Ask HN: Is it always this meta? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is it always this meta?

14 pointssam_in_nyc41 comments

I'm rather new around here, so I don't know the full history of HN. Are there always so many meta discussions going on? Is this just a phase?

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Yes and no. This is the community's immune response. A couple of weeks after an influx of new users, the community stages a massive navel-gazing festival designed to test the new folks' mettle.

Once we shake off the people who don't really want to be here, we'll return to our usual diet of startup announcements, website reviews, complaints about techcrunch, artfully disguised attempts to reignite holy wars so that we can all spectate, and questions that have been asked every six months since the beginning of the site. Not to mention: news and information.

--- NOTICE: This has been an attempt at humor. Do not refer to it as a "theory", lest ye be mocked. Please phrase replies in haiku form.

I disagree mech

With the theory bit at least

It sounds plausible

You're good. I saw the word "theory" and was getting ready to mock you! But in fact yours is a meta-comment about my so-called theory, and that is so in-keeping with today's theme that I should really upmod it twice.

I cannot be sure

but it would appear to me

this is not haiku :)

Do as I say not

As I do as I say not

As I do say not

Posting on iPhone

hard enough; meta-replies

exempt in that case ;)

best part of your post

"massive navel-gazing fest"

it's human nature

a community

experiences changes

of course we fear this

so we turn inward

and ask ourselves the question

what do we value?

there is a story

on overcoming bias

about compromise

when two cultures meet

what do you give up and what

do you get to keep?

free verse, or did I

just skim this too fast to see

subtle hidden form?

oh wait! i can't count

can't judge my own rules while I

sit in my rails class

Man, typing haiku

is a pain here; time for more

meta-design? Nooooo!!!

now parent is dead

haiku game will now wind down

thank you for playing!

It's just a phase.

Have you got a demo of the discussion system you mention in your profile? I'd love to see it.

> It's just a phase.

HN is like a teenager going through an "emo" period. We all need a haircut and some new music to listen to. And a date.

...emphasis on the date part.

Hopefully, it'll be a short phase. It's really getting quite tedious.

It's nice to know that it's just a phase.

I'd love to share the demo, but I don't fill like spilling the beans on the details of it yet. It's one of those things where once the idea is out, it's out, and I want to be sure I'm in a position to get the most out of it.

That's fair enough.

It sounds like a fascinating idea, though! I'd love to chat with you about commenting online in general - maybe not about your system in particular but about how commenting works. If you ever need somebody to bounce ideas off of, drop a line!

Drop me an e-mail :)

The best, similar thing I've found is:

http://www.backtype.com/

I'd be excited to see your demo as well.

Have you got a demo of the discussion system you mention in your profile? I'd love to see it.

He might be one of the founders of socialbrowse? They're a YC-backed startup.

Explained here: http://mashable.com/2008/07/25/socialbrowse-release/

Install from here: http://socialbrowse.com/

I definitely want to see a demo of the startup from his profile.

The phase, is it still called September?

It would appear that meta was just the beginning, we now have meta-meta-posts :p

Seriously though, the meta-phase, or the crawling-up-its-own-arse phase, seems to be something a lot of sites go through. Hopefully it will die down soon because it's getting a bit boring.

Ye Gods! It's a discussion about meta discussions!

It's our first meta meta discussion!

I feel so proud.

I'm vehemently opposed to meta meta discussions. This is like staring at somebody else while they look at their belly button. Or looking at your own belly button while somebody else stares at you. Or staring at somebody else's belly button while they look at yours. Or something like that (I am assured that all of this has to do with naval gazing by other commenters)

If you must reply, please make it rhyme (I never could figure out how to do that haiku format)

It is elevating the belly button to the position of subject. The philosophical equivalent of a corporate entity.

This discussion doesn't really help, you know?

Forgive me, I didn't realize there was a problem with meta-discussions, and that it was my responsibility to "help" by not talking about them.

Not at all. It's just that as you said, there's been quite an influx in the past three days, and we're all waiting for that trend to die down again.

There's no problem, I just thought your post was a bit ironic in that sense :)

HN is always on about how the community is degrading, though apparently there has been some recent evidence to suggest that it is. That's what all the ballyhoo is about.

There are always lots of articles about "Rate my startup!" and "Ask HN", though. If you meant that you've been noticing a lot of those, then it's not a phase---it's regular.

Those are usually, my favorites.

The news I can get anywhere, but the intelligent discussion on said topics is harder find.

At the risk of sounding stupid, can someone explain to me exactly what "meta" in this context means?

The general rule for "meta" is: "meta-X" → "X about X." Examples: "meta-data" → "data about data", "meta-language" → "language about language", "meta-vanity" → "vanity about vanity" (a concept explored by the late DFW though he termed it "second-order vanity"), etc.

Talking about Hacker News... about the website, about social media etc.

'Meta' because instead of just hacker news, we have news about hacker news. (from metadata)

And this is news about news about hacker news.

Error: Stack level too deep.

no, not really. the site gets discussed a lot when changes happen, and changes have just happened.

Check for yourself. Here are about 9 months of Hacker News front pages:

http://www.kirubakaran.com/phr0zen/

It's just a phase.

Presumably a combination of a few new features that have just been added and the fact that there have been quite a few new users lately.

There's alwasy a little bit of it, but hopefully most of it will go away in a few days.

I got yer non-meta right here:

I'm working on a project that's similar/complementary to yours (cf. my profile) and think we ought to chat. Email me.

I'd love to chat... but I don't know your email address. Check my profile, and shoot me an email.

Meta is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

And you're not helping.

Neither am I.

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