9 ms·

Ask HN: Is there a way to follow people on Hacker News?

19 points by jamescham 4y ago

I'm sure there's a way to do it but I haven't figured it out.

cheri9 4y ago
[dead]
rahimnathwani 4y ago
Use RSS: http://hn.algolia.com/userfeed/jamescham http://hn.algolia.com/userfeed/jamescham
Deprogrammer9 4y ago
im on instagram @deprogrammer9
smoldesu 4y ago
Not on the website, but it's fairly easy to use the (unofficial) RSS feed to get a timeline of someone's posts: https://hnrss.github.io/ https://hnrss.github.io/
- john-tells-all 4y ago
  that's wonderful, thanks! I use this tool to get a user's posts as an RSS feed and subscribe to them in Feedly. It also has other search and filter terms: - http://hnapp.com/ http://hnapp.com/ Example: http://hnapp.com/?q=author%3Anickjj http://hnapp.com/?q=author%3Anickjj
version_five 4y ago
What is the difference between following and just going to their submissions & comments pages? Are you looking for a notification when a person adds something new, a "feed" of the latest from your followees? Just curious what you specifically want to do?
- hinata08 4y ago
  Some websites have a notification section, and feed it with submissions and/or comments of users you choose
hinata08 4y ago
I would also like to have longer lived threads, and that users actually discussed, read each others comments, and reply We need notifications for replies ! So far, posts get posted, end up on the main page, get 300 comments at once from different users, then fall into oblivion. All of that within a few hours
- Kaibeezy 4y ago
  Agree. It’s hard to have a conversation here, but I don’t know exactly why. I suggested once that if usernames were just bolder it would make a difference. Avatars seem like fluff, but I think they really do make it easier to spot a familiar “face”. Oh, also… I do check “threads” sometimes if I want to keep up with a conversation.
  - shadowofneptune 4y ago
    To me, the nested format of comments is the issue. In a flat format like a forum, people are forced to stay on a main line of conversation, with occasional tangents using quotes or new threads. In the HN style, everyone peels away into their own little side discussions, which themselves generate side discussions. It's almost like socialization at a party, and it's encouraged by the heirarchical structure. A detailed one-on-one conversation rapidly runs off to the right side, which discourages it.
    - krapp 4y ago
      Hacker News has a weird cultural dissonance where it's designed to encourage tangential conversations as you mention, but also has numerous features designed to discourage engagement and casual style for the sake of maintaining quality and avoiding the Eternal September effect. It wants to be a water cooler or a pub where people discuss interesting things, but no one polices the conversations in a pub or around a water cooler for topicality, novelty or substance. It really should use a flat format to that end, but it's written in a lisp, so not having it render a tree view is probably sacrilege.
  - kelseyfrog 4y ago
dieselgate 4y ago
One of the things I like most about HN is there is not, to my knowledge, any "social" features like this. As mentioned by other comments there are possibly third party UIs/clients that offer a similar feature set. Easiest solution that comes to mind is writing down a username and just checking in when desired.
- mharig 4y ago
  This is my opinion, too. If you want deep discussions, you have all the Xchans
  - dieselgate 4y ago
    Coming back to this randomly - some folks put their contact information in their bios. Not my style but there probably are better formats for long discussion. Plus the HN indentation on long threads is slightly callback hellish
fasthands9 4y ago
Given the post here a few weeks ago about tracking people through writing style I actually wonder what the point of usernames is. Maybe it should be possible to have a username so people can activity follow you and see other submissions? And maybe it would be nice if each time you posted it generated a unique username so that it's anonymous? You could still keep e-mail registration/verification. And perhaps still give moderators access to the master accounts in case they need to see if a user is constantly promoting a company or constantly engaging in anti-social commenting.
jamestimmins 4y ago
I made a service back in the day that would let you sign up for accounts and receive emails if they posted/commented. Shared it on HN and it was met with a yawn.

19 points by jamescham 4y ago

I'm sure there's a way to do it but I haven't figured it out.

cheri9 4y ago

[dead]

rahimnathwani 4y ago

Use RSS: http://hn.algolia.com/userfeed/jamescham http://hn.algolia.com/userfeed/jamescham

Deprogrammer9 4y ago

im on instagram @deprogrammer9

smoldesu 4y ago

Not on the website, but it's fairly easy to use the (unofficial) RSS feed to get a timeline of someone's posts: https://hnrss.github.io/ https://hnrss.github.io/

john-tells-all 4y ago
that's wonderful, thanks! I use this tool to get a user's posts as an RSS feed and subscribe to them in Feedly. It also has other search and filter terms: - http://hnapp.com/ http://hnapp.com/ Example: http://hnapp.com/?q=author%3Anickjj http://hnapp.com/?q=author%3Anickjj

version_five 4y ago

What is the difference between following and just going to their submissions & comments pages? Are you looking for a notification when a person adds something new, a "feed" of the latest from your followees? Just curious what you specifically want to do?

hinata08 4y ago
Some websites have a notification section, and feed it with submissions and/or comments of users you choose

hinata08 4y ago

I would also like to have longer lived threads, and that users actually discussed, read each others comments, and reply We need notifications for replies ! So far, posts get posted, end up on the main page, get 300 comments at once from different users, then fall into oblivion. All of that within a few hours

Kaibeezy 4y ago
Agree. It’s hard to have a conversation here, but I don’t know exactly why. I suggested once that if usernames were just bolder it would make a difference. Avatars seem like fluff, but I think they really do make it easier to spot a familiar “face”. Oh, also… I do check “threads” sometimes if I want to keep up with a conversation.
- shadowofneptune 4y ago
  To me, the nested format of comments is the issue. In a flat format like a forum, people are forced to stay on a main line of conversation, with occasional tangents using quotes or new threads. In the HN style, everyone peels away into their own little side discussions, which themselves generate side discussions. It's almost like socialization at a party, and it's encouraged by the heirarchical structure. A detailed one-on-one conversation rapidly runs off to the right side, which discourages it.
  - krapp 4y ago
    Hacker News has a weird cultural dissonance where it's designed to encourage tangential conversations as you mention, but also has numerous features designed to discourage engagement and casual style for the sake of maintaining quality and avoiding the Eternal September effect. It wants to be a water cooler or a pub where people discuss interesting things, but no one polices the conversations in a pub or around a water cooler for topicality, novelty or substance. It really should use a flat format to that end, but it's written in a lisp, so not having it render a tree view is probably sacrilege.
- kelseyfrog 4y ago

dieselgate 4y ago

One of the things I like most about HN is there is not, to my knowledge, any "social" features like this. As mentioned by other comments there are possibly third party UIs/clients that offer a similar feature set. Easiest solution that comes to mind is writing down a username and just checking in when desired.

mharig 4y ago
This is my opinion, too. If you want deep discussions, you have all the Xchans
- dieselgate 4y ago
  Coming back to this randomly - some folks put their contact information in their bios. Not my style but there probably are better formats for long discussion. Plus the HN indentation on long threads is slightly callback hellish

fasthands9 4y ago

Given the post here a few weeks ago about tracking people through writing style I actually wonder what the point of usernames is. Maybe it should be possible to have a username so people can activity follow you and see other submissions? And maybe it would be nice if each time you posted it generated a unique username so that it's anonymous? You could still keep e-mail registration/verification. And perhaps still give moderators access to the master accounts in case they need to see if a user is constantly promoting a company or constantly engaging in anti-social commenting.

jamestimmins 4y ago

I made a service back in the day that would let you sign up for accounts and receive emails if they posted/commented. Shared it on HN and it was met with a yawn.