Hacker News Reader

Is HN not social media?

That's debatable. Where is the social element? If you stretch the definition of social media long enough you could also call the usenet, mailing lists or Wikipedia social media.

HN isn't really about human connections or personal interactions. We might discuss them, but HN isn't designed or usually used for creating them.

The comment section, submissions themselves, upvotes, and the user profiles - some of them even reaching celebrity-like status, for better or worse - are social elements in my eyes. And yes, I would also classify the usenet and mailing lists as social media. As for Wikipedia, maybe certain parts.

On the other end you have traditional media with fewer social elements and a limited number of content publishers: the press, books, television, radio, and read-only websites.

> Where is the social element?

Right here in the comments.

It's news at the very least. It's in the name.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com