state of near-
crisis, everywhere. This is crucial, as it is the lynchpin of journalism. A
different model of quality assurance would be transformative.

~~~
a3n
A blog can be the first step to something bigger. "Just start" would be the
blog version.

------
RunningDroid
I think the market might be saturated. There are 2 cyberpunk news sites that I
know of and they mostly report the same events.

Sites: [https://www.neondystopia.com](https://www.neondystopia.com)
[https://n-o-d-e.net](https://n-o-d-e.net)

~~~
smithsmith
Looks like [https://n-o-d-e.net](https://n-o-d-e.net) is written using org-
mode. Also who is the author, i am not able to find any about link.

~~~
Famicoman
His name is Chris, he's a friendly guy if you shoot him an email.

------
ejfox
That sounds really great. I think that the day-to-day "breaking news" style
reporting on this subject is common, but longer more visual pieces that get
into the nitty-gritty are rare.

I'm a designer and journalist very interested in similar areas. I just started
releasing a podcast focusing on similar subject matter:
[http://metaverse.audio](http://metaverse.audio)

If you end up moving forward I'd love to chat. ejfox@ejfox.com

~~~
zabana
Absolutely ! Btw I love the podcast, totally worth a listen. Production
quality is top notch. Definitely on par with Motherboard.

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ATsch
I feel like lainchan.org is related, you can often find these kinds of
discussions there. Site was recently reset so it looks a bit empty.

The community publishes a magazine (lainzine), but I have personally not read
it yet. If you want to do this kind of stuff just for fun and don't mind a
smaller audience, you could look into that.

~~~
rjeli
don't forget lainchan.jp ;)

~~~
kebolio
hmm the .jp international clique really does spread far and wide...

------
ptomato
Like [https://www.exolymph.news](https://www.exolymph.news)?

~~~
avlasyuk
This is good, thank you.

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newobj
It's already available at [http://rekall.me/](http://rekall.me/)

~~~
zabana
Oh God, this is brilliant. Thanks for the bookmark !

~~~
prawn
If you like that, this might sideline you for weeks:

[http://randomghost.tumblr.com/](http://randomghost.tumblr.com/)

------
arcanus
I find HN (and most of modern life in general) pretty cyberpunk as it is.

~~~
musha68k
Exactly. We are only already often blind to that fact, think about how many
years have passed since "Snowden" alone..

2013 has been a pretty seminal point in time imho – ubiquitous mobile
computing/internet, Google basically buying a DARPA owned Boston Dynamics,
etc, etc.

It has only been accelerating since then (artificial wombs anyone?). We are
fully living in "hardcore" cyperpunk times already for sure..

------
almccann
Do you mean cypherpunk?

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

~~~
DanBC
They probably meant cyberpunk, since they mentioned the combination of
techology and social impact.

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

~~~
peterwwillis
Cyberpunk is an aesthetic, Cypherpunk is sociopolitical.

