
Ask HN: Where do HN readers spend their online downtime? - mnoorani
I recently decided to stop using social media. Since then, my online downtime is pretty much spent on reading HN. But it can only go so far. So I&#x27;m looking for other fun yet informative places to kill some downtime.<p>Where do you spend your online downtime?
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ipnon
Marginal Revolution[0] is like HN for economics. It's another community where
the value of the posts is derived from the comments they generate and the
community that develops around them.

The Financial Times, too.[1] People will leave borderline inside information
in the comments section of articles. The readership is predominantly British
and the understated humor and jabs can be hilarious.

Non-profit article aggregators with open comments and persistent users seems
to be the sweet spot for an entertaining and mentally stimulating time on the
centralized web. I don't use any for profit social media platforms because the
psychoengineering is too strong for me. Anytime I reinstall Reddit or Twitter
I'll remove it in disgust a week later after realizing the amount of time I've
sunk without enough benefit.

[0] marginalrevolution.com [1] ft.com

~~~
jayzalowitz
I worked for the FT. The comment section is so cared for its amazing.

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ipnon
How does the FT take are of the comment section? Is there something commenters
can do to contribute?

~~~
agustif
By moderating like any other site I guess, trying to keep flamewars and trolls
away, enforcing civilised discussion, curating the comments by participating
themselves on the conversation...

Just my educated guess

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m3h
Sinking a lot of time into Netflix and YouTube lately.

For a more productive downtime, I like going through...

\- [https://www.joelonsoftware.com/](https://www.joelonsoftware.com/)

\- [https://www.heavybit.com/library/](https://www.heavybit.com/library/)

\-
[https://softwareengineeringdaily.com](https://softwareengineeringdaily.com)

Sometimes I find myself day-dreaming, jotting down ideas in my notebook (read:
Sublime text) for future projects and things I wanna do.

PS: Hello ex-APIMatician.

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Fiveh2751
Waitbutwhy.com is a resourceful website for almost everything about life...

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scanny
Youtube, Browsing stack overflow,
[https://www.reddit.com/r/proceduralgeneration/hot/](https://www.reddit.com/r/proceduralgeneration/hot/),
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Unity3D/?f=flair_name%3A%22Show-
Off...](https://www.reddit.com/r/Unity3D/?f=flair_name%3A%22Show-Off%22)

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enjeyw
LessWrong has a very high ratio of thought provoking content and conversation
on it.

~~~
nishparadox
This I concur. Highly thought-provoking and takes you places which otherwise
you don't normally.

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tmaly
FS blog and podcast have some really interesting material.

I like their weekly newsletter. It gives me a good recap. To be honest, I have
grown tired of the news under the stay at home order.

Most of my free time now has been back out in the garden now that Spring is in
full boom. I build a replacement raised bed last year.

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cpach
Just a thought: Maybe start a chat channel and invite some people?

~~~
snazz
This is a great suggestion! One of my friends started a Discord server for 50
or so acquaintances and it's been nice to talk to each other even if we aren't
seeing each other in person. It feels much more real and personal than most
social media sites since it's all people that I know in real life.

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frompdx
> So I'm looking for other fun yet informative places to kill some downtime.

I usually try to use my downtime for personal development. In particular, I
read books about programming/cs topics that interest me. Recently that has
been Forth. I also try to exercise at least four times a week for an hour or
more each session. Beyond that, I try to indulge my hobbies. This week I have
been scanning my old film negatives.

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econcon
I watch YouTube videos without engaging in comments.

Mostly related to machining and physics and electronics.

~~~
jagannathtech
I do the same thing, just the topics are different - permaculture, food
forests, urban/terrace gardening, off-grid living, survival prep etc

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kleer001
> stop using social media

>downtime is pretty much spent on reading HN

I know what you mean, but you can see the irony here, right?

It's a matter of scale, but still. I guess a city of 2 million is a bit
different from a town of 200 thousand, or 20 for that matter.

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whalesalad
Call of Duty: Warzone

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text_exch
I get an interesting article emailed to me every day from Thinking About
Things [0], so I use that to go down some rabbit hole.

[0] www.thinking-about-things.com

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non-entity
Various discord servers, mostly nowadays, or skipping through YouTube watching
various content from horror stuff to technical stuff.

~~~
diehunde
Any tips on getting started with Discord?

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ineedausername
Path of Exile global chatroom

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ycombonator
Slashdot zerohedge japantimes

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yogodojo
r/mealtimevideos

It's also like HN, aggregating the best videos from YouTube.

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nodelessness
Playing games on steam.

~~~
reinject
Chinese?

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scottporad
Imgur. (Though it’s not as good s as it used to be.)

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zzo38computer
IRC, mainly.

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mraza007
How do you access IRC on phone especially iPhone

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zzo38computer
With a IRC client. I don't know what (or if any) IRC clients are available for
iPhone, but I think you can try searching in the App Store, maybe. (I am not
so sure; I don't use iPhone)

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quickthrower2
Famous ones, maybe “too obvious to mention” would be dailywtf and xkcd. Even
an occasional dilbert is fun!

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livealife
r/dankmemes

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dronemallone
n-gate.com is a nice change from hn.

