Ask HN: Is there any available stats about HN users?

1 point·galfarragem··5 comments

I couldn't find anything about it. It would be interesting to know who HN users are. They are not only US based, neither only CS guys. I believe most of the smartest and curious people in the world use HN at some extent as soon that they know about it.

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You can click on any username on the Front Page or Newest page and read the profile, which may or may not contain something of interest. A majority seem not to put much there, but some do.

You can also check out the users with the top 100 karma and do the same.

I do note that you haven't filled out your profile information. If you don't provide your information, why should anyone provide information for you?

I would be glad to participate in a survey for example. I'm not asking about a specific HN user profile, I'm asking about HN users in general. Geographical distribution, professional activities, etc. I don't need to know that she (or he) is a teacher, I would like to know percentages.

There have been many, many polls over the years. the problem is that they are all self-selected, and so there is likely to be significant bias in any results, rendering conclusions impossible. There have also been various attempts at getting web sites running that allow users to register and say where they are, presumably so that meetings between the can be arranged. I've seen no success in this regard.

So no, I know of no surveys of HN users, and no sizeable, bias-free aggregate data.

You could check out www.hnsearch.com and the apps who utilize its API.

Great tip! Thanks

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