I hope the author is tracking how often those gifs are loaded, and (after the HN hug-of-death dies away) they pay close attention to whether or not users are se

I hope the author is tracking how often those gifs are loaded, and (after the HN hug-of-death dies away) they pay close attention to whether or not users are seeing that they're there at all. I hope it works out, because it's pretty well implemented - it doesn't slow the page down, popups all work (kind of.. it's weird if you don't stop on each item), and it's a nice design. In my experience any feature on a website that isn't really obvious tends to get single-digit-percentage engagement, and sometimes none at all. Users don't explore UIs. They want things to be clear, simple, and obvious. If it isn't then it might as well not exist...