Thematically there is very little different between cyberpunk and steampunk.

~~~
exolymph
You might enjoy this essay I wrote about cyberpunk politics:
[https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2016/10/27/the-cyberpunk-
sensibil...](https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2016/10/27/the-cyberpunk-sensibility/)

------
homarp
So basically a longer version of
[https://twitter.com/thegrugq](https://twitter.com/thegrugq) \+ hackaday ?
what technical level you would target for your audience ?

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seibelj
If you create solid, original content that is interesting, people will
respond. Focus on how to market the content if you are confident you can
create something people want to read.

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avlasyuk
For anyone interested in cyberpunk and electronic music
[http://www.legowelt.org/cyberzine.htm](http://www.legowelt.org/cyberzine.htm).
An outstanding magazine by Danny Wolfers. We need more in depth stuff like
this and less thumbnail blogs and tweets.

------
Famicoman
Hi, I've written for n-o-d-e.net, exolymph.news, and 2600 (all gratis,
hopefully neondystopia.com soon). I'd be very interested in your site and to
do some writing if you'd have me. Hit me up at Famicoman@gmail.com or
@Famicoman if you'd like to chat.

------
declan
<zabana>: The threshold question is: do you want to make money on a
"cyberpunk-inspired" news site operated as a business, or is your "cyberpunk-
inspired" hobby site expected to lose money--as hobbies typically do?

I've started both and worked as a journalist for both. Hobby sites are more
fun. News sites are more work.

If you can make a decent income from this site, then you might be encouraged
to write for it when you might otherwise be uninterested or unwilling (and you
also might be able to hire freelancers or a staff). On the other hand, as
anyone following the digital media business knows, making a decent income from
an online news site is a non-trivial task.

------
a3n
Sort of an above ground version of the barely underground 2600? Sure.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2600:_The_Hacker_Quarterly](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2600:_The_Hacker_Quarterly)

------
jupiter90000
Can you say more about what definition of cyberpunk you'd be using for
determining if content was relevant for that topic? If you mean "topics like
privacy, cryptography, robotics, software etc, with a critical view on their
evolution and potential effects on society at large", I'd be interested if
there was well- curated content in these areas.

If I can make one suggestion, it would be to honestly ask yourself if you are
able to get and curate this content in a way that'd be compelling for others
and not just yourself. If it seems like that may not be the case, perhaps get
others involved in helping to curate? Not sure if that's the answer.

------
partycoder
Cyberpunk is "high tech" \+ "low life". In a sense, the app-driven gig economy
is to me the embodiment of that combination, but that's still boring and not
really news at this point.

Now if you want more drama, you could talk about more sensational stuff such
as how drones are making their way into organized crime, for example how the
Japanese police and the Yakuza are starting some sort of evolutionary arms
race around drones that transport illegal goods. Also how 3d printing is
making into lockpicking and weapon manufacturing... stuff like that.

------
corobo
Who is making the critical views? That would make 90% of my decision with the
remaining 10% being writing style/ability.

I already know of a handful of people that comment on those topics that others
may describe as wearing a tinfoil hat - If that's the style of criticism then
no, absolutely not. Not interested. If it's more positive but pointing out
where it's possible to go wrong I might give it a go.

Personally speaking too, I'd much more likely subscribe to a podcast than
consistently read articles - My downtime is mostly only during commutes.

------
apeace
I'd be interested in helping out. Please get in touch!
[https://apeace.github.io/contact.html](https://apeace.github.io/contact.html)

------
blanket_the_cat
Yes. This isn't even a question. The answer is yes. The ubiquitous 'clean,
modern, "Tech is neat! :D Business and advertising! :D Everything is safe! :D"
aesthetic' is wrong. It's a monolithic lie, and we all know it.

The biggest contributing factor to the decline of the cyberpunk aesthetic in
the 80's-90's was how quickly it became realism. If you read a William Gibson
novel now, it would be like reading William Faulkner in the 1800's.

(I know Faulkner didn't publish in the 1800's. don't go there, this is my
reply and that means I decide how time works here.)

The implications of the use of the advanced tools we build on the individual,
and the species as a whole, is rarely considered with the gravity it deserves,
at least by the vast majority of end users, I believe, in large part, because
capitalism is predatory, and subsequently the tools it uses to accomplish it's
end must be uniformly masked, behind a layer of safe aesthetics. A revival of
the cyberpunk aesthetic in general, which paints technology as dangerous,
empowering, and hints that the deeper into the technical details you get, the
more empowered you become, would be a welcome return to realism from the
magazine glossy, UI/UX of modern services. I mean seriously, this "Mumblecore"
jargon and friendly faces on services which, let's be frank here, are simply
the injections of profit and information siphoning mechanisms (the successful
ones anyway) into monetary transactions for goods and services, and exchanges
of information, between people, which already existed, in exchange for a
razor-thin layer of convenience, and a gross distortion to their psychological
faculties for perceiving value, to the end of contributing to the
centralization of money, thus access to resources, and data, thus the ability
to derive information, into the hands of a few, and creating (I'm trying my
best to tone down the hyperbole here) impermeable veil of branding, that
obfuscates as completely as possible, what anything actually is, or does.

(Don't go there. It's my reply, that means I can nest as many clauses in a
statement as I want.)

If your blog even piques someone's curiosity, or contributes peripherally to a
compulsion to dig deeper into how the layers of complex systems underlying the
mechanisms we use to interact with the world now work, it was worth every
minute you spent on it up to that point. Seriously, do it.

Speaking from personal experience, if you had shown me an ad for a "coding
bootcamp" when I was 10, I would have chosen.. literally anything else to get
into. Fortunately, I got my hands on a copies "Hell: A Cyberpunk Thriller",
and "Shadowrun" instead. The sentiment of that art, the feeling of those
ideas, with regards to technology, has kept my interest alive through day
after day of questioning whether or not this specific impending bout of
'meeting business requirements' in which I am about to engage means I am a
terrible person.

Just do it dude. You know you want to.

------
Animats
_...covering topics like privacy, cryptography, robotics, software etc, with a
critical view on their evolution and potential effects on society at large.
Ideally it would be made of long form, researched, in depth articles and
interviews with experts in those fields. I 'd also like to feature regular
"hackers" doing cool stuff (like the guy who traveled to shenzhen to build his
own iPhone)_

That's Wired magazine.

