3 ms·

I’ve always been curious, is there a stated reason why HN doesn’t have the feature natively? Is it meant to avoid too fast back and forth comments or something?

by j4yav 6y ago

foodstances 6y ago
It had notifications when YC was funding Notifo, but they went out of business.
corytheboyd 6y ago
I'd be curious to hear the official reason too! I don't miss the feature, really, I don't necessarily want push notifications for HN activity, but am just curious!
dang 6y ago
Yes, and generally avoiding tricks to increase engagement. I don't think it was consciously thought through—we just (going back to pg) have an instinctive aversion to that. Also, since HN isn't a startup that has to grow at all costs, we have the luxury of not needing to. It fits with trying to optimize for (intellectual) curiosity: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=curiosity%20optimiz%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor.... If something is interesting enough, you'll be motivated to look at it. If you're not motivated, probably you're more interested in something else and should look at that instead.
- ncann 6y ago
  While I suppose it does accomplish the purpose of decreasing heat in threads, for me it's a big usability issue since what usually happens is, I would comment on something, then forget about it and only check back days later, at which point there are several relies to my comment. Then, at that point, if I do reply again, chances are the other person won't reply back because he has no knowledge of my reply.
- Zevis 6y ago
  I think this is one of the best features of HN. It reduces a lot of the energy around receiving replies to a comment on all sides, there's never this neon light going off "hey, you need to respond to this right now".

3 ms·

I’ve always been curious, is there a stated reason why HN doesn’t have the feature natively? Is it meant to avoid too fast back and forth comments or something?

by j4yav 6y ago

I’ve always been curious, is there a stated reason why HN doesn’t have the feature natively? Is it meant to avoid too fast back and forth comments or something?

foodstances 6y ago
It had notifications when YC was funding Notifo, but they went out of business.
corytheboyd 6y ago
I'd be curious to hear the official reason too! I don't miss the feature, really, I don't necessarily want push notifications for HN activity, but am just curious!
dang 6y ago
Yes, and generally avoiding tricks to increase engagement. I don't think it was consciously thought through—we just (going back to pg) have an instinctive aversion to that. Also, since HN isn't a startup that has to grow at all costs, we have the luxury of not needing to. It fits with trying to optimize for (intellectual) curiosity: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=curiosity%20optimiz%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor.... If something is interesting enough, you'll be motivated to look at it. If you're not motivated, probably you're more interested in something else and should look at that instead.
- ncann 6y ago
  While I suppose it does accomplish the purpose of decreasing heat in threads, for me it's a big usability issue since what usually happens is, I would comment on something, then forget about it and only check back days later, at which point there are several relies to my comment. Then, at that point, if I do reply again, chances are the other person won't reply back because he has no knowledge of my reply.
- Zevis 6y ago
  I think this is one of the best features of HN. It reduces a lot of the energy around receiving replies to a comment on all sides, there's never this neon light going off "hey, you need to respond to this right now".