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Issue #223 - June 18, 2023
Here are the top threads of the week, happy reading!
1. Ask HN: Alternatives to Reddit
Top comment by sharperguy
I see reddit less as a website and more as a collection of communities. Each community has its own set of reasons for hosting itself on reddit vs other locations. Therefore I would predict that in the absence of reddit, not every community would move to the same place.
I also noticed that in recent years many subreddits have increasingly been taken over by memes and other low quality posts and so users looking for more substantial content have already moved elsewhere.
But some others have still been the best places to get early information on certain topics. For example /r/stablediffusion had a lot of people posting their novel uses and techniques for image generation. The QR code topic which is now blowing up here was already being talked about on reddit a week ago.
2. Ask HN: Why does Apple refuse to add window snapping to macOS?
Top comment by lloeki
Well, because it has?
Hover over the green stoplight, you get a popover with fullscreen options.
Press Option and the fullscreen options mutate into snap left/snap right/zoom.
These can also be found in the Window menu. Again, press option to mutate the fullscreen ones to snap.
And since these are menu options, one can set any keyboard shortcut of their choosing through the keyboard shortcut prefpane+.
So it is not "snapping" in the sense that you drag the window to the left or right side of the screen, and I would 200% agree that it is completely non-obvious to discover, but it is there for any one to peruse without any third party tool.
+ See here for how to achieve that, section "Tiling and snapping" (along with more things to make first party things more sane for a certain crowd) https://lna7n.org/2021/04/16/a-survival-guide-to-macos-from-...
3. Ask HN: What do you put in a “in case of death” file?
Top comment by solalf
Not on the “practical” side but not seeing anyone mention this here. This is a highly emotional time. I would add a personal letter for your spouse, children, surviving parents etc… Something to remind them how much you love them and that you’re grateful to have shared your life with them. Or whatever words fit.
4. Ask HN: What are some of the best Reddit alternatives?
Top comment by pc86
Going outside is a really good one.
Honestly, I was late to the Reddit train, didn't join until 2015 or 2016 or so. I noticed a marked decline in my overall mental well-being but I really did feel addicted to it. For several reasons I stopped using it a few years ago and I can't think of a single thing that's worse off than before.
Unless you're running ads and using traffic from Reddit to fuel your business, you're not getting any value out of it. I'd see something on HN and it would be weeks at best before it would pop up on any of the technical/programming subs, and the conversation was always 1/10 the quality of here.
5. Ask HN: What are some of the most elegant codebases in your favorite language?
Top comment by w10-1
I'd nominate Java itself.
In the decades Java sources have been available, any of the kazillion junior programmers could debug-step into java.* and see exactly what's happening -- progressive disclosure at its finest for building expertise.
Most other languages have a hard boundary, so the roots of language are a matter of conceptual documentation and experience. Java also offers that fly-over knowledge, but when problems arise, programmers love knowing exactly and seeing directly.
Personally, in a pinch I prefer the actual to the elegant.
6. Ask HN: Has Google search switched to infinite scrolling for you too now?
Top comment by breadwinner
They had to make this change because they increased the number of ads. If the result is paginated, a high percentage of links in the first page would be ads. With infinite scroll that's not a problem because there are an infinite number of links on "the first page".
Overall, Google has turned up the number of ads. Not just in search, but also in YouTube and also in Gmail. In YouTube, you didn't have ads in low-view-count videos. Now they have ads in all videos, whether the video owner turned it on or not. In Gmail, in the Promotions tab, only the top couple of items were ads, now there are ads interspersed with the rest of the mails.
Increasing revenue by turning up the volume of ads is very short sighted. Personally, I find Google properties less interesting now, and it is tarnishing the Google brand. So why are they doing this? Perhaps they need to fill a revenue shortfall caused by ChatGPT?
Top comment by codingdave
The more I use GPT, the less I'm worried. It is a tool, and a good one, but not a replacement for the thought required to design an app that will function, scale, and have good UX to result in a marketable product. So use it and enjoy its benefits while letting it help you perform even better.
As far as everything else you've said... oof, you need a break. You seem focused on money and ego. Maybe it is time to simplify a bit, explore what else the world has to offer. Worry less about whether anyone else can do your job and more about whether or not you are enjoying your life. Make changes, have some fun. If you don't want a mortgage but have multiples of the deposit needed, buy a smaller, simpler place with cash. Then you don't have rent or a mortgage.
8. Ask HN: Anyone at Reddit can confirm a traffic dip?
Top comment by sillysaurusx
I’ve been browsing Reddit’s mobile app in Popular mode just to see how the experience is for average redditors.
Unfortunately there’s enough interesting content that I’m not sure average people will even notice or care. And it’s painful to say that.
By “interesting” I mean interesting to the masses. /r/AITAH, /r/iamatotalpieceofshit, /r/therewasanattempt, /r/news… the list goes on.
Part of Reddit’s strength is that even with only a handful of subs, it still surfaces the most interesting content from those subs. The net effect is that people who aren’t a member of a community gone dark won’t really be affected.
At least they’ll see it, though. I had to scroll past many posts about the blackout, which isn’t nothing.
9. Ask HN: Why would Google sell Google domains to Squarespace?
Top comment by petercooper
My guess is customer support.
Domain registrars end up with a long tail of customers holding small numbers of domains. If Google sells a .com for $12, most of that goes to Verisign, and they're stuck with a customer who will get agitated when "their domain doesn't work." Many registrars use domains as a way to upsell hosting or premium domains (e.g. GoDaddy, Namecheap, Gandi) but the median Google Domains user is unlikely to be attracted to GCP.
Google dislikes having to deal with customers at scale (free users are fine as you can ignore them) and domain registration is high on the list of businesses where you end up with large amounts of customers expecting a certain level of service coupled and almost no margin to provide it.
10. Ask HN: Is there a good camping chair that is comfortable for programming?
Top comment by kolmel
I'd recommend a chair that folds up to a square shape, rather than a tube shape. Like this one from BCF (available in Australia, I'm sure there's a similar shop in Sweden) : https://www.bcf.com.au/p/wanderer-reclining-mesh-lounger/520...
This is the kind I'd recommend you avoid: https://www.bcf.com.au/p/oztent-king-goanna-hotspot-camp-cha...
The reason being is that these chairs tend to have better back and butt support for longer periods. This particular model allows you to recline as well, which can be good. It'd mess up your neck if you're doing it every day for weeks on end, but the occasional park day would be fine.