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Ask HN: How to unhide stories?

7 points by mattm 10y ago

I'm on mobile and accidentally clicked hide for a story I wanted to read. There's no way to undo this?

w3clan 10y ago
Well, you can click on your username and click on hidden section. That will give you all hided items.
- mattm 10y ago
  Thanks!
dang 10y ago
We're getting this complaint a lot and I'm beginning to think of getting rid of that feature, or maybe restricting it to /newest only. Any thoughts?
- NhanH 10y ago
  Can we have an option to hide hidden stories, default to no, otherwise keeps it where it is but have it faded (also add an unhide right there). Or would that be too convoluted?
  - dang 10y ago
    Kinda sounds like the latter. Sorry, but I'm afraid that we already have made things a bit too complicated.
- krapp 10y ago
  I think the problem isn't the feature, so much as the unintuitive way the user interface is implemented. The link to unhide items could show up in the top bar (maybe next to the username) instead of yet another link in the users' profile, and give some visual prompt (maybe with a counter or something) telling the user that there's a relationship between one action and the other.
  - dang 10y ago
    IMO the top bar needs to stay simple and only show the most important things.
    - krapp 10y ago
      I think it might be more important that people find the features they want to use, than that the top bar remain 'clutter' free.
      - dang 10y ago
        That's an argument for putting everything up there.
        krapp 10y ago
        It's an argument for not letting simplicity get in the way of functionality, and designing the interface around the actual usage of the site. Hiding the added complexity of the new features and hoping people just figure it out doesn't keep things elegant. Although I suppose it's also an argument for having the unhide link in the user profile be a bit more obvious somehow. Either way, it seems like a UI problem, for which the solution may be to either deal with the complaints in order to keep things simple, or else to change the UI to be more intuitive. I suggest moving things to the top bar because I'm assuming people pay far more attention to it than they do their profiles.
- stephenr 10y ago
  Honestly I think the problem is that the UI doesn't scale well on small screen devices. Solve that, and you solve a lot of unintentional actions: voting, hiding, following the wrong link, etc.
- swah 10y ago
  Get rid of it, or show a counter of hidden stories in the top bar...
- tptacek 10y ago
  Story hiding has slightly weird semantics even when it's working correctly. I think I'm sold on comment hiding (I was a skeptic), but I'd be a vote in favor of punting story hiding.
- wglb 10y ago
  I vote to keep it.
- iDemonix 10y ago
  Why not go the way a lot of modern web apps are going, once you've pressed hide on the story, just have a 'undo' button that disappears after 5-10 seconds.

7 points by mattm 10y ago

I'm on mobile and accidentally clicked hide for a story I wanted to read. There's no way to undo this?

w3clan 10y ago

Well, you can click on your username and click on hidden section. That will give you all hided items.

mattm 10y ago
Thanks!

dang 10y ago

We're getting this complaint a lot and I'm beginning to think of getting rid of that feature, or maybe restricting it to /newest only. Any thoughts?

NhanH 10y ago
Can we have an option to hide hidden stories, default to no, otherwise keeps it where it is but have it faded (also add an unhide right there). Or would that be too convoluted?
- dang 10y ago
  Kinda sounds like the latter. Sorry, but I'm afraid that we already have made things a bit too complicated.
krapp 10y ago
I think the problem isn't the feature, so much as the unintuitive way the user interface is implemented. The link to unhide items could show up in the top bar (maybe next to the username) instead of yet another link in the users' profile, and give some visual prompt (maybe with a counter or something) telling the user that there's a relationship between one action and the other.
- dang 10y ago
  IMO the top bar needs to stay simple and only show the most important things.
  - krapp 10y ago
    I think it might be more important that people find the features they want to use, than that the top bar remain 'clutter' free.
    - dang 10y ago
      That's an argument for putting everything up there.
      - krapp 10y ago
        It's an argument for not letting simplicity get in the way of functionality, and designing the interface around the actual usage of the site. Hiding the added complexity of the new features and hoping people just figure it out doesn't keep things elegant. Although I suppose it's also an argument for having the unhide link in the user profile be a bit more obvious somehow. Either way, it seems like a UI problem, for which the solution may be to either deal with the complaints in order to keep things simple, or else to change the UI to be more intuitive. I suggest moving things to the top bar because I'm assuming people pay far more attention to it than they do their profiles.
stephenr 10y ago
Honestly I think the problem is that the UI doesn't scale well on small screen devices. Solve that, and you solve a lot of unintentional actions: voting, hiding, following the wrong link, etc.
swah 10y ago
Get rid of it, or show a counter of hidden stories in the top bar...
tptacek 10y ago
Story hiding has slightly weird semantics even when it's working correctly. I think I'm sold on comment hiding (I was a skeptic), but I'd be a vote in favor of punting story hiding.
wglb 10y ago
I vote to keep it.
iDemonix 10y ago
Why not go the way a lot of modern web apps are going, once you've pressed hide on the story, just have a 'undo' button that disappears after 5-10 seconds.