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Hacker news was originally written by Paul Graham in Arc. Arc is a Lisp-inspired programming language also written/invented by PG at the same time and Hacker Ne

Hacker news was originally written by Paul Graham in Arc. Arc is a Lisp-inspired programming language also written/invented by PG at the same time and Hacker News programmed in it to (also) prove it works. Arc did not catch on outside of Hacker News. Arc is free and open source. Regarding Hacker News, itself: "Ask PG: Why don’t you open source HN? (2013): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5006037 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5006037 PG's response is: I don't have time to manage such a project. I don't think it's necessary anyway. The reason HN lacks x cool feature is not that I expend no energy on the site, but that I expend all my energy on what users actually care about, which is not features but the content.

krapp 5y ago
>The reason HN lacks x cool feature is not that I expend no energy on the site, but that I expend all my energy on what users actually care about, which is not features but the content. said pg, on a forum in which users constantly complain about missing features...
- datenarsch 5y ago
  really? like what? I like hn precisely because of its minimalistic approach.
  - oblio 5y ago
    Have they fixed quote wrapping?
  - stackbutterflow 5y ago
    Pagination. I'm sure most people don't know that you can click on "More replies" at the bottom of the page to read more comments. At least I didn't know at first and spent many years reading only the first page. Edit: It's actually "More" not "More replies".
    - giancarlostoro 5y ago
      Really? Interesting, also explains why some mods (I think dang does it) make a stickied post explaining this in big enough threads. Maybe putting a message at the top of threads with multiple pages with its own div / table style would suffice.
    - nsizx 5y ago
      I have never understood this. On websites, paginators are always at the end of pages. This one is there and it clearly says what it does. How can someone miss it?
      - sokoloff 5y ago
        The only thing I can think of is that pagination didn't originally exist, so users could have "learned" that if Ctrl-F didn't find a term, that it didn't exist in the comments (rather than didn't exist on this page of comments). That seems incredibly minor to me, though.
      - krapp 5y ago
        Other sites design their UI to stand out. Paginators may be bolded, or in a different font. And there will usually be other visual cues like a "Page x of y" somewhere. Hacker News' primary color scheme is minimalist grey on grey, specifically so the UI doesn't distract from the content. As a result, people here develop feature blindness to the point that dang has to remind people that pagination even exists in most paginated threads.
      - stackbutterflow 5y ago
        Usually there are two buttons "Prev-Next" or something like "Page: 1,2,3,4..". And I just checked, it's actually just "More". Maybe it's me but it's not immediately obvious that a link (not even a button) called "More" means that you can go to the next page. Add to that that HN is so lightweight I just assumed all messages were loaded at once.
      - remram 5y ago
        I think people ctrl+F for something and then post a comment "I can't believe no one mentioned X...". People don't usually reach the bottom of the first page when they go through comments, because the first page is quite big, so they never have to see the pagination (though they do need to know it's not the complete view).
  - bennyp101 5y ago
    Option to set colours for more than just the top bar and … that’s about it
    - nick__m 5y ago
      I use stylish to changes fonts and colors, here's my custom stylesheet * { color: #F3F1A1 !important; background-color: #000 !important; } body > center > table > tbody > tr:first-child * { background-color: #073642 !important; } body > center > table > tbody > tr:first-child * a:hover { background: #002b36 !important; } code, pre, input, textarea { background: #073642 !important; } a, .pagetop, .hnname a:visited, .rank, .athing { color: #b58900 !important; } .commtext { font-size: 125%; } .title { font-size: 112%; } .subtext { font-size:75%; } .subtext *, .sitebit, .sitestr, .subtext:nth-child(2) { color: #9e7800 !important; } a:visited, a:visited span { color: #717600 !important; } a:hover, a:hover span { background: #073642 !important; } P.s. I am a slightly colorblind, please don't judge my colors palette
  - krapp 5y ago
    a lot of people complain about the font size, for instance.
    - iamwil 5y ago
      A strange thing to complain about, given browsers can override with user settings, if not user plugins.
      - krapp 5y ago
        One could argue that if your text-based forum, which is designed to be read, depends on browser settings and plugins to be readable to a vocal minority of users, then your design is deficient. Many people on HN would make that argument with regards to the need for browsers to have a reader mode. Ignoring modern web typography standards and keeping the default font size, line spacing and contrast such that it's uncomfortable for many people to read is an anti-feature. Particularly given the only reason it is the way it is is that pg didn't consider it worth caring about.
- marcinzm 5y ago
  Some users will always complain about something. edit: They also generally all complain about different things.
- giancarlostoro 5y ago
  It's a love-hate thing. Most people (myself included) love how simple HN is. The only thing I wish I could have is: Being able to search through content I've saved or upvoted. I don't know if I care for any other changes. In my case, it would allow me to find "that article I saw years ago that I cant quite remember" and liked comments would be nice to be able to filter through too. Basically the search engine HN uses at the bottom only goes through public items.
- jmeister 5y ago
  That line is from 2013.
amelius 5y ago
It's still missing modern privacy features, such as the "right to be forgotten".
- giancarlostoro 5y ago
  If you email HN mods they are fairly reasonable is what I've heard.
  - voidfunc 5y ago
    The mods are awesome on here in general compared to many comparably sized communities. Dang deserves a lot of praise. Thank you Dang.
    - ReDeiPirati 5y ago
      Strongly agree! A big shoutout to Scott also!
      - dredmorbius 5y ago
        Scott's not here, man. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26999696 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26999696 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25055115 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25055115
- kjaftaedi 5y ago
  Right to be forgotten is an old EU law, the new GDPR law is 'right to erasure' In the event you don't feel like deleting your own comments the mods will likely help you. A general best practice is to avoid posting personally identifiable information.
  - farmerstan 5y ago
    You can’t delete your comments after 2 hours.
markus_zhang 5y ago
I think it's pretty good. I only need one feature that is a piece of message that shows me which one of my comments has been replied when it happens. But then again I'm fine without it so I guess it's not necessary.

