TL;DR: For those asking, "WHY?" : It's about control.
Background: Every time there's a new forum site, people often ask, "why not just create a subreddit or facebook group, etc". That would save much code, debugging, & traffic/marketing.
However, the reason people still create 3rd party forum sites is not out of foolishness. Rather, they are trying to control the community, & harvest the benefits of the community over time (by either influencing the community, or selling to the community, or both or more).
I like HN because it's better quality. The harvesting/controlling forces are very benign, & the community here is great at keeping things relevant.
It is a huge challenge, though, to build up a quality community anywhere.
I agree! That's why I built https://www.plantdietlife.com/ It might be interesting to setup a meetup for people interested in harvesting sites like this.
Background: Every time there's a new forum site, people often ask, "why not just create a subreddit or facebook group, etc". That would save much code, debugging, & traffic/marketing.
However, the reason people still create 3rd party forum sites is not out of foolishness. Rather, they are trying to control the community, & harvest the benefits of the community over time (by either influencing the community, or selling to the community, or both or more).
I like HN because it's better quality. The harvesting/controlling forces are very benign, & the community here is great at keeping things relevant.
It is a huge challenge, though, to build up a quality community anywhere.