3 ms·

One thing that I think most people don't consider often is that making things more usable isn't always good. Medium and message are interlinked. If everyone in

One thing that I think most people don't consider often is that making things more usable isn't always good. Medium and message are interlinked. If everyone in the world switched to mobile, it would change the content of the articles we read and it would change the discussion of those articles. When you make something more usable on a different platform, you're encouraging the biases that the platform compels. In the case of mobile this means encouraging shallower content and briefer discussions, among other things.

rabidrat 8y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message
hyperpallium 8y ago
You can have different rendering for mobile/non-mobile. We are in the midst of everyone switching to mobile.
- JoshCole 8y ago
  I know. I'm pointing out why this is a bad thing, because most people who advocate for better mobile support on Hacker News don't see themselves as advocating for a reduction in the quality of discussion and a reduction in the depth and complexity of the articles being shared.
  - hyperpallium 8y ago
    Thanks, I see what you mean now. I didn't get it because I use a mobile platform as desktop, but that's not generally true (so far).
IshKebab 8y ago
Sure making things more usable may sometimes have trade-offs. But I'm struggling to think of the disadvantage of basic markdown support on a site where everyone knows markdown, and even assumes it is supported. People are constantly posting markdown lists that end up all on one line. I assume the reason it hasnt been fixed is that nobody can be bothered, which is fine. But it's still a little embarrassing. Kind of like how Stackoverflow doesn't support triple backticks. I often see questions with formatting screwed up because people assume a site that heavily relies on markdown supports an extremely common markdown feature.

rabidrat 8y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message

hyperpallium 8y ago

You can have different rendering for mobile/non-mobile. We are in the midst of everyone switching to mobile.

JoshCole 8y ago
I know. I'm pointing out why this is a bad thing, because most people who advocate for better mobile support on Hacker News don't see themselves as advocating for a reduction in the quality of discussion and a reduction in the depth and complexity of the articles being shared.
- hyperpallium 8y ago
  Thanks, I see what you mean now. I didn't get it because I use a mobile platform as desktop, but that's not generally true (so far).

IshKebab 8y ago

Sure making things more usable may sometimes have trade-offs. But I'm struggling to think of the disadvantage of basic markdown support on a site where everyone knows markdown, and even assumes it is supported. People are constantly posting markdown lists that end up all on one line. I assume the reason it hasnt been fixed is that nobody can be bothered, which is fine. But it's still a little embarrassing. Kind of like how Stackoverflow doesn't support triple backticks. I often see questions with formatting screwed up because people assume a site that heavily relies on markdown supports an extremely common markdown feature.