I need to turn these interviews around faster. This one took me longer than usual to post because I love this community and I didn't want to misrepresent it.
Since there's nowhere to do that here, I guess I have to start my blog. I promised alaskamiller that I would start one last April, but I've been busy coding almost every day since (shame on me). I always thought if I had something to write, it should be compilable, but I now realize that I have to make the time to blog as well.
I'll take a break this weekend and figure out this wordpress thing. Stay tuned...
An interesting dichotomy occurs when he mentions "optimizing" for digg versus how to optimize for hacker news. Ed (edw519, I presume) says.. no.. just... be yourself. Be sincere. Don't try to game the system.
For a super-high traffic site like digg, it becomes absolutely paramount to get your hooks into people because you don't have alot of time to make an impact. An extra marketing once-over on the submission is virtually required (not to even mention going a step above to rigging the system with some quid pro quo or dummy accounts). It makes digg largely unappealing to me from a submissions stand-point because, first, the traffic is of low quality, and secondly, it seems... uhm... unsavory.
For a lower traffic site like this with a super narrow focus, it's much easier to get noticed. And the traffic is of extremely high quality (presuming you are on topic...) You are in the new queue long enough that your story is going to live or die on its own much more than the magic title, etc.
It is amazing how listening to people talk can then affect the way you read their comments. It is like you have a better/newfound understanding of the person they are based on their speech pattern, speed, accent, inflections etc.
Listening to this reminds of how sites like this remind me of sports talk radio, commenting on the latest play (link). Always better with more people around.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=202096