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Why do you want to discourage replies to old comments?

by jefftk 7y ago

jedberg 7y ago
Because the people who made the comments won't know that someone replied since HN doesn't have a notification system.
- saagarjha 7y ago
  Not a Hacker News feature, and probably not new to many here, but some might find it useful: http://www.hnreplies.com http://www.hnreplies.com
  - jedberg 7y ago
    That was new to me, thanks!
- jefftk 7y ago
  That doesn't seem like a reason to disallow necro-replies? The primary reason people write replies isn't communication with the parent commenter.
  - jedberg 7y ago
    True but at the same time if you refute a claim someone made in the comments, it seems only fair to give them a chance to reply.
    - jefftk 7y ago
      Which is a good reason to add a reply-notification system, not a good reason to block replies
      - jedberg 7y ago
        I think HN lacks a notification system intentionally. HN is very much geared towards reducing flame wars, and I think that is part of it. If they wanted a notification system I'm sure they could have implemented it.
        dang 7y ago
        Yes, I think we'll continue to avoid the notification system, not just because of flamewars but also because (relatedly) it's not so compatible with curiosity. Push notifications seem to jack up the nervous system in a way that's good for engagement but not necessarily for users—we all experience this elsewhere on the internet, and on HN we're in the blessed position of not needing to juice the numbers. On the other hand, it can be hard to discover replies, and certainly new/interesting comments in large threads, when you want them. I'm currently working on a new-comment-highlighter (draws a colored bar to the left of comments since you last viewed the page) as one step toward helping with this. If anyone wants to help test this, email hn@ycombinator.com and I'll switch it on for you.
dang 7y ago
Sorry for the delay - just seeing this now (ironically?) HN threads are closed to new comments after 2 weeks, mostly as a way of preserving history. A forum discussion is most meaningful as a snapshot in time. It would be weird if people could go back later to ancient threads and add comments based on information that wasn't available at the time. Actually, you can go back and look at very early threads, before this restriction was put in place, and it was already weird. Imagine what the original Dropbox Show HN would look like by now if we didn't restrict this. All that said, I think you guys are on to something interesting with thoughts about how the software could provide better access to the history, beyond just posting links to past discussions.

Why do you want to discourage replies to old comments?

by jefftk 7y ago

Why do you want to discourage replies to old comments?

jedberg 7y ago

Because the people who made the comments won't know that someone replied since HN doesn't have a notification system.

saagarjha 7y ago
Not a Hacker News feature, and probably not new to many here, but some might find it useful: http://www.hnreplies.com http://www.hnreplies.com
- jedberg 7y ago
  That was new to me, thanks!
jefftk 7y ago
That doesn't seem like a reason to disallow necro-replies? The primary reason people write replies isn't communication with the parent commenter.
- jedberg 7y ago
  True but at the same time if you refute a claim someone made in the comments, it seems only fair to give them a chance to reply.
  - jefftk 7y ago
    Which is a good reason to add a reply-notification system, not a good reason to block replies
    - jedberg 7y ago
      I think HN lacks a notification system intentionally. HN is very much geared towards reducing flame wars, and I think that is part of it. If they wanted a notification system I'm sure they could have implemented it.
      - dang 7y ago
        Yes, I think we'll continue to avoid the notification system, not just because of flamewars but also because (relatedly) it's not so compatible with curiosity. Push notifications seem to jack up the nervous system in a way that's good for engagement but not necessarily for users—we all experience this elsewhere on the internet, and on HN we're in the blessed position of not needing to juice the numbers. On the other hand, it can be hard to discover replies, and certainly new/interesting comments in large threads, when you want them. I'm currently working on a new-comment-highlighter (draws a colored bar to the left of comments since you last viewed the page) as one step toward helping with this. If anyone wants to help test this, email hn@ycombinator.com and I'll switch it on for you.

dang 7y ago

Sorry for the delay - just seeing this now (ironically?) HN threads are closed to new comments after 2 weeks, mostly as a way of preserving history. A forum discussion is most meaningful as a snapshot in time. It would be weird if people could go back later to ancient threads and add comments based on information that wasn't available at the time. Actually, you can go back and look at very early threads, before this restriction was put in place, and it was already weird. Imagine what the original Dropbox Show HN would look like by now if we didn't restrict this. All that said, I think you guys are on to something interesting with thoughts about how the software could provide better access to the history, beyond just posting links to past discussions.