Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login
Ask YC: How will you build the community for a niche social news site?
6 points by adityakothadiya on Sept 25, 2008 | hide | past | favorite | 1 comment
Hi all, I started Siliconverge (http://www.siliconverge.com) - a Digg like social news site for Semiconductor & Hardware industry a few months ago.

The site is catering to very niche market. I am doing this in the part-time because I strongly believe that this site will add tremendous value to lives of people from Semiconductor industry. I'am a Chip Design Engineer and feel the pain, and see tremendous value in this service.

Semiconductor/Hardware people still visit 10 different news sources on the web to read news - the typical traditional way. And there is no service for this industry, which provides similar experience the way Siliconverge tries to provide.

Now, my question is - how do I build the community around this site? As we always know, these services don't add value unless there is a passionate community behind it.

All kinds of inputs/suggestions/feedback will be highly appreciated.

In general, this question applies to all those people, who want to start such niche news sites using Slinkset/Pligg or so.

Creating such sites has become very easy now - but what about building the community, and hence the potential business around it? Any thoughts?

Aditya, Siliconverge.com




I just want to add some more inputs - 1. Remember, Semiconductor industry people still don't get the "Social" aspect on the web. 2. They question "What's in it for me?" for Submitting news aspect.

I'm trying my best to convince every single user about "community/Social/WIIFM" aspect, but I would love to hear your thoughts/inputs about how would you create a community in such situation?

-Aditya




Consider applying for YC's Fall 2025 batch! Applications are open till Aug 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: