4 ms·

Here's another approach: https://www.talkyard.io/-32/how-hacker-news-can-be-improved-3-things https://www.talkyard.io/-32/how-hacker-news-can-be-improved-... —

Here's another approach: https://www.talkyard.io/-32/how-hacker-news-can-be-improved-3-things https://www.talkyard.io/-32/how-hacker-news-can-be-improved-... — part 1: "Finding new comments". To me the Thunderbird approach actually seems a bit annoying. What if I return after lunch, click "Get messages", and then Thunderbird highlights new comments in orange. But I don't read all of them, instead I go for another errand. Later, I return ... and click "Get messages" again. But now the orange marks from after-lunch will be lost, right? And only the very most recently loaded messages will get marked?

u801e 9y ago
> What if I return after lunch, click "Get messages", and then Thunderbird highlights new comments in orange. But I don't read all of them, instead I go for another errand. Later, I return ... and click "Get messages" again. But now the orange marks from after-lunch will be lost, right? As far as I know, the thread overview pane will still show the unread message in a bold font, but the indicator that you just retrieved the message would be lost for the messages that you retrieved right after lunch (though it would then show up for messages you retrieved after you returned from your errand). In either case, it would still be obvious which messages you haven't read as of yet which is something that HN doesn't really show on subsequent viewings of a given comment thread. Perhaps Thunderbird could be extended to show a different symbol associated with each message retrieval so that, in your example, you would have one symbol for messages retrieved after lunch and a second symbol for messages retrieved after you return from your errand.
- KajMagnus 9y ago
  Aha, I forgot that in Thunderbird and other email clients, one needs to click a message to see it in full and read it (right). So then Thunderbird knows exactly which messages one has read, and can highlight the unread ones in bold. Whereas here at HN, it's a lot harder for the software to know which messages one has read (because here messages are shown without the user indicating what s/he is reading). Yes perhaps different symbols — actually I'd be happy with just Thunderbird's bold font :- )

u801e 9y ago

> What if I return after lunch, click "Get messages", and then Thunderbird highlights new comments in orange. But I don't read all of them, instead I go for another errand. Later, I return ... and click "Get messages" again. But now the orange marks from after-lunch will be lost, right? As far as I know, the thread overview pane will still show the unread message in a bold font, but the indicator that you just retrieved the message would be lost for the messages that you retrieved right after lunch (though it would then show up for messages you retrieved after you returned from your errand). In either case, it would still be obvious which messages you haven't read as of yet which is something that HN doesn't really show on subsequent viewings of a given comment thread. Perhaps Thunderbird could be extended to show a different symbol associated with each message retrieval so that, in your example, you would have one symbol for messages retrieved after lunch and a second symbol for messages retrieved after you return from your errand.

KajMagnus 9y ago
Aha, I forgot that in Thunderbird and other email clients, one needs to click a message to see it in full and read it (right). So then Thunderbird knows exactly which messages one has read, and can highlight the unread ones in bold. Whereas here at HN, it's a lot harder for the software to know which messages one has read (because here messages are shown without the user indicating what s/he is reading). Yes perhaps different symbols — actually I'd be happy with just Thunderbird's bold font :- )