Which of you used to be lurkers?

I think there are three categories of participation. Those who comment, those who just submit articles, and those who do both. Naturally people will drift between those phases.

When I first started, I did both. But I lurked for at least 2 years before creating an account. And oh what a rush it was to reach mid-3 digit karma points at a time when I was bored at my dead-end corporate programming job. And I still remember making it to the “Best of” comments a few times. I know they were just upvotes but I felt like someone out there liked my little contribution or comment. At the peak of my commenting, I remember once I got a shout out from Andrew of Mixergy.

Over time, while I still comment occasionally to train my ChatGPT nemesis, I have settled into just submitting articles.

I think the reason why I’ve drifted away from commenting is that commenting in pseudonymous environments just gets you imaginary Internet points. Also commenting on HN can become a large use of time, particularly if you want to read all the threads in a discussion.

Right now, I’d rather be active in and build virtual relationships with people in a small, manageable number of Discords or Slacks, some of which are actually acquaintances I’ve met in person.

I suspect the vast majority only read HN, some comment, and a much smaller number actively vote in new, and an even smaller number vote on individual comments absent a slapfight in the comments.

I found my participation got more... contentious when I started voting and submitting, not just occasionally commenting.

I mentioned during my Wikipedia privacy engineer interview a few years ago that I think many sites have a false promise of wanting feedback and HN is a great example.

(I told Wikimedia that if hired, I'd implement a dot onion on their site to reduce the load on exit nodes plus help their users avoid the chilling effects they've discussed on the policy side and I think HN should as well.)

For context, I had to temporarily abandon this nym for years after I was physically assaulted in the midst of taking a break from an OSCP study session to engage in some legally protected free expression... that librarian no longer works for that township, but dear lord -- when it comes to so called "free speech" some folks seem to only support it when it's being used to increase harm to vulnerable people or line their pockets.

Now that I understand the guidelines, I find HN to be what Slashdot strived to be though obviously the Eternal September 11th of folks showing up to demand an end to encryption and/or democract (the two are intertwined) or relentlessly argue until you break some rule of decorum will always be an issue.

(The solution to the wolf warrior internet diplomats is to simply curse them out, but that's not allowed here sadly.)

- Greg.

I was intimidated by the quality of HN comments when I came over from reddit 4 years ago. Now I like sharing opinions and the occasional back and forth.

I feel I don't often have much to say because I'm not presently engaged with anything but my own research. However I lurk about and try to get some understanding of some of the issues facing modern engineering without necessarily having much pertinent to offer.

I was lurking since 2008. Then one day someone asked how they would build an app (stack choices, language, etc). I saw so many complex solutions that would be hard to change and pivot… it made me so pissed, that I created an account and wrote a comment.

Someone commented back along the lines “you’d single-handedly beat all of these solutions to market” and it felt great.

Since then, I still only comment on things that make me face palm or when I want to tell a related story (like having beers with Ian Fleming’s yacht mechanic). I get more out of it these days. I get told I’m wrong and learn things. It’s a more valuable experience to me.

I lurk, mainly because I have little to add and when I try it's usually downvoted or I'm shadow banned to begin with.

Lurking was different, I used to read interesting threads that were many months old and that gave me inspiration. Now it's much more FOMO on the latest threads and it becomes distracting, that's why I prefer interaction on classic forums.

Was a lurker until a year ago. I like to comment to see what the general temperament is around certain topics and add value where possible. I was actually able to validate quite a bit of ideas for my book through HN. Thank you HN.

Long time lurker. I used to use forums lots, then went though about 10 years where I contributed nothing anywhere. Decided to start contributing again, and HN feels worth contributing to.

I lurked for about 2 years I think. I have yet to submit an article - though I have a project to show coming in the near future.