I guess HN is social media, but I don't think it's the kind of social media the article is talking about. There's no social network involved in HN, no identity or personal branding (outside of dang) and the user-generated content is mostly comments on articles generated outside the site. I'm not arguing that it isn't social media, but then I guess the comments section of a blog is also social media by the same definition, and both of those things seem qualitatively different than, say, Facebook or Twitter. It may just be that the category of 'social media' is too broad to use about different things, some of which are more problematic than others.
I wish people would stop thinking it’s such a clever take. HN has chosen to leave out almost every engagement driving feature that modern social media is IMO defined by much more than just upvoting and commenting.
It’s social media in the same way my monthly pathetic run is professional sports.
