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Ask HN: What features on HN do you use the least?
I've been using HN for about a year off and on. Here are some of the features I never use either because they are hidden or not useful:
1. Search
2. Hide
- geff82 10y agoFlag and hide!
- tonmoy 10y agoI use search before submitting something new to make sure something similar was not posted before. And hide is a relatively new feature, I just started using them.
- ebbv 10y agoSearch is pretty much it. I don't use it because I don't submit stories. I use Hide sometimes when I feel an article and/or its comments are terrible. I use flag probably too much because I want to keep the link quality on HN high.
- CarolineW 10y agoI use search constantly, and I am surprised you think it is either hidden or not useful. To me it's extremely useful, and the search box is on nearly every page, which makes it hard to think of as hidden. So I'm confused by your assertion about that - perhaps you could explain further. "Hide" is new, and I've not played with it much. However, given that it's relatively new, I'm being on-boarded by the facility it provides. I'd be interested to know why you think it's not useful, as it's certainly not hidden. In truth, I don't know of any features I don't use. Perhaps you could compile a list of them for people to check against. After all, if someone doesn't know about a feature, they won't name it as something they don't use.
- cocotino 10y agoI use flag because I can't downvote. They say if you use flag often you lose your flagging ability, but I don't care because I'm banned often and I have to keep creating accounts.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- robertelder 10y agoFiltering by 'show' or 'ask' at the top. I used the site for years before I noticed that they existed.
- koolba 10y agoThe upvote button (because I'm a hater and all I do is downvote).
- bratsche 10y agoLogout
- nl 10y agoI never knew search existed. It's amazing how blind to things in unusual position I am. I don't understand why we can't have larger buttons by default though!
- nicolas_t 10y agoI use search about 10 times a week. I often remember the title of an article that I didn't have time to read and search for that. I still remember fondly searchyc.com I used to look at new more often and upvote interesting articles but haven't had time to in a while (or rather I've been procrastinating slightly less). I guess the only features I never use is the jobs section and the new hide link.
- gtf21 10y agoI often use hn.algolia.com to search for articles.
- kibibu 10y agoThe out-of-context thought stream at https://news.ycombinator.com/newcomments https://news.ycombinator.com/newcomments ("comments" in the top bar)
- benkarst 10y agoAgreed. Does any make use of that?
- maxerickson 10y agoI use it all the time to see which stories have active discussions.
- greggyb 10y agohttp://news.ycombinator.com/active http://news.ycombinator.com/active
- DanBC 10y agoI mostly use [comments].
- WayneBro 10y agoI bet the mods use it.
- anonnyj 10y agoI don't use any of the feeds other than /news I don't use Search, but only because I find the results to be awful. I always end up searching (and succeeding) on Google instead.
- gue5t 10y agoThe articles about companies instead of ideas.
- mcherm 10y agoThe features I use least are the ones I don't know about. Unfortunately I cannot list them for you because I don't know about them.
- j-pb 10y agoHide is an anti feature. I constantly click it on accident because it's approximately where your thumb touches to sroll or to click on a header. Edit: Lots of folks apparently missunderstanding me. I'm not talking about comment collapsing which is essential but about story hiding on the front page. Also it wouldn't be as bad if there was a convenient way to unhide stories.
- hobs 10y agoCould not disagree more strenuously. If HN wanted to do the color thing to indicate depth I would also be ok with it, but the collapse feature is one of the nicest things HN has introduced in years and saves me tons of scrolling.
- anc84 10y agoThe weekly Muse hiring post.
- veesahni 10y agoI accidentally click on hide when aiming for the comments link
- stefantalpalaru 10y agoHellbanning.
- truebosko 10y agoOne thing to add, is that I love the [Hacker News Enhancement Suite](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-enhancement-s/bappiabcodbpphnojdiaddhnilfnjmpm?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-enhanc...) and it's no fun using HN without it :)
- DontGiveTwoFlux 10y agoI love the hacker news search. It's on every page, so no need to remember where it is. Best part- I would guess that about 3/4 of the time I search, I find what I'm looking for.
- DanBC 10y agoSearch is frustrating, but it works for some stuff. The devs have HN accounts, and I think they're receptive if you have any suggestions.
- molecule 10y agoThe front page. I exclusively use hckrnews as my entry point, and have for years now. It caches articles that make the front page, so I don't need to manually re-scan the front page for new stuff nor worry about missing something that made it to the front page. http://hckrnews.com http://hckrnews.com