Make Code Reviews Great Again, Both as Authors and as Reviewers - <AUTHOR> http://joaomdmoura.com/articles/make-code-reviews-great-again <comment><USER2> When anyone wants to make something "Great Again", I honestly can't tell if they want to make it as shitty as possible.

<comment><AUTHOR> haha that's not the case I assure you that. But I understand where you're coming from.</comment></comment>


Thoughts on Earning $100,000 in 4 Months for an Indie Mac App - <AUTHOR> http://blog.desk.pm/100k/

<comment><USER2> Actually, that is your net revenue number. You have gross revenue of $172k, minus a cost that isn't really part of your operations (Apple's cut), leaving you with net revenue.

Costs of goods sold (COGS) (or cost of services) is deducted from revenue to give you a gross profit number, from which are deducted sales, general, and administrative expenses (SG&A) are deducted to get you to gross income, and then taxes are deducted to get you to net income.

I often draft net revenue provisions in contracts when someone is getting a percentage commission from the gross but things like returns, credits, other commissions, etc. should in fairness be deducted from that number.

Not all companies use gross and net revenue -- it really depends on the size of the component that goes away. Apple, for example, should not report $172k of revenue but rather their $72k cut as their net revenue -- since they never have a right to that other money, it could/would be misleading for them to report it as part of their operations.

That's your hard work, not theirs. Congratulations.

</comment><comment><USER3> Congrats John. An accomplishment well deserved! Way to put your nose to the grind and bust a$$!

<comment><AUTHOR> thanks dale!

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Incredible. Well done to you!

<comment><AUTHOR> Sure thing! Have any questions? I'd love to help answer them!

<comment><USER5> How and where did you market the app ? google adsense etc

<comment><AUTHOR> i actually share some of that here: [http://blog.desk.pm/2014-yir/](http://blog.desk.pm/2014-yir/)

i primarily did content marketing through blogs and paid sponsorships.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


A Phone Company Fought the NSA–And the NSA Won - <AUTHOR> http://www.nationaljournal.com/tech/a-phone-company-fought-the-nsa-and-the-nsa-won-20140425 <comment><USER2> In other news, water is wet and the sky is blue.</comment>


Please Review My Web App: A Nigerian Craigslist - <AUTHOR> http://www.nairalist.com/ <comment><AUTHOR> I picked this niche because: 1) I am a Nigerian. 2) Most potential competitors won't touch Nigeria. 3) I run a Nigerian forum that gets a lot of unsolicited ads.

The business model is: Adsense when the website becomes popular. It's boring, but really makes sense here.

<comment><USER2> The eCPC for clicks in Nigeria will be low.

<comment><USER3> This needs to be modded up approximately 27 more times. Every reason which you have for your competitors not wanting to touch this niche is a reason for advertisers not wanting to pay to advertise to your users. Can you identify some local Nigerian companies which are making money, on the Internet, legitimately, from Nigerians?

If not then your model is to be one step ahead of the banstick on Google. It is not a pleasant place to be!

<comment><AUTHOR> On the flip side, the site doesn't need to make so much money because the cost of living in Nigeria is relatively low.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Besides the obvious jokes about Nigerians and internet solicitation... it looks pretty good. Very fast response for me -- the servers are in Dallas (?). Not sure how that will work for actual Nigerians. They will route through Europe or Brasil. No direct US-Africa links AFAIK.

Once you start scaling up you'll need a search and better drill-down into cities and neighborhoods.

You should also consider services that assist Nigerian expats. I don't know what that might be, but you can probably think of some.

</comment><comment><USER5> You should add pictures. When people are selling their stuff, pictures can help a lot. And add a thumbnail beside listings that have pictures.

I also find the table layout a bit information overloadish. You should list cities and then give categories. Like this website: <http://www.usedvictoria.com/>

</comment><comment><USER6> Wow, after reading a few ads, I like Nigerians better than Americans.

<comment><USER7> what about those of us who are both, heh

<comment><USER8> Two months ago, I met a second-generation Nigerian-American woman. She's one of the most refined, intelligent, and kind-hearted people I've met-- truly a lady. She's also beautiful.

I'm dating her now. :)

<comment><USER9> i will like to how u find her ever since u got to know her and how is she responding to Ur needs and so on. in fact i want to let u know that it's quite interesting to have a Nigerian woman by Ur by side b/c she know what it takes to run a home.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> I see that you order the states by number of posts. Won't this inconvenience users of less-popular states since they currently must scroll down?

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks. That's true.

I'm considering some possible solutions, such as a feature that remembers the states viewed by each visitor and moves them to the top of the list during subsequent views.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> It got really popular real fast I see. When I last saw it you only had ads in one city, now they are everywhere. This is the first such site for Nigeria, right?

I got a bit frightened when I read this one though: <http://www.nairalist.com/overseas/dating/46> :)

<comment><AUTHOR> Yes, it's the first Nigerian site dedicated to classified ads. Some other websites have sections for this.

About the ad: You initially thought someone's rib was physically stolen, right? :-)

<comment><USER11> I did. First I thought it was a joke, then I got confused before figuring out what she meant.

If you're the first, you can certainly take control of the market now.

When studivz was getting popular in germany, what they did was 'seed' universities with a few people handing out flyers for a couple of days, after which the viral effect kicked in. You may want to also add a viral effect - for example, a room-for-rent site in germany I know of allows people to print out the ad in a way that can easily be hung up on hallways or in schools. This template points back to the site, which furthers growth.

Another easy way to grow quickly is to allow people send the ad they just posted to a few email addresses, but this will lead you to a spam problem, as spammers will use you as a relayer.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Well done. I also love how spontaneous the ads are. This one for example made me laugh out loud: <http://www.nairalist.com/lagos/services/136>.

</comment><comment><USER13> I'd suggest providing anonymous email (or phone #s) for your users. This "Craigslist-like feature" makes buying and selling to/from strangers safer and more discreet, and it shouldn't be too hard to set up.

<comment><USER11> I don't think that this is a problem for now, and letting the people show their real phone numbers and email lends to the trust of the site. Even newspapers in Nigeria print phone numbers of people featured. If the users complain about it, you should do something, but till then I think that the current setup works fine. It seems more personal, compared to a totally anonymous setup.

<comment><AUTHOR> I agree. Scammers really love anonymous environments.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER14> It's clean, fast, and simple. However, I think the start page is a bit too busy. However, if you just list the States people might not bother clicking through. Not sure what the answer to that is! :)

You might want to do is allow people to select the State they want to see by default. Either via a cookie (but if most of your users use Internet cafes that mightn't work well) or by logging in. Or you could try guessing by IP address.

Also, you might not want to let user put their e-mails in a posting (like this one: <http://www.nairalist.com/taraba/dating/1>). If their address is on a public page it's going to get scraped and used by spammers.

Some work arounds to this might be to do what CraigsList does and allow people to use an anonymous address that you provide (which means you need to host and run your on e-mail server & service. Or use some JavaScript to obfuscate the addresses from e-mail harvesters, and so the actual address only get's assembled in an actual web-browser.

On the jobs section, I'd suggest categories for people to list their jobs under (Construction, IT, ...). It'll make it a little easier for people to search for jobs, especially if you get popular.

Anyway's good job, I hope it's successful, feel free to message me if you want more suggestions. :)

</comment><comment><USER15> On the software side, I'd say that you'd probably want the ability to specialize the sub-apps (e.g. the columns in that table) over time.

For example, you may want to tweak the dating & jobs applications differently.

Also, on the spirit of psyklic, maybe it'd be better to specify which regions you want to see? A small bitmap is easy to store in a cookie. On the same note, letting people set their sort order (popularity vs alphabetic vs reverse alphabetic) may be useful.

</comment><comment><USER16> I think it's surprisingly good. The layout seems clean, and very easy to use. I would suggest adding some more subcategories when it grows. For example separate dating into m4w, w4m, m4m, w4w sections.

I also like the fact that one city, Lagos, has the majority of the posts. That should help you get some traction. Right now, if I lived in some of the other cities, I really would not consider using this until it got more traction. But if I was in Lagos, it would be worthwhile for me to use it, and the market penetration for Lagos should bring in ads for other cities.

Since you run a successful Nigerian forum that has a problem with ads, I can really see this website get some decent traction. Traction seems to be the biggest problem with Craigslist clones, so I think this will be successful

<comment><USER11> m4m and m4w would not go down very well in Nigeria. The m4w and w4m split might be useful though. More useful would be photos I'd say.

<comment><USER17> What's wrong with m4w?

<comment><USER11> w4w I meant.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> seunosewa - Great job! The site is fast, very responsive, with a lot of content.

I see you are trying to keep it minimalistic, is this to change? I don't mean to sound superficial, but personally I never liked the craigslist look and feel. A little color, and a little aesthetics (IMO) go a long way.

Going off topic, I did want to say that this brings back fond memories for me. I spent the first 16 years of my life in Lagos, and browsing around, esp. in the Housing section, I see a few posting from Ilupeju (where I lived). Nigeria is a good country, and Nigerians will always have a special place in my heart. Good times, good times indeed.

I wish you the very best (Also, you might want to extend this to other countries and cities)

Edit - I see sarvesh had the same suggestion. Sorry, wasn't attempting to hijack that thread

</comment><comment><USER19> We are working on a classified site in germany I found some ideas in <http://www.loquo.com/en_us> which is a spanish craigslist only much better structured

</comment><comment><USER20> @Seun

You did a great job with nairaland, which is essentially the number 1 Nigerian website there is right now, So I'm sure you'll be fine with this one too

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER21> I might suggest looking into the design. A table isn't necessarily the best use of space. Try making the frequently visited links bigger

</comment><comment><USER22> What's up with the cars? I read 15 of them, and nobody showed a price. I know that's not you, it's them. Must be a cultural thing.

<comment><AUTHOR> It's partly a cultural thing, but a push in the right direction may be what they need.

</comment></comment><comment><USER23> Nairalists.com is a lot more better and Smarter

Visting Nairalists.com and see that its a lot more better than Nairalist

</comment><comment><USER24> Beautifully clean design. Looks like it is already quite popular, too!

</comment><comment><USER25> Impressive! You might want to make it available to other countries and cities as well.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks a million for that suggestion.

Most other countries seem to have very strong classified ads websites: a local craigslist, or a local gumtree, or a local kijiji. But they won't touch Nigeria for obvious reasons.

<comment><USER11> Can't you just run another site with exactly the same setup, but globally, and seed it with the _foreign_ users of your forum? I.e, for Nigerians abroad, you setup a craiglist, such that they can get in contact with each other for whatever reason. If you keep it generic enough, it could spill over to the general population and also do well. Of course, it's a lot more admin work for you for a concept that may not take off, but you never know till you try.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for your idea. It's worth a try, but I'm partial to this niche because it's easier to defend.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Rate-My-Housing? - <AUTHOR>

I had an idea about doing a website, similar to Rate-my-professor using college housing (apartment complexes, rentals, and such) instead of professors. My dad says it's a good idea, but I have no idea how to go about it, and he says it's my brainchild, so I should do it. Can anyone help me? <comment><USER2> This has definitely been done before, but hasn't really hit critical mass. So there is a definite marketing challenge to getting something like this going, once it is built. There's some money to be made, but unless you got huge I don't see a multi-million dollar exit as likely.

<http://www.landorslum.com/> is one that has a bunch of reviews in Pittsburgh.

The best way to do it is to program it yourself, but then you have to learn to program which is hard if you don't already code. <http://www.hacketyhack.net> is a good way to start. This type of thing job could be outsourced, but outsourced programming is either really expensive or really mediocre and people here generally recommend against it.</comment>


Video chips in microcomputers - <AUTHOR> https://plus.google.com/108984290462000253857/posts/D5trsYSsLfm <comment><USER2> Acorn graphics hacking thread from the comments:

[http://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10147](http://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10147)</comment>


Gravit Open Source Design Tool – Release Candidate #1 - <AUTHOR>

Gravit, the open source design tool in the spirit of Freehand and Fireworks just made it into Release Candidate #1 which can be used for production!<p>Download it here: http://www.gravit.io or try it directly in your Browser here: http://hub.gravit.io/browser (Chrome/Safari recommended) <comment><USER2> This looks nice. I used to love Fireworks. Was sad when it was discontinued. Will check this out.</comment>


How would you improve search? - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/19/what-i-want-in-my-new-google/

<comment><AUTHOR> An older article. But I could not find a discussion here on HN about it. I thought an interesting discussion could come from it with all the recent posts about Google and DDG.

I'd be interested in hearing what people would like from their search engine. I am working on one now (small specialized one) and love reading about what people like and dislike about the current options. I am also new here, so if people are interested in doing search completely different. I'd enjoy talking!</comment>


We Are Building a Side Hustle Facilitating Treks in the Himalayas - <AUTHOR> https://starterstory.com/stories/how-we-are-building-a-side-hustle-facilitating-treks-in-the-himalayas <comment><USER2> Why? It is well known that Everest is already overrun by tourists and has difficulties coping with its results. [https://www.lifegate.com/people/lifestyle/sustainable- touris...](https://www.lifegate.com/people/lifestyle/sustainable-tourism-in- nepal)

[https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/06/14/too...](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/06/14/too- many-tourists-from-amsterdam-to-venice-tourism-sparks-outrage.html) Do we really need to send even more people up there?</comment>


Show HN: Simple C library for an XBox Controller (Linux) for easy use in games - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/MauriceGit/XBox_Controller_Linux_Interface <comment><USER2> This is great! I like the straightforwardness of it.

I'm sure the user could find out the index values for each button on the controller, but I'd be tempted to include an enum for each button so simplify things for the user. It's certainly usable in its current form though.

</comment><comment><USER3> What is the "mt" prefix for?

<comment><AUTHOR> I thought about some fancy, meaningful prefix. But in the end I decided, it doesn't really matter as long as it's unique.

So mt stands for my name (Maurice Tollmien).

<comment><USER4> > it doesn't really matter as long as it's unique.

It sort of does, because the library isn't called (or has the acronym) "mt". Why not call it "xbox*" or something like that?

<comment><AUTHOR> Because I needed an acronym that I also could use for the vector and quaternion library. Especially for the vector library, as chance of conflict is highest there.

<comment><USER5> You really don't need to prefix everything with the same prefix everywhere, even in C. Using a per-module prefix that is unlikely to clash is enough.

For your vector and quaternion libs... You should make them header only, all static inline functions and perhaps with always_inline attribute if you care about performance. This also removes any need for prefixes.

<comment><AUTHOR> I won't continue that mt Prefix streak. Maybe I think of something better later :)

That is a good idea, I will look into that, thanks!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Cool, does SDL already support the Xbox controller?

<comment><AUTHOR> Possible, yes. But I'm not sure.</comment></comment>


NYTimes calls Russian election interference 'hacking' [pdf] - <AUTHOR> https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019/05/12/nytfrontpage/scan.pdf <comment><USER2> I don't see anything relevant. Am I doing something wrong?</comment>


Orphaned by America's opioid epidemic - <AUTHOR> http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2016/12/17/orphaned-by-americas-opioid-epidemic/ <comment><USER2> Opioid addiction is a symptom, not the disease. The disease is a generation of people who are left behind, who don't have the mobility to go where the jobs are, who can't go back to school because there are no schools in the area. The disease is the minimum wage job at dollar general which keeps their employees at 28.5 hours to keep from having to provide all the social and economic obligations of maintaining a full time employee. The disease is a lack of psychologists who can treat the underlying despair and hopelessness caused by living in a dying county. The disease is a lack of physical therapists that can teach exercises to help keep the pain away. The disease is a complete lack of infrastructure that entraps people in these small towns. The disease is an employment system that ensure that a drug conviction from ten years ago precludes them from having any sort of decent job. The disease is stigma and stagnation. We won't stop this epidemic until we fix the broken system that let it happen in the first place, and that's going to take a lot more help and a lot more money than just blaming the doctors and drug companies.

<comment><USER3> When drugs are a problem in black communities, and the pushers are people of color, it's a criminal problem. And when it's a white problem, with corporate pushers, it's a problem of Big Systems which need fixing...

By all means, let's work on fixing unemployment and hopelessness in these United States. But let's feel free to shut down a couple brazenly unethical corporate outfits along the way.

<comment><USER2> I talk about the same thing when inner city drug problems are brought up to. The article isn't about the greater problem of the war on drugs, it's about the problem as it pertains to a very poor part of West Virginia. If you aren't going to fix the underlying problems, then bringing down the exploiters isn't going to do a damn thing, because more will just take their place.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Treating opiate addiction with suboxone (one of the most effective methods) is largely blocked by bureaucracy: [http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/02/02/practically-a-book- revi...](http://slatestarcodex.com/2015/02/02/practically-a-book-review-dying- to-be-free/)

"They are worried that suboxone, being an opiate, might be addictive, and so doctors might turn into drug pushers. So suboxone is possibly the most highly regulated drug in the United States. If I want to give out OxyContin like candy, I have no limits but the number of pages on my prescription pad. If I want to prescribe you Walter-White-level quantities of methamphetamine for weight loss, nothing is stopping me but common sense. But if I want to give even a single suboxone prescription to a single patient, I have to take a special course on suboxone prescribing, and even then I am limited to only being able to give it to thirty patients a year (eventually rising to one hundred patients when I get more experience with it). The (generally safe) treatment for addiction is more highly regulated than the (very dangerous) addictive drugs it is supposed to replace. Only 3% of doctors bother to jump through all the regulatory hoops, and their hundred-patient limits get saturated almost immediately."

<comment><USER5> Those are some great points and it probably should be more readily available. But I still have some issues with Suboxone and the way it is being used. It seems to be pushed as a lifetime substitution for illegal opiates, rather than a tool for tapering off opiate dependence. When I was involved with someone in this situation, I couldn't even find anything official about how to go off the Suboxone, just anecdotes from people who had done it themselves. The doctors seemed perfectly happy to prescribe whatever dose you wanted, as long as they got their fees. And the smallest dose available was 2mg, which is apparently too much to drop off from, meaning that to taper you have to manually cut doses into small fragments. All together, it just seemed extremely sketchy to me.

<comment><USER6> The smallest dose of buprenorphine is 0.4mg.

I was a heroin addict from 16yo, until just before my 22nd birthday. I've been clean ever since, 4 years this past August. This is entirely down to my state government's excellent opiate replacement therapy program, and buprenorphine. It literally saved my life.

The clinic builds a plan for you specifically, and adjusts it every few months. They provide counseling, advice and medical help. We don't pay them, the government does. The doses themselves cost $5 per day.

<comment><USER5> I'm impressed, it sounds like your state has a system that is almost incomparably better than mine. Grats on staying clean.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> I can not understate how much of my little West Virginia town has been destroyed by opioid addiction. There doesn't seem to be a perfect solution to fix the problem, but I hope this will shed some light on the situation and at least bring it to the forefront so hopefully real changes can be made to combat this

<comment><USER8> I think you meant to say, "I cannot _overstate_ ".

<comment><USER7> absolutely. It's important to get sleep =)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Let's not ignore how a great many people got hooked on these in the first place: Through their doctor.

Here is a relevant article from today:

[http://thehustle.co/oxycontin-global](http://thehustle.co/oxycontin-global)

Like tobacco, too much resistance in the US means Oxycontin is going global.

A shame the presidential candidates don't seem (as far as I'm aware) to have mentioned this epidemic as one of the important crisis facing America. Might have resonated deeper than ISIS or some other things.

<comment><USER10> > A shame the presidential candidates don't seem (as far as I'm aware)

There was a fair bit of that (particularly NH primary, I think), though a lot of it was lost in the noise of emails, FBI & the leaks.

[http://www.vox.com/2016/9/21/12973740/trump-clinton- opioid-h...](http://www.vox.com/2016/9/21/12973740/trump-clinton-opioid- heroin-epidemic)

I probably picked up on that was when I had to go pick up painkillers for a family member ... with all the added complications of looking the way I do.

</comment></comment><comment><USER11> I question the ethical culpability of big pharma. Taken from the article "Drug companies had bombarded West Virginia's rural towns with record numbers of narcotics, according to court records: 300,000 tablets of hydrocodone to the mom-and-pop pharmacy in the town of War, population 808; half a million oxycodone pills to Kermit, population 400. During a five-year period ending in 2013, a single drug company had shipped more than 60 million doses of hydrocodone into a state with fewer than 1 million working-age adults."

I would prefer to use the term 'criminal liability' but I suspect there is none for this crime

edit - IANAL - to be defined as a crime it would have to violate a criminal law, and while this is ethically odious, it is most probably not criminal

</comment><comment><USER12> The opioid receptors and their corresponding endorphins are truly beautiful. A work of art in its own right.

I think the epidemic here is not one of public health, but of the socioeconomic variety. If you are unemployed and don't have meaningful relationships, you will naturally try to escape your reality. Heroin is the quintessential drug of choice for those who want to dream.

</comment><comment><USER13> This page is so poorly designed that I -- an engineer with 15 years experience and a mid 6 figure salary -- can not figure out how to read the actual article.

Why are newspapers trying this hard to implement shitty webUX gimmicks? Give me the words.

<comment><USER13> Might be a Chrome issue? There is something that locks scrolling about 500ms after the page loads. No overlay or anything, just a totally unresponsive picture of some sad kids.

Overall though, this is pretty pathetic on their part.</comment></comment>


YCNews down? - <AUTHOR>

I was not able to access YC since last 1 hr. Was it a planned downtime? <comment><USER2> We got more memory installed on the server.

</comment><comment><USER3> If YC news is down, how did you post that article? ;-)

<comment><AUTHOR> I have backend access ;-)

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> The sky is falling!!!

</comment><comment><USER5> Yes, thoroughly planned by Kismet.</comment>


Modafinil is world's first safe 'smart drug' - <AUTHOR> http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/aug/20/narcolepsy-medication-modafinil-worlds-first-safe-smart-drug

<comment><USER2> Mouth sores doesn't sound safe to me.

<comment><USER3> That's a minor side effect relative to the great gain in cognitive enhancements</comment></comment>


Ball of Gas Has Energy of Hundreds of Billions of Suns - <AUTHOR> http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/19/science/ball-of-gas-has-energy-of-hundreds-of-billions-of-suns.html <comment><USER2> So the artist's impression of the supernova from 10,000 light years away is almost equivalent to the looks of our Sun from Earth. So do you think that this would heat the planet the same amount as our Sun heats the Earth?</comment>


With a $200 Kindle Fire and $800 Windows 8 tab, is the $500 iPad still tenable? - <AUTHOR> http://www.extremetech.com/computing/97647-kindle-fire-and-windows-8-will-kill-the-ipad

<comment><USER2> Not sure why people are so interested in who a company will put out of business when they put out a new product. I just care if it is good or not.

</comment><comment><USER3> Sure it is. IPad's real competition is clustering around the 4400 price point as far as hardware goes, but the Android app ecosystem needs at least another year to mature.</comment>


Low protein diet 'equals longevity' - <AUTHOR> http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/09/30/low-protein-diet-equals-longevity-study <comment><USER2> This report is a little lacking, here is a PDF of the study [http://media.nzherald.co.nz/webcontent/document/pdf/201640/C...](http://media.nzherald.co.nz/webcontent/document/pdf/201640/CMET2149_proof.pdf) from the nz herald. And their take on it [http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objecti...](http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11719524)

<comment><USER3> (Regarding Fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21))

key quote: " the metabolic outcomes associated with elevated FGF21 depend on the nutritional context, differing according to whether the animal is in a state of under- or overfeeding."

The news article badly misinterprets the results in implying that low protein alone = high FGF21 = longevity.

<comment><USER4> In that case, what's the correct take away from the study? fasting + low protein + high nutrient diet is best?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> can we get away from the idea that a single kind of diet is _always_ best ? _Sometimes_ one needs protein (e.g. after intense physical exercise), sometimes fat (in the winter maybe), sometimes carbs (long cycle ride), usually veggies. Eat as appropriate.</comment>


Don't be a jerk - <AUTHOR> Recently someone asked a question here on HN.  I answered, and while it didn't take long, it did take a moment or two of my time.  Freely given.
Then the question was deleted. No thanks, no acknowledgement, no reply.  Just summarily deleted.
In the grander scheme of things it's small fry, but it irritated me.  They probably don't care.  After all, who am I to them?  But still, it rankled a bit.
People - don't be a jerk.  If you ask a question and someone answers, say thank you.  They've taken the time, does it cost you too much to be polite?
Or am I just completely out of touch with reality? <comment><USER3> I know I've had times when the answer/response made me look dumb, arrogant, etc, and I've been tempted to delete my comment. In those cases, it wouldn't have been the jerk thing to do, but the cowardly thing to do: if you say, own it, regardless of how it makes you look.

<comment><USER4> Mistakes are how we learn! Some of my best learning moments have been giving a wrong answer and then other people point out I'm wrong. (NB: it's completely possible for people to be polite when pointing out someone else is wrong.)

OTOH, it takes a certain confidence to let your mistakes hang out in public. There is this feeling that everyone on HN is constantly judging all other people so we need to "look smart." When I was younger I tried to hide mistakes to look smarter. It's a bad habit in general.

As a community I think we should encourage some kinds of mistakes.

<comment><USER5> When my wife was learning piano, her teacher used to tell her "if you're going to make a mistake, make it LOUD so we can hear it and correct it."

Words to live by.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> There always seems to be a touch of nostalgia for the good old days when situations like this come up. People undoubtedly yearn for the time when Hacker News was smaller and more close knit community. Ive been a member here for about 3 and a half years. I suppose that in that time, some of the quality has declined, but I really cant even say for sure that is the case. I think I have learned a lot here, and because of that I may perceive certain topics and discussions here not as stimulating as I did back when I joined.

As for downvotes, I reserve that for obvious trolling and overly snarky comments that just seem to be aimed at stirring the pot. I have noticed that some genuinely funny comments or puns based on the discussion get downvoted, which I disagree with. It may not add to the intellectual value, but I enjoy a good laugh as much as I enjoy learning.

I would agree with some of the sentiments here that the person probably deleted their question out of fear that they would "look dumb". I think experience has taught me that while Im not the smartest person out there, when something doesnt make sense to me, there is usually someone else that doesnt get it either. Ive also learned that people that react poorly to "stupid questions" are probably feeling defensive of their own knowledge/incompetence.

Anyway, I agree Colin, there is basic courtesy that if you are asking for help, it should be acknowledged and thanked when its provided. Nobody knows everything, and asking for help isnt a bad thing. So OWN your questions folks!!!

<comment><USER7> Small communities become insular festivals of group-think. Large communities become whitewashed noise full of trolls. There doesn't seem to be a way to "win".

<comment><USER8> There's always a healthy middle ground: form a community with healthy cultural norms in matters of politeness, courtesy, intellectual rigor - all elements of form - while encouraging the greatest possible diversity of substance. Make it clear to people that be adhering to the norms of form, they'll be a welcomed member of the community, without being censured for the actual substance of their arguments, but merely argued against politely by those who disagree. (Sure, there are people who take any counter-argument as a personal insult, but that's just one of the things we need strong cultural norms against.)

I suppose it's a challenge to maintain this sort of pattern as a community scales, which is why sites like HN, Reddit, StackExchange, etc. all try to incorporate incentives and constraints into the mechanics of discussion to attempt to reinforce certain styles of participation, with varying success. In this situation, a simple mechanic to prevent people from doing what OP is complaining about would be to prevent comments from being deleted once they've been replied to.

It bugs me when I see long streams of deleted comments on Reddit, too - it'd be an interesting experiment to treat posts and comments in a discussion forum like wiki pages - freely editable at any time by the poster, but with the full edit history always available to see.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I don't think there should be a downvote option.

There should be an option for upvoting, and an option for flagging offensive content/content that is against the HN community guidelines.

As it stands, there is no visual emphasis on high quality comments. There is a visual emphasis on low quality comments. Why is that? Apologies in advance if I am making an ignorant statement.

<comment><USER10> J, I cannot express how much I agree with you. The base logic in downvoting is so flawed it baffles me. How can you take away something from someone if you did not give it to them in the first place. Downvoting, especially without commenting, is exactly what the First Amendment was established for.

<comment><USER11> Jesus fucking christ the first amendment has nothing to do with downvotes on HN.

I would much rather have people downvoting comments they hate than have to read through tiresome boring arguments about stuff hat has been endlessly argued about in the past.

<comment><USER10> Your perspective is narrow, but I respect your freedom to have an opinion and express. If you cannot see the relation between downvotes and the first amendment then I can simply disagree with you, but not downvote you for how you see things.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Life's too short; do things for your own edification and satisfaction, not for the praise or recognition of others.

<comment><USER13> but praise and recognition are satisfying!

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> i think you're out of touch. HN is valuable because experts sometimes post things here that you can't get elsewhere. Try to post comments that are valuable to everybody and further the discussion. Comments like "Thanks", and responses from non-experts, contribute to the discussion derailing. All it takes is one non-expert to make an incorrect side remark and the discussion risks derailing into a flame fest.

Here is an example excellent, useful discussion with comments from experts: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8143905](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8143905)

Here is an example of a not useful discussion with comments from non-experts: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8133835](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8133835)

This post falls into the latter category which is probably why it just got nuked off the front page.

</comment><comment><USER15> In my experience I've learned you can't control other people so telling them not to be a jerk would rarely cause them to change their behavior in the future.

You can only control your reaction to them.

The way I look at it, you don't have enough time to waste caring about how someone treats you bad or annoys you because there's more important things to do Now that need to get Done.

</comment><comment><USER16> Maybe they didn't like your answer. Maybe they didn't like their own question, which is why they deleted it. Maybe they'll upvote you instead of saying thanks. Maybe they aren't around to give a thanks reply or forget about it. Or maybe they just don't care.

You're not completely out of touch, but it's unfair to put conditions on your answers. I recommend letting your kind deeds be their own reward and get on with your day.

</comment><comment><USER17> I took the time to email someone about a specific problem and didn't hear back - how long does it take to hit reply and type "Thx"? The effects are corrosive: why should I bother to reply _next time_?

<comment><USER18> I will confess to being someone that often forgets to say thanks. My thought process runs something like "Gosh, that was really helpful, I should say thankyou. But thankyou isn't enough, I should think of a better way of saying thankyou." Then I forget to say anything at all for some time, and then I feel awkward because I left it so long to say thankyou.

That's not an excuse. It's a total failure that I forget to say thank you properly whenever it's deserved (and even when it's not). It's something I am working hard to fix, but I still frequently mess up.

<comment><USER19> I have this issue too but more so because I feel like I am just adding to the noise when I don't have anything more substantial to say other than Thank You. "People are already overloaded with the amount of emails they get, do I need to it?" is how I've looked at it but perhaps but that's not the best approach.

<comment><USER18> This is true as well. I don't really like receiving emails that just say 'Thank you', and I'm never sure whether other people do or not. Some relatively high-profile and busy people have said to me in the past "Did you get the thing I sent? You didn't say thanks." so it's definitely a personal thing.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Maybe I'm doing something wrong but HN doesn't notify me when someone responds or something like other communication platforms do. If and when someone responds to a question on here I assume they are not ever going to check it again. I know I almost never do. The only exception is if there's sort of a conversation going on with responses every few minutes. Once it's been a few hours, or god forbid the next day, I'm highly unlikely to go back.

Also, if it's a 1on1 discussion with someone via e-mail, skype, or some form of private message, I'll almost always say thank you. But if I put a question up on an open forum and one or more persons happen to respond I tend not to say thanks. I dunno why, it just doesn't seem to be common internet etiquette to do so. A quick google search on a couple big name technical help question sites shows that it's not very common for people to say thanks for open ended questions to the community.

<comment><USER21> Click the 'threads' link at the top once in a while. It adds a little latency, but I kind of appreciate the fact that it slows down the conversation a bit...

<comment><AUTHOR> Or use [http://hnnotify.com](http://hnnotify.com)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> I find the same problem here as in SO. People like downvoting for what ever reason, but there's never any context as to why. If you feel a comment should be downvoted, go ahead, but provide a comment as well so the author knows why it was so. How are you supposed to be better yourself otherwise?

<comment><USER23> That's a good point. Actually, it might work on HN if each downvote required an explanation.

When you click the down arrow, it wouldn't apply immediately, but would first show you a text box for explaining the downvote (this would be just like the "Add Comment" page).

The explanation would not be publicly displayed anywhere, but would be accessible to moderators. This could be an effective filter against frivolous downvotes.

</comment></comment><comment><USER24> I wrote about this a long time ago: [http://blog.jgc.org/2010/10/power-of- gratitude.html](http://blog.jgc.org/2010/10/power-of-gratitude.html)

</comment><comment><USER25> Totally agreed. I think the biggest issue with the Gen XYZ (I am part of X) is that we as a whole (a big generalization, of course there are exceptions) tend to be too self-centered. We are always concerned with our goals, our aspirations, and we don't think about, care for, or appreciate others nearly enough.

Our parents' generations (baby boomers) had responsibilities that involved caring for siblings, raising children, tending aging parents, and they often put themselves LAST. Not to say that it's better, but after talking to friends my age who have started families, I think it really sheds light into why so many young people are lost, confused, and unfocused. People are wandering around wondering what their purpose is, why they're unhappy, this and that, when they just have to open their eyes to see how blessed they are, how good they have it.

I think at the end, the purpose that Gen XYZ seek is right around them - <USER2> they will look up from their smartphone devices - human connection. We need to appreciate more what we have, the help that people give us, and start to give more to others and the world around us.

</comment><comment><USER26> I don't believe in deleting comments in general. I've said some stupid and mean stuff here on HN, and I think it's important to leave those up, especially if there are responses below them. If nothing else it helps me feel an incentive to be less stupid and mean the next time.

</comment><comment><USER27> You are asking a question, and I see quite a few people answer. Since you expect others to show appreciation for your contribution, why have you not shown any towards them?

Also name calling everyone that doesn't adhere your cultural rules is quite mean from my perspective.

</comment><comment><USER28> If you enjoyed responding (like I am doing now), then that's that. You got the worth of the time you spent. Of course, if one were _expecting_ more than that (e.g. others not being a jerk or even being nice), then its fulfillment is an added bonus. By not getting the bonus, should we be unhappy also about the salary that we already got? Or is this too idealistic an opinion? If the others' behavior _deeply_ affects us then we are too vulnerable, no?

</comment><comment><USER29> Some people are jerks. Some people are too frazzled to remember good manners. Some people were raised by wolves and aren't even familiar with the concept of manners.

I don't expect people to say thank you when I answer a question. I used to, but that expectation was beaten out of me a long time ago. But I definitely appreciate it — it's a nice surprise — when someone does bother to say thank you, and I try to remember to always say thank you myself.

<comment><USER30> Ugh. It hurts to hear/read it, but it's true - common courtesy is now "a surprise."

If I didn't say "please" or "thank you" every single time it was called for, my mother would have taken me out of this world (you know, since she brought me in to it) years ago.

</comment></comment><comment><USER31> FWIW, I've noticed that most of the Ask HN threads don't seem to get much participation from the person doing the asking -- so I've answering any of them, even on the really rare occasions when I might be qualified to answer or have an opinion on the question.

It's sort of unfortunate to see the usual suspects, like patio11, putting effort into a comment on an Ask HN thread only to see no response from the submitter.

</comment><comment><USER32> _> People - don't be a jerk. If you ask a question and someone answers, say thank you. They've taken the time, does it cost you too much to be polite?_

this is why i am in the habit of top-quoting my replies if i put any effort or thought into it. when people are wrong, embarassed, or let something slip they shouldn't have, they're likely to delete. it's just human nature.

</comment><comment><USER33> Maybe they didn't want to bring down their average comment score? I'm not saying that is a good reason, just a possible reason.

</comment><comment><USER34> This is actually my #1 problem with Quora too. I try to write a lot of pragmatic questions to answers, mostly because I like the idea of helping folks. Unless I'm totally in left field, I feel like I'd like some acknowledgment that my answer was either what they were looking for (thanks!) or that they thought that it was incorrect (I disagree because...).

</comment><comment><USER35> Are you sure that the original author deleted the question, or was it a moderator? You may be pointing a finger at the wrong person.

</comment><comment><USER36> It seems like this is an instance of a more general trend: The commenting ecosystem is in decline. It's better than Reddit, but it's a shadow of what it once was.

I've noticed downvotes are trending now. The downvotes do correct themselves... most of the time. But there's a lot more frivolous downvoting due to the influx of people that have attained downvote privileges but haven't really shunned the mindset of other community sites that encourage that sort of thing. Eight years ago, pg wrote about a problem that may be happening here now: [http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/15n2/the_incontr...](http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/15n2/the_incontrovertible_truth_about_reddit/c15tz)

It used to be that you could hold a contrarian opinion and not be at risk of being jumped on by the community or your position being misinterpreted. That seems no longer the case: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8143432](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8143432)

The person you responded to may have deleted their question because they're worried about how people might judge them for merely asking the question. Since HN consists of people you may be working with in the future, people have to be more concerned about choosing their words (and questions) carefully. It's not so easy to just speak your mind or ask innocent questions anymore when your identity is tied with your handle.

I don't know if there's a solution. There may not be another vibrant community of developers for another decade, for the same reason there isn't a second vibrant online auctioning site. Smart people are on HN because other smart people are on HN. The only solution I can think of is to resist letting irksome things irk you. Easier said than done, but it beats giving up.

<comment><USER37> On certain topics, HN always had a downvote problem for certain contrarian opinions. For example, heaven forbid you didn't think everything Apple produced when Steve Jobs was alive was a gift from heaven. Anything questioning that was always downvoted, even if presented in a non-snarky way.

It was so bad that pg even introduced a downvote floor (-5) to keep people from shedding hundreds of points of karma when the downvote brigade inevitably pounced. This simple change really helped with user engagement and breaking up some of the more fantastic group think here IMHO.

We're just seeing a different form of what HN has always had, but just on different topics. Just like the karma floor "fixed" the old downvote brigades, some kind of adjustment will probably fix what's going on these days.

<comment> jack-r-abbit > _On certain topics, HN always had a downvote problem for certain contrarian > opinions. For example, heaven forbid you didn 't think everything Apple > produced when Steve Jobs was alive was a gift from heaven_

Also see: Snowden is not a hero, Piracy is not ok & The NSA snooping is not so bad.

<comment><USER38> I'd add anything negative about Aaron Schwartz to the list.

<comment><USER39> Only after he died. Before then, HN wasn't too thrilled with his tactics.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER40> Was it an "Ask HN:"? It Took em some tries until I figured out that was just it, add "Ask HN:" to the title. I have deleted 2 earlier tries. Didn't see any responses though, but perhaps I should have hit F5. It could have been that someone was just being naive.

<comment><AUTHOR> It wasn't you. Mistakes do happen, and maybe the incident in question was just one of those, but the sentiment remains.

</comment></comment><comment><USER41> This is all too common with online communities, I am part of other online communities and you will always find people who post a question and receive great answers but the original poster will not even respond with a simple thank you.

More stringent rules when joining the community possibly?

</comment><comment><USER42> I wouldn't take it personally. It was kind of you to answer the question, but take into account that while you are (evidently) HN savvy, many are not and perhaps lack the skills to send you a personal note about them having to delete the question quickly.

</comment><comment><USER43> Wouldn't it make sense to prohibit deleting after x comments have been made?

</comment><comment><USER44> I usually check the ask section so I can read answers from you, patio11 and a few others. You have helped me a lot and I learned a big deal of interesting and helpful things. That said, thank you.

</comment><comment><USER45> Also phrased as:

Remember the person behind the keyboard is a real person. You might not agree with them, but they're a living, breathing human being who took time out of their day to type what they typed.

</comment><comment><USER46> You aren't out of touch, I feel like the downvotes are being used more often on HN, maybe someone like dang could look at the actual data to see if there is any validity to the feeling.

</comment><comment><USER47> I'm with you. Seems like it should be common courtesy to me.

</comment><comment><USER48> If your reply was technical in nature and their user name is their actual name it could simply be worry about being googled during a job application.

</comment><comment><USER49> May be that person felt embarrassed/stupid after asking the question. Personally, it wouldn't compel me to write a post about it.

</comment><comment><USER50> Take a shower,take you partner or children with you and get out for a walk, look at the birds, the threes or the sea, or better go to a place where you can look at the thousands of millions of trillions of stars.

Then you will realize that it doesn't matter. Seriously, it doesn't matter at all.

Sometimes it happens to me too and I need to focus again on what is important and what is not.

</comment><comment><USER51> Isn't saying 'Thank you' against the ethos of HN?

<comment><AUTHOR> From [https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html) :

        Empty comments can be ok if they're
        positive. There's nothing wrong with
        submitting a comment saying just
        "Thanks."

Filling a thread with lots of very short comments just saying "Thanks" is discouraged, but in a short exchange in an item that's not going to spawn a huge amount of discussion, saying "thanks" won't derail or pollute the thread.

Quoting further:

        Which brings us to the most important
        principle on HN: civility.

</comment></comment><comment><USER52> Ah well... I have a -4 downvote just because I accidentally replied to the wrong thread one day.. big deal... won't sleep any less over it... guess that's part of the internets...

</comment><comment><USER53> S/he probably did not learn about common courtesy growing up. Society will give this person a lesson one day...

</comment><comment> 0-o Thank you!

</comment><comment><USER54> wat

</comment><comment><USER55> Welcome to the internet.

Maybe they erased the post by accident? How do you know that your answer solved their issue or was relevant? You might think that was the case but it might not be.

In general, I think this is a extremely silly.

I had instances where I would post about cloud infrastructure and somebody would crawl out of their hole to 'educate' me on colocation, thinking they are solving a ground breaking issue.

<comment><USER56> Please don't fall back on things like "welcome to the internet." One, it's needlessly snarky. Two, we would like this place to be _better_.

<comment><USER57> We'd _like_ that, but... after a long time of people trying to build internet communities, from newsgroups to Slashdot to Reddit to HN, it seems like this may be what the internet is. Or, perhaps, this is what you get when you allow open membership.

<comment><USER58> It hasn't been all that long in human terms. Especially when you consider that it was only ~ 5 years ago that "almost everyone" in developed countries was finally online.

