Hacker News
Encyclopedia
Hacker News is a social news
website about computer hacking and startup companies
, run by Paul Graham's funding firm Y Combinator
. It is different from other social news websites in that there is no option to down vote submissions; submissions can either be voted up or not voted on at all. In contrast, comments can be down voted when a user accumulates sufficient "karma," or points gained when submissions or comments are voted up. In general, content that can be submitted is defined as "anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity".
, functioning as a real-world application of the Arc
programming language which Graham co-developed.
The intention was to recreate a community similar to the early days of Reddit
. Graham has stated he hopes to avoid the Eternal September
that results in the general decline of intelligent discourse within a community.
Social news
A social news website is a type of website that features user-submitted stories that are ranked based on popularity.-Slashdot:Slashdot, started in 1997, was one of the first social news websites. It focuses mainly on science and technology related news. Users can submit stories, and the editors...
website about computer hacking and startup companies
Startup company
A startup company or startup is a company with a limited operating history. These companies, generally newly created, are in a phase of development and research for markets...
, run by Paul Graham's funding firm Y Combinator
Y Combinator
Y Combinator is an American seed-stage startup funding firm, started in March 2005. Y Combinator provides seed money, advice, and connections at two 3-month programs per year...
. It is different from other social news websites in that there is no option to down vote submissions; submissions can either be voted up or not voted on at all. In contrast, comments can be down voted when a user accumulates sufficient "karma," or points gained when submissions or comments are voted up. In general, content that can be submitted is defined as "anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity".
History
The site was created by Paul Graham in February 2007. Initially it was called Startup News or occasionally News.YC. On August 14, 2007 it became known by its current name. It developed as a project of his company Y CombinatorY Combinator
Y Combinator is an American seed-stage startup funding firm, started in March 2005. Y Combinator provides seed money, advice, and connections at two 3-month programs per year...
, functioning as a real-world application of the Arc
Arc (programming language)
Arc is a dialect of the Lisp programming language now under development by Paul Graham and Robert Morris.- History :In 2001 Paul Graham announced that he was working on a new dialect of Lisp named "Arc"...
programming language which Graham co-developed.
The intention was to recreate a community similar to the early days of Reddit
Reddit
reddit is a social news website where the registered users submit content, in the form of either a link or a text "self" post. Other users then vote the submission "up" or "down," which is used to rank the post and determine its position on the site's pages and front page.Reddit was originally...
. Graham has stated he hopes to avoid the Eternal September
Eternal September
Eternal September is a Usenet slang expression, coined by Dave Fischer, for the period beginning September 1993...
that results in the general decline of intelligent discourse within a community.