5 ms·

The problem is that old discussions become effectively invisible. If I reply to a post or comment that's over several days old there's almost no chance the aut

The problem is that old discussions become effectively invisible. If I reply to a post or comment that's over several days old there's almost no chance the author will ever see it.

InCityDreams 5y ago
As an ccasional replier, that's a plus for me. If I am interested in the past, I can go look (and I have done), and then reply. Look forward to reading your reply....perhaps in a couple of months.
mindcrime 5y ago
If I reply to a post or comment that's over several days old there's almost no chance the author will ever see it. That is a Good Thing.
- warrenm 5y ago
  No, it's not If you ask a question, and I happen to see it a couple days later and can answer it, why would you not want to see said answer?
  - scythe 5y ago
    If I actually still need an answer to the question, I'll be checking my threads. Otherwise, I'd prefer not to be interrupted by someone's nitpicking a point I made about wastewater management three days ago or something; it's unnecessary stress. I find reddit's reply notifications to be a stressful anti-feature, and they're a primary reason that reddit is IP-blocked on my work laptop while HN is not.
  - mindcrime 5y ago
    An edge case like that isn't really the point. I mean, what percentage of "responses to old comments" fall into that bucket? My guess is that it's a very small percentage. Weighed against the "propagating / encouraging low-value flame wars" possibility, I absolutely consider the lack of such notifications to a Good Thing. Especially considering somebody who's particularly motivated to find delayed answers to specific questions can always bookmark the particular comment and check it manually, or just occasionally scroll-back through the "threads" page or whatever. If they're not motivated enough to do that, then maybe the discussion wasn't that important to begin with.
    - warrenm 5y ago
      This isn't an "edge case" This is the normal case for commenting :: if someone replies, it shouldn't be difficult to find that out
    - hypertele-Xii 5y ago
      Since "low-value flame wars" are already explicitly against the community guidelines, using that as the argument against notifications is like banning knives because they are potential murder weapons. And then having people defend that decision as a "good thing" that we can't cut vegetables. You can already flag inappropriate content. We don't have to fear it.
  - squeaky-clean 5y ago
    Because conversations have lifespans. If I want to see said answer I can visit my profile and check. But I don't want the website constantly pestering me "someone responded to that thing you said a week ago!" If I'm still curious of the answer a few days later I can check my profile a few days later
    - Lvl999Noob 5y ago
      Why not make subscribing to a thread manual? You can subscribe to a thread of you think it is important. The subscription will last for 3-4 days or maybe a week. Someone will probably make a client that automatically subscribes you to your comments. But that will probably be a vanishingly small number of users. And flame wars would require both sides of the war to have their subscription on. The notifications themselves can be delayed too, so you can either manually follow it to stay fully up to date or deal with a few minutes or hours of delays. Basically too inconvenient for a troll, but usable for most probably productive purposes.
    - dredmorbius 5y ago
      Some conversations have long lifespans. Philosophers have been answering, or at least asking, the same questions for centuries and millennia. Technical and scientific questions can span years or decades. Political and social ones, decades and centuries. No, it's not necessary to drag all of past discourse into each individual conversation. But neither is it reasonable to demand that all discussions die within a few hours, or a day at the outside, on the most perfect text-based global communications platform ever developed.
modeless 5y ago
HN is not for directly communicating with single people. HN is for conversations with a large community. By commenting you can discover and/or influence the collective opinions of a large number of people. But that only works while the community's attention is on a discussion. Once the community moves on, there's no point in continuing a discussion here. Move 1:1 conversations to another service. Many people put contact information in their profiles, and others can often be found with a little searching. I've had a few people contact me about HN conversations over email and twitter and it's been a generally positive experience. Maybe HN should do more to encourage people to include contact information in their profiles so that this can happen more often.

The problem is that old discussions become effectively invisible. If I reply to a post or comment that's over several days old there's almost no chance the author will ever see it.

InCityDreams 5y ago

As an ccasional replier, that's a plus for me. If I am interested in the past, I can go look (and I have done), and then reply. Look forward to reading your reply....perhaps in a couple of months.

mindcrime 5y ago

If I reply to a post or comment that's over several days old there's almost no chance the author will ever see it. That is a Good Thing.

warrenm 5y ago
No, it's not If you ask a question, and I happen to see it a couple days later and can answer it, why would you not want to see said answer?
- scythe 5y ago
  If I actually still need an answer to the question, I'll be checking my threads. Otherwise, I'd prefer not to be interrupted by someone's nitpicking a point I made about wastewater management three days ago or something; it's unnecessary stress. I find reddit's reply notifications to be a stressful anti-feature, and they're a primary reason that reddit is IP-blocked on my work laptop while HN is not.
- mindcrime 5y ago
  An edge case like that isn't really the point. I mean, what percentage of "responses to old comments" fall into that bucket? My guess is that it's a very small percentage. Weighed against the "propagating / encouraging low-value flame wars" possibility, I absolutely consider the lack of such notifications to a Good Thing. Especially considering somebody who's particularly motivated to find delayed answers to specific questions can always bookmark the particular comment and check it manually, or just occasionally scroll-back through the "threads" page or whatever. If they're not motivated enough to do that, then maybe the discussion wasn't that important to begin with.
  - warrenm 5y ago
    This isn't an "edge case" This is the normal case for commenting :: if someone replies, it shouldn't be difficult to find that out
  - hypertele-Xii 5y ago
    Since "low-value flame wars" are already explicitly against the community guidelines, using that as the argument against notifications is like banning knives because they are potential murder weapons. And then having people defend that decision as a "good thing" that we can't cut vegetables. You can already flag inappropriate content. We don't have to fear it.
- squeaky-clean 5y ago
  Because conversations have lifespans. If I want to see said answer I can visit my profile and check. But I don't want the website constantly pestering me "someone responded to that thing you said a week ago!" If I'm still curious of the answer a few days later I can check my profile a few days later
  - Lvl999Noob 5y ago
    Why not make subscribing to a thread manual? You can subscribe to a thread of you think it is important. The subscription will last for 3-4 days or maybe a week. Someone will probably make a client that automatically subscribes you to your comments. But that will probably be a vanishingly small number of users. And flame wars would require both sides of the war to have their subscription on. The notifications themselves can be delayed too, so you can either manually follow it to stay fully up to date or deal with a few minutes or hours of delays. Basically too inconvenient for a troll, but usable for most probably productive purposes.
  - dredmorbius 5y ago
    Some conversations have long lifespans. Philosophers have been answering, or at least asking, the same questions for centuries and millennia. Technical and scientific questions can span years or decades. Political and social ones, decades and centuries. No, it's not necessary to drag all of past discourse into each individual conversation. But neither is it reasonable to demand that all discussions die within a few hours, or a day at the outside, on the most perfect text-based global communications platform ever developed.

modeless 5y ago

HN is not for directly communicating with single people. HN is for conversations with a large community. By commenting you can discover and/or influence the collective opinions of a large number of people. But that only works while the community's attention is on a discussion. Once the community moves on, there's no point in continuing a discussion here. Move 1:1 conversations to another service. Many people put contact information in their profiles, and others can often be found with a little searching. I've had a few people contact me about HN conversations over email and twitter and it's been a generally positive experience. Maybe HN should do more to encourage people to include contact information in their profiles so that this can happen more often.