I'm not being negative, just accepting the reality of the situation.
You can't change human nature.
The system will always be playing catch-up using algorythms against people who want to hack with the system. I'm not saying this is a problem now but it might pay to think what happens the first time 'news.yc' gets slashdotted & overrun with the /. goths, vandels & huns.
It pays to think how can the software be written to enforce the culture? 'Artifacts of initial design' will have effects on future user interaction? [0]
'... I do believe it will only take a few tweaks to the site (for instance adding active discussions to the weighting that determines the front page order) and maybe 30-40 regular contributers to get the critical mass for discussions going. ...'
They have already started :)
'... I've noticed regular contributors such as Alex3917, python_kiss, rms and danielha (and of course pg) are constantly making valuable comments, just a few more guys like them and I think we'll be set. ...'
No. It was an interesting listen to Joshua Schacter at Startup school [1] talking about the energy required to counter the noise. But this a positive story The best thing aside from the comments to come out of YCNews may be the tools, algorythms developed, created to manage the sig to noise problems that will occur.
I'm not being negative, just accepting the reality of the situation. You can't change human nature.
The system will always be playing catch-up using algorythms against people who want to hack with the system. I'm not saying this is a problem now but it might pay to think what happens the first time 'news.yc' gets slashdotted & overrun with the /. goths, vandels & huns.
It pays to think how can the software be written to enforce the culture? 'Artifacts of initial design' will have effects on future user interaction? [0]
'... I do believe it will only take a few tweaks to the site (for instance adding active discussions to the weighting that determines the front page order) and maybe 30-40 regular contributers to get the critical mass for discussions going. ...'
They have already started :)
'... I've noticed regular contributors such as Alex3917, python_kiss, rms and danielha (and of course pg) are constantly making valuable comments, just a few more guys like them and I think we'll be set. ...'
No. It was an interesting listen to Joshua Schacter at Startup school [1] talking about the energy required to counter the noise. But this a positive story The best thing aside from the comments to come out of YCNews may be the tools, algorythms developed, created to manage the sig to noise problems that will occur.
Reference
[0] Joshua Schacter, 'Startup School talk'
http://notelab.infogami.com/startupschool2006
[Accessed Thursday, 22 March 2007]
[1] Joshua Schacter, 'YC VC presentation, APR 2006'
http://wiki.ycombinator.com/presentations/apr06/Joshua_Schacter.mp3
[Accessed Thursday, 22 March 2007]