

Ask HN: Forums with quality discourse - someperson

What other forums have the same quality of discourse as HN had (and on occasion, still has). The topic doesn't necessarily have to be start-ups. I want a site that has, like HN's guidelines state: "anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity".<p>Academic Hacker News had potential for a place for a good community. Arc Forum has good discussion, but I'm looking for something more general.<p>I read that, after the quality of HN fell heaps, some elite users left HN for some greener pastures. Where did they go?
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Ixiaus
I used to be a fervent seeker of intellectually stimulating "general"
forums/communities too. I've found a few and two things are apparent to me
because of the experiences:

\- without specific focus, you get overrun by people that desire "general"
intellectual discussion because it's easier to be general than it is specific
and generality always dilutes the culture of a group by introducing subjects
that not all are interested in (contrast that with specificity, where a
specific focus is shared as a common interest between the participants)

\- without specific focus, one is arbitrarily created by the."popular"
contributors and shuts out any one (by creating a point of focus) that isn't
in sync or interested.

My advice: figure out what _specifically_ it is that you want to have a
dialectic exchange about and find a community for it. Any sort of off topic
discussion will occur in their cafe or off topic areas where the same
intellectuals will do some cognitive "offload" by talking about other things
that are interesting.

Philosophy, physics, mathematics, programming, DIY, electronics, space
advocacy, psychology, etc... are all subject areas I can think of that have
many (stimulating) communities built to serve the sole purpose of exploring
and developing ideas and thought for the subject matter.

Get specific!

------
petercooper
_I want a site that has, like HN's guidelines state: "anything that gratifies
one's intellectual curiosity"._

MetaFilter - <http://metafilter.com/> \- meets this description, but the
definition of "intellectual curiosity" is somewhat wider than on HN - that is,
it's more literary and cultural and far less "techie." It's been going over 11
years though (disclaimer: I've been a member for 9).

There's also the Joel on Software boards and the just-launched "Gravity" -
<http://www.gravity.com> \- has some interesting discussions kicking off
already.

Other than that, the "programming" sub-Reddit isn't that bad:
<http://www.reddit.com/r/programming/>

~~~
nopassrecover
Joel on Software boards are closing. Closest thing I'm aware of now is
StackOverflow but opinionative discourse is usually frowned upon there.

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lunchbox
Similar question: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=290733>

Also, <http://lesswrong.com/>

~~~
someperson
Thanks for the link :D

It has been discussed before, but 2 years ago is a long time on the internet -
sites die but many more are born.

Oh although lesswrong is awesome, I'd love to find a "lesswrong" on technical
matters.

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mquander
For high-volume general discussion about a broad range of topics, Metafilter
is almost always still best, if you ask me.

~~~
anigbrowl
Seconded. Best $5 you can spend on the internet (to be a member, reading is
free).

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revorad
Check out <http://overcomingbias.com> and <http://lesswrong.com>.

There are some good discussions on Eliezer Yudkowsky's articles:
<http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~andwhay/postlist.html>.

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robk
I really enjoy flyertalk.com for travel and frequent flyer discussions. Their
subdomains for particular programs are ripe with really detailed info how to
maximize value from any miles you accumulate (even if you earn the miles
through methods other than flying). This was the home of Pudding Guy, the
miles hacker who collected yogurt tops and earned something like 10 million
frequent flyer miles for < $2,000. That's a lot of free flying.

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rrc
Lambda the Ultimate (<http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/>)

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jfarmer
Quora (<http://quora.com>)

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sendos
Straight Dope message board <http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb> is pretty
good

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jobenjo
Fluther (<http://www.fluther.com>)

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Tawheed
Why not start your own?

~~~
someperson
I'd rather join an already established community than spend a lot of time
building up a culture.

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rakim
Dude, internet forums will never be places of quality discourse so long as any
random person off the street can post a comment.

~~~
someperson
A read-only (invitation) forum with quality discussion would be fine too. I've
heard the vast majority of forum users are lurkers anyway.