~~~
Overtonwindow
Wired is a shell of what it once was. I've got issues going back to 1998 and
it is sad. Today it's mostly fluffy pieces with maybe one longhorn, and 75%
sponsored content or advertising.

~~~
oneshot908
Ars Technica then? That said, Cyberpunk to me would be more deep dives on
brain-computer interfaces, signs of the robot apocalypse or not (probably
mostly not), and weird but not quite fringe science like DIY Life Extension.

But like another posted said, just go do it and see if it attracts an audience
IMO.

------
eleumik
oh "cyberpunk" ! so long time I didnt' hear this term. How many lost
illusions. Amazon and Facebook is what we have instead, and billions of
consumers..

do it

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segf4ult
That idea sounds fantastic! I would definitely be interested. I'm sure I would
end up spending a significant amount of time on the site.

------
Overtonwindow
Only if it meets the following criteria:

1) Apolitical. No editorializing. No political opinions what so ever. Just the
absolutely facts.

That's it. There is enough out there already that you're way behind the curve.
However, IMHO, if you produce something that is apolitical, and stays on the
facts without allowing your personal political ideology to bleed through, it
would be really wonderful.

~~~
a3n
Privacy, cryptography, and even _the uses of_ software in general are almost
by definition political. By claiming "cyberpunk," it sounds like OP is
proposing something exactly opposite of what you're suggesting.

Not that there's anything wrong with what you're suggesting, but it sounds
like you're at the city counsel meeting for the new zoo, and you're saying
"OK, but no animals."

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michaelflux
Absolutely would - if you're talking about original content.

However if what you're suggesting is 'lets be the 50,000th site to cover the
guy who built his own iPhone' \- then little point, already follow too many
sites that regurgitate the same content.

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wayspurrchen
I also make one of these (I don't write the articles but I aggregate them):
www.glitchet.com

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cryptarch
So basically something like Boing Boing?

If your execution is equally good, sure, I'd read that.

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Rodeoclash
You might want to take a look at
[http://neuromaencer.com/visualise/](http://neuromaencer.com/visualise/) to
get your fix of Cyberpunk aesthetics

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mixedCase
From the technical angle, we're well-covered.

From the cyberpunk angle, there was a Facebook page I used to follow doing
this sort of coverage; but ended up being too high-level.

I _personally_ don't think I would read it.

------
pier25
You mean like
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Cyberpunk/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Cyberpunk/)

------
cyberpunk
Yes; my life isn't as exciting as I let on though so you might be
disappointed..

TBH most of the content on theintercept feels pretty cyberpunk to me though...

------
KirinDave
Seems as good a place as any to mention:
[http://archillect.com/](http://archillect.com/)

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spiraldancing
All things that I love. I'd read that.

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19eightyfour
Please do it. You could crowd source some writing and act as editor.

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mreome
Stop thinking and do it, the worst thing that could happen is that you just
learn something new. =]

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deepnet
"...but the street finds its own uses for things."

Is surely the epitome of the hacker mindset.

Please do, I will read.

------
bradknowles
Cyberpunk in the William Gibson sense?

Or Cypherpunk?

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mindcrime
Yes, probably so. Sign me up.

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jarboot
Write it and they will come!

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shellab
Sure! That sounds great.

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itomato
Sounds like Slashdot.

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ccvannorman
I would read it.

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ucontrol
Very much so!

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momentmaker
+1 from me.

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ptenk
yes!

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jbrambleDC
yes please

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killjoywashere
No. Go figure out how to cure cancer. Or dig us out of this bat-shit crazy
populist-nationalist insanity sweeping the planet. Or bring jobs to the
millions of unemployed young Arab men who are apparently hot, bored, and
unemployed enough to wage jihad. Or install solar panels in the desert. But
for the love of all that's holy, please, don't waste your precious life on
producing another niche news site.