I think in many senses, HN is a first generation response to how to get a bunch of people who don't really know each other to have a decent conversation in a low context environment.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER59> Indeed.

</comment><comment><USER60> This advice really applies to all walks of life. If you're running a start-up (mine is gopaperbox.com), this is how you should treat your customers. More than likely there is someone that does something similar to you. The best way to win is to treat your customer with the utmost respect and be as fair as possible to them. Cliche advice, yes, but it is absolutely integral to success.

<comment><USER61> You're being downvoted because you're self-promoting your startup for no reason, not because your content is low quality.</comment></comment>


Try meditation for 10 days - its working for me - <AUTHOR> http://www.getsomeheadspace.com

<comment><USER2> They seriously want you to pay for meditation? That's absolute bull crap. The best advice I've ever gotten for meditation: Just sit. Make it at least 15 minutes. Maintain good posture; some of the positive effects of meditation relate to spending time with your spinal chord straight, stomach a little out, rib cage supported, leading to good blood flow to the brain. Let your mind wander, but don't lose focus of your posture.

It is said that when one is still for long enough, the brain switches modes. The unmoving mind. We spend all day interacting with the world, filling our brains with facts, experiences, feelings, etc. Take a step back and empty your mind. But don't pay money for it.

<comment><AUTHOR> I havent started paying yet, but I wonder if its worth it? I have been using the free version and find it very good.

Having said that, it sounds like if I just followed your advice above I may get the same results as I get from listening to the tracks getsomeheadspace provides.

They do have some useful videos as well that explain more about meditation.Meditation was a bit of mystery to me before watching them.The gamification element also helps.

<comment><USER2> > Having said that, it sounds like if I just followed your advice above I may > get the same results as I get from listening to the tracks getsomeheadspace > provides.

Perhaps. Some like to listen to light jazz or classical music while meditating, but I like white noise, wind blowing, and passing traffic best. I think it's very important that you don't meditate in front of your computer because it puts your brain in a high-activity, instant-gratification mode, which is the opposite of what you want. Just the fan on my computer in enough to make me think about checking reddit or my email or whatever. Even something as simple as moving to a room you don't normally stay in can be enough to wind down your mind and become more relaxed.

> Meditation was a bit of mystery to me before watching them.

Meditation IS a mystery. If anyone ever tells you "IT IS THIS!", they are wrong. There are countless methods devised by people from all over the world and they all work. Some think you must lay down and listen to music. Others think you must sit cross-legged. Some even believe you must to it standing up! Some think you must count to ten, others say do it backwards. There are those who say think "nothing", and those who say think "anything". Some say "concentrate", some say "relax".

But the best advice I ever got: "Just sit."

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for that, appreciate the advice.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> These appear to be daily guided meditations, not just doing Zazen every day.

That said, I think the guy doing the videos (Andy Puddicombe I believe) does not have a good voice for this, or at least needs additional vocal training. He's nasal and too high pitched for me to be relaxed by it. I'm on edge after listening to one video. Perhaps a sound guy could fix it, but I'm guessing he's doing to have to go to a coach to learn how to get the nasal out and how to boom his voice a bit.</comment>


Genes and backgrounds matter most to exam results - <AUTHOR> https://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21739574-type-school-less-important-genes-and-backgrounds-matter-most-exam <comment><USER2> Like the conclusion of most studies on intelligence: We don't really know anything.</comment>


To Catch a Comet: PBS Documentary - <AUTHOR> http://www.pbs.org/program/catch-comet/

<comment><AUTHOR> Really good animations and info on the Rosetta project in general. Helps to visualize a lot of the stuff we've been reading. Also gives a good sense of scale.

Summary, trailer and link to video can be found at the URL posted in this HN submission. Direct link to video is here:

[http://video.pbs.org/video/2365367186/](http://video.pbs.org/video/2365367186/)</comment>


The Future of the Internet — And How to Stop It - <AUTHOR> http://futureoftheinternet.org/ <comment><USER2> What, you mean like The Future of Ideas(<http://www.the-future-of- ideas.com/>)?</comment>


Marketing Primer from Google – well presented as an app - <AUTHOR> https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.primer

<comment><AUTHOR> Excellent UX, though the content was kind of known.Still there were some good takeaways !</comment>


Node.js Foundation Members - <AUTHOR> https://nodejs.org/foundation/members.html

<comment><USER2> StrongLoop is excited to be part of today's launch of the Node.js Foundation! Here's the backstory on how the foundation came to be: [https://strongloop.com/strongblog/announcing-the-node-js- fou...](https://strongloop.com/strongblog/announcing-the-node-js-foundation/)</comment>


The Trillion Dollar Lies I Keep Believing - <AUTHOR> http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2012/08/the-trillion-dollar-lies/

<comment><USER2> I was ready do disregard this as long-winded blogspam, however the line:

> You wake up every morning with a clean slate. But within seconds your mind > dresses you up in all the lies for the day.

Excepting the weak grammar, really hits home. When I wake up, I'm certain that I wont be going to work today - it doesn't make logical sense.

By the time I get out of the shower, I'm frantic about all of the things I need to do today.</comment>


Eighteen and Abandoned - <AUTHOR> http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/04/eighteen-and-abandoned.html <comment><USER2> When GMail came out, it was 2004 and the Iraq war was in full swing. I watched the service launch into beta and then resigned myself to not receiving an invite, until I received an invite at email@example.com, a domain I had been squatting at the time, because it was hilarious. Hilarious, but that's another story.

Anyway, I was an everyday, average idiot, receiving an exclusive invite to what was sure the be the premier email service of all time. A gigabyte. Holy fuck. That is such an inconceivable amount of storage, etc. It really is, still. I've never come close to using even a measurable amount of it. Why even have a limit? I'm digressing here. What a cool story.

Anyway, instead of registering my own name, which I did, I registered email@example.com. To this day, it's basically radioactive. It receives an absurd amount of spam, even withe GMail's fantastic filtering, and why would I want to receive mail at firstname.lastname@example.com? If only I could ask my 22 year old self, because I sure as hell don't remember why that was so hilarious. Kid stuff. My very liberal girlfriend at the time didn't think it was very funny.

Every once in a while, I log into it, chuckle a little bit at some of the things people have used the email address for (mostly forum signups and Williams-Sonoma mailing list entries), and forget that I had registered the address for another couple of years.

I think the thing is that it was an email service that was launched by an already extant search provider, whereas before most email services had grown organically, beating out the land rush for Hilarious Email Addresses. That said, if anyone wants that email address, let me know. I'll take some fraction of a bitcoin or something for it, you fucking anti-semite.

<comment><USER2> Just a correction that the email address I received it at was email@example.com, not .net.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> My gmail account has been suffering a similar problem in that someone uses it for their throwaway signups for computer game forums and the like. Either that or it's a very effective form of spam to pretend to be the "initial registration" message, as by definition such email has to be the first contact.

There is still much to be said for spam filtering though as it catches 5-10 a day for me. Layer priority inbox on top of that and only checking mail when you need to, not letting it interrupt you, and you can get some clarity.

I wonder if someone can come up with a proper paid competitor to gmail, it would be something I would be interested in. What are the current alternatives?

