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That's the thing that a lot of HN users don't get. A lot of thought has been put into how to get fewer comments on HN. You have shadow banning, thread depth d

by 300bps 11y ago

That's the thing that a lot of HN users don't get. A lot of thought has been put into how to get fewer comments on HN. You have shadow banning, thread depth delays, thread depth limits and so much more. They don't want to turn HN into reddit.

krapp 11y ago
Dang has said that collapsible comments are coming[0]. and shadowbanned comments are reversible by the public now[1] - and people vehemently defended shadowbanning as being absolutely essential in maintaining the quality of the community. Plus, other features (like domain links) have been added which make the site superficially more like reddit[2]. There used to be a "feature" where links would expire very quickly, making it impossible to reply to a comment if you spent more than a minute or two with the submit form open. People argued that that was also an intentional feature, even when the staff admitted explicitly that it was a bug. The staff has attempted to add a mobile stylesheet numerous times, and yet people argue that keeping mobile users away was a conscious decision by pg to keep the site from becoming reddit. This site has become so paranoid about "becoming reddit" that it literally tells you in the site guidelines not to complain about the site becoming reddit. It is entirely possible that, while pg did make a conscious effort to design the site in such a way as to attract certain users and repel others, that is not nearly as overriding and critical a priority as people make it out to be. [0]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8247089 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8247089 [1]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10298512 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10298512 [2]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10223645 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10223645
- Normal_gaussian 11y ago
  Well, collapsible comments are not the end of the world. Thank you for the links! I find it interesting how vicious comments around the supposed intentions of the sites maintainers are.

by 300bps 11y ago

krapp 11y ago

Dang has said that collapsible comments are coming[0]. and shadowbanned comments are reversible by the public now[1] - and people vehemently defended shadowbanning as being absolutely essential in maintaining the quality of the community. Plus, other features (like domain links) have been added which make the site superficially more like reddit[2]. There used to be a "feature" where links would expire very quickly, making it impossible to reply to a comment if you spent more than a minute or two with the submit form open. People argued that that was also an intentional feature, even when the staff admitted explicitly that it was a bug. The staff has attempted to add a mobile stylesheet numerous times, and yet people argue that keeping mobile users away was a conscious decision by pg to keep the site from becoming reddit. This site has become so paranoid about "becoming reddit" that it literally tells you in the site guidelines not to complain about the site becoming reddit. It is entirely possible that, while pg did make a conscious effort to design the site in such a way as to attract certain users and repel others, that is not nearly as overriding and critical a priority as people make it out to be. [0]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8247089 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8247089 [1]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10298512 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10298512 [2]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10223645 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10223645

Normal_gaussian 11y ago
Well, collapsible comments are not the end of the world. Thank you for the links! I find it interesting how vicious comments around the supposed intentions of the sites maintainers are.