krapp 5y ago

>The reason HN lacks x cool feature is not that I expend no energy on the site, but that I expend all my energy on what users actually care about, which is not features but the content. said pg, on a forum in which users constantly complain about missing features...

datenarsch 5y ago
really? like what? I like hn precisely because of its minimalistic approach.
- oblio 5y ago
  Have they fixed quote wrapping?
- stackbutterflow 5y ago
  Pagination. I'm sure most people don't know that you can click on "More replies" at the bottom of the page to read more comments. At least I didn't know at first and spent many years reading only the first page. Edit: It's actually "More" not "More replies".
  - giancarlostoro 5y ago
    Really? Interesting, also explains why some mods (I think dang does it) make a stickied post explaining this in big enough threads. Maybe putting a message at the top of threads with multiple pages with its own div / table style would suffice.
  - nsizx 5y ago
    I have never understood this. On websites, paginators are always at the end of pages. This one is there and it clearly says what it does. How can someone miss it?
    - sokoloff 5y ago
      The only thing I can think of is that pagination didn't originally exist, so users could have "learned" that if Ctrl-F didn't find a term, that it didn't exist in the comments (rather than didn't exist on this page of comments). That seems incredibly minor to me, though.
    - krapp 5y ago
      Other sites design their UI to stand out. Paginators may be bolded, or in a different font. And there will usually be other visual cues like a "Page x of y" somewhere. Hacker News' primary color scheme is minimalist grey on grey, specifically so the UI doesn't distract from the content. As a result, people here develop feature blindness to the point that dang has to remind people that pagination even exists in most paginated threads.
    - stackbutterflow 5y ago
      Usually there are two buttons "Prev-Next" or something like "Page: 1,2,3,4..". And I just checked, it's actually just "More". Maybe it's me but it's not immediately obvious that a link (not even a button) called "More" means that you can go to the next page. Add to that that HN is so lightweight I just assumed all messages were loaded at once.
    - remram 5y ago
      I think people ctrl+F for something and then post a comment "I can't believe no one mentioned X...". People don't usually reach the bottom of the first page when they go through comments, because the first page is quite big, so they never have to see the pagination (though they do need to know it's not the complete view).
- bennyp101 5y ago
  Option to set colours for more than just the top bar and … that’s about it
  - nick__m 5y ago
    I use stylish to changes fonts and colors, here's my custom stylesheet * { color: #F3F1A1 !important; background-color: #000 !important; } body > center > table > tbody > tr:first-child * { background-color: #073642 !important; } body > center > table > tbody > tr:first-child * a:hover { background: #002b36 !important; } code, pre, input, textarea { background: #073642 !important; } a, .pagetop, .hnname a:visited, .rank, .athing { color: #b58900 !important; } .commtext { font-size: 125%; } .title { font-size: 112%; } .subtext { font-size:75%; } .subtext *, .sitebit, .sitestr, .subtext:nth-child(2) { color: #9e7800 !important; } a:visited, a:visited span { color: #717600 !important; } a:hover, a:hover span { background: #073642 !important; } P.s. I am a slightly colorblind, please don't judge my colors palette
- krapp 5y ago
  a lot of people complain about the font size, for instance.
  - iamwil 5y ago
    A strange thing to complain about, given browsers can override with user settings, if not user plugins.
    - krapp 5y ago
      One could argue that if your text-based forum, which is designed to be read, depends on browser settings and plugins to be readable to a vocal minority of users, then your design is deficient. Many people on HN would make that argument with regards to the need for browsers to have a reader mode. Ignoring modern web typography standards and keeping the default font size, line spacing and contrast such that it's uncomfortable for many people to read is an anti-feature. Particularly given the only reason it is the way it is is that pg didn't consider it worth caring about.
marcinzm 5y ago
Some users will always complain about something. edit: They also generally all complain about different things.
giancarlostoro 5y ago
It's a love-hate thing. Most people (myself included) love how simple HN is. The only thing I wish I could have is: Being able to search through content I've saved or upvoted. I don't know if I care for any other changes. In my case, it would allow me to find "that article I saw years ago that I cant quite remember" and liked comments would be nice to be able to filter through too. Basically the search engine HN uses at the bottom only goes through public items.
jmeister 5y ago
That line is from 2013.

amelius 5y ago

It's still missing modern privacy features, such as the "right to be forgotten".

giancarlostoro 5y ago
If you email HN mods they are fairly reasonable is what I've heard.
- voidfunc 5y ago
  The mods are awesome on here in general compared to many comparably sized communities. Dang deserves a lot of praise. Thank you Dang.
  - ReDeiPirati 5y ago
    Strongly agree! A big shoutout to Scott also!
    - dredmorbius 5y ago
      Scott's not here, man. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26999696 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26999696 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25055115 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25055115
kjaftaedi 5y ago
Right to be forgotten is an old EU law, the new GDPR law is 'right to erasure' In the event you don't feel like deleting your own comments the mods will likely help you. A general best practice is to avoid posting personally identifiable information.
- farmerstan 5y ago
  You can’t delete your comments after 2 hours.

markus_zhang 5y ago

I think it's pretty good. I only need one feature that is a piece of message that shows me which one of my comments has been replied when it happens. But then again I'm fine without it so I guess it's not necessary.