To the popular press, “hacker” means someone who breaks into computers. Among programmers it means a good programmer. But the two meanings are connected. To programmers, “hacker” connotes mastery in the most literal sense: someone who can make a computer do what he wants—whether the computer wants to or not. – Paul Graham

Hacker News is an awesome site filled with wonderful information if you are interested in the web, business or learning new things. It’s the rare community online that has sprung up and remained true to its roots. HN is one of the few sites that I read daily.

One of the things that the web has gotten really ‘good’ at over the years is finding something that works and beating it to death. Hacker News is the latest example.

Instead of trying to build a new community in a unique way, too many smart people are trying to ‘disrupt’ different industries by taking the one size fits all approach and creating a “Hacker News for X”.

Here are a few examples of people creating a Hacker News for everything instead of building something unique:

Inbound.org – Hacker News For Marketers
TheNews.im – Hacker News For Designers
GrowthHackers.com – Hacker News For Growth Hackers
Firespotting – Hacker News For Ideas
Startup Revolution Hub – Hacker News For Startup Communities
LearnBoost – Hacker News For Higher Education
nbt.fm – Hacker News For Music

Believe it or not, online communities can exist and thrive outside of the HN formula. Community-based sites that have had mass success didn’t take some existing site and copy everything that they were doing. They blazed their own trail. The world doesn’t need an HN for everything.