from Hacker News

Ask HN: Where can I have good, technical discussion on random topics?

by server_man3000 on 8/11/23, 7:23 PM with 12 comments

Stack exchange usually bans random discussion and Reddit is usually pretty service level.

I have had some decent conversation on HN, but the medium is semi poor for convo.

I’m wanting to get into studying DB implementation, btree optimizations, parsers, etc. Whats a good place for hackers to just passionately chat and learn from each other?

Open source is cool, but I’m speaking more generally

  • by Jemaclus on 8/11/23, 10:09 PM

    Phil Eaton has a subreddit and Discord dedicated to DB implementation and parsers! https://eatonphil.com/discord.html

  • by lusus_naturae on 8/11/23, 7:47 PM

    Great question, I am wondering what other mediums anyone else is using, e.g., irc, slack, niche-topic discord, or weekly zooms. I have had taste of all of these, but I am yet to find something I can think completely satisfies. I know some local area hacker groups have slacks (but anyone can join them), and open-source projects or particularly niche projects have active discord servers/their own forums. Tbf, I mainly browse or lurk most places, or use HN for shitposting so I am not that well-versed.

    Edit to add: you may also find that some mastodon servers are particularly suited for some topic you're interested in.

  • by layer8 on 8/11/23, 7:36 PM

    Usenet used to be that. I'd be interested as well. For specific areas, you might be able to find a mailing list (often in the academic sphere). For PL/type theory there's http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/forum/1.

  • by fgeahfeaha on 8/11/23, 7:38 PM

    I found that if you follow a bunch of people on twitter who specialize in a niche topic you'll see a lot of casual interesting conversations there

    But the problem is that you can't start new discussions or ask a question unless those people follow you back because no one will see/reply to your tweets

  • by cpach on 8/11/23, 8:44 PM

    Why not start such a space online?

    IMHO chat is best for this. E.g. Slack or Discord. Or if you prefer open source solutions then Matrix, IRC, Mattermost or Zulip.

    You will need a critical mass, so I would try to aim for around 400-800 members or so. (Usually most people lurk so I wouldn’t aim for a too low number.)

    Best of luck!

  • by matheusmoreira on 8/11/23, 7:38 PM

    Any forum frequented by the hackers whose existence non-hackers have yet to discover. Mailing lists seem to be a good example: they're hard enough to use that non-hackers are filtered out. I'm a programmer and I was nearly filtered out myself.

  • by gardenhedge on 8/11/23, 8:47 PM

    How is HN "semi poor" but you seem to imply Reddit would be good if it weren't service level?

  • by bjourne on 8/15/23, 9:50 AM

    This is what friends are for.

  • by brudgers on 8/11/23, 11:37 PM

    School?