<comment><USER4> > I wonder if someone can come up with a proper paid competitor to gmail, it > would be something I would be interested in. What are the current > alternatives?

If you only do webmail, nobody else really compares. If you're OK with a native client and IMAP/POP, then Rackspace Mail is #1. 100% uptime SLA, good spam filtering, 24/7/365 phone/online support, big 25GB mailboxes, and just $2 per user.

<comment><USER5> ... per month.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I feel like I'm trapped with some slightly drunk person at a cocktail party.

<comment><USER7> Agreed. I sometimes wish slightly drunk people at cocktail parties would skip to the next paragraph. Or skip to the last paragraph before I decide whether I want to hear the ones in between.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> I'm not nearly as interested in the story of firstname.lastname@example.com as I would be in the story of email@example.com. :)

<comment><USER9> I believe that's posted at <http://www.example.com/archive/johndoe.htm> ;)

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> To whoever owns email@example.com, I apologise.

<comment><USER11> a friend of mine had a web site that they were about to demo to a potential client, and it had some CMS sort of capabilities, and they had filled it with lorem-ipsum type content, and "fake" urls: they just typed in a bunch of Xs. for example "xxxxx.xxx" ... of course, .xxx is a real TLD now, and all the x* sites have been squatted by porn. They caught it 30 minutes before the demo - my friend almost choking on his coffee when he absentmindedly clicked one of the links - and they had to search and replace the whole database to be "example.com" everywhere.

<comment><USER12> Interestingly, xxxxx.xxx hasn't just been squatted by some porn provider. It appears to be owned and run by ICM Registry LLC, the registry for .xxx and the company which convinced ICANN to allow them to run the TLD.

So basically, the company that lobbied for and created .xxx didn't just know that people were going to squat xxxxx.xxx domain names used as placeholders, they actually got in on the act themselves before anyone else could.

</comment></comment></comment><comment> ezequiel-garzon Somewhat related, isn't it a sensible idea for Google to allow reusing deleted accounts after "a reasonable" period? I can imagine good handles are becoming increasingly rare.

On the other hand, I realize the 3.0 version of the web may end up doing away with handles and URLs for all practical purposes...

<comment><USER13> I don't think so. Hotmail used to have a similar "feature": when the email address hadn't been logged in for 270 days, the account would be available again [1]. This was troubling because if I had signed up for some other service using my Hotmail address (say, a Gmail account) and didn't log in to my Hotmail account for nine months, whoever wanted to compromise my other account (Gmail, in this case) could sign up for Hotmail using my old username, and initiate a password reset. The password reset would go to my Hotmail, which no longer belongs to me.

Like it or not, email addresses are used to identify users on the web. This is based on the assumption that an email's ownership doesn't change. Recycling email addresses is dangerous given our reliance on emails as identification.

1\. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotmail#Hotmail_Plus>

<comment><USER14> That reminds me of a paid Hotmail Plus account that I used to have, back in 2005 or so. I never renewed it because I finally got hold of a Gmail account shortly afterward, but the address is apparently still active after 8 years because every once in a while, I receive spam addressed to my old Hotmail address (forwarded to my "old" Gmail address). Not only is the account active, but even email forwarding (which were only available to paid users back then) still appears to be working.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> My Gmail address gets all this same sort of stuff, except I use it actively, and have to filter it out constantly.

I even wrote a blog post about it and have to send out the following canned response at least once a day:

\--

Hi there,

You've reached the wrong email address. Please double-check and try again!

You may also want to read the following: [http://blog.jasonhanley.com/2008/10/will-real-jhanley- please...](http://blog.jasonhanley.com/2008/10/will-real-jhanley-please-stand- up.html)

<comment><USER16> I have the same issue with my gmail, also first initial & last name. It's amazing to me how many people don't know their own email address

<comment><USER17> This is part of the reason that while I have addresses with my real name, I usually use my alias. I consider it actually a bit odd that with my generation (grew up in the 90s) there's a significant portion of us that picked an alias and have had that alias for a very large portion of our lives, for me it's about 2/3 of my life.

Though to be honest even my own mother can't remember my email address even though I've had the same one for over a decade now. (HN username @ yahoo is one i've had for a long time).

<comment><USER16> I use a couple different emails for different purposes myself. A couple different names I use online for most things and my first initial last name for more professional stuff (ie: resumes, clients, etc)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> I'm routinely amazed at the number of sites which don't perform any sort of email address validation. My wife has a rather common name and a straightforward firstname.lastname gmail address.

As a result, she's continuously peppered with all sorts of notices and confirmations intended for one of her many namesakes as well as the occasional, amusing accusation of having "stolen" the address she has used since summer '04.

<comment><USER19> My Gmail address is really generic (my first name and a number), and I too get signups all the time - I even currently have two different people's bank accounts sending me email.

I feel kind of bad, because one of them from Wells Fargo has been telling the person that one of their accounts has been closed and their automatic bill payments from it have been stopped - so I hope they worked that out before they were kicked out of a rental place or something...

There's really nothing I can do - all bank's contact methods require you to log into their account to send a "secure message", which I can't do (I do sometimes cancel people's accounts who use my email using the "Forgot password" recovery, but I'm not going to do that on someone's bank account, and you'd need their social security number with most banks anyway), and I have no idea what their real email address would be.

So, please let this be a lesson to anyone who makes services people sign up for: _Always_ send a confirmation email where if you don't confirm it doesn't send you emails, or at least _please_ send a welcome email having a link where people can disassociate their email address if it's incorrect. I've only seen Google doing this latter part properly...

And, if another service requires me to log into somebody else's account to stop it spamming me... Seriously, just make it one-click unsubscribe...

<comment><USER18> >My Gmail address is really generic (my first name and a number), and I too get signups all the time - I even currently have two different people's bank accounts sending me email.

We've seen the same. Of all places you'd think (hope) that banks would have a handle on such things.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I didn't see any mention of gmail coming out of beta. I wonder if gmail has been in beta for most of the life of this addy.

Also would have been smart in retrospect to invest a few hundred in Apple stock back then, instead of futzing around with email addresses. :-)

<comment><USER21> [http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/gmail-leaves-beta- laun...](http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/gmail-leaves-beta-launches- back-to-beta.html)

</comment></comment><comment><USER22> Yes, people get mail that is misdirected, and sometimes receive spam as well.</comment>


The power-strip evolved - aps-sids http://twistvolt.com/

<comment><AUTHOR> This website is very broken on my iPhone 4s.

<comment><USER2> Yep, I need to fix that! Did you check out the twistvolt? What do you think?</comment></comment>


Show HN: Rotating 3d grid of (pure CSS) cubes - <AUTHOR> https://christinecha.github.io/3d-css-cubes/ <comment><USER2> This is fun and cool. It works well. I think I got hypnotized playing with it. I could see all sorts of uses. I think it would be even better if you could stack the blocks. Just a thought though, it's good as is.</comment>


Ask HN: Technical resources to learn how electric cars work/are build - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER2> I've worked through a lot of this on my own as part of a previous job. Sadly it's such a new field that it can be hard to find any single resource that covers large swaths at once.. not even sure where to begin. I ended up piecing it all together after months of research and experimentation. Hit me up if you have any specific questions - email in profile.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks.</comment></comment>