6 ms·

One of the things I positively like about Hacker News is the complete lack of notifications or tools to make it easy to see when someone has replied to me.

mddanishyusuf 4y ago
[flagged]
- jgrahamc 4y ago
  Well, for me I don't want anything like that. I think the site works better without becoming like other sites with all the bells and whistles. But each to his own.
  - mddanishyusuf 4y ago
    [flagged]
  - robofanatic 4y ago
    threads page is good enough if you are eager to check replies. However a little bell icon in the top right conner wont hurt. Might save a click or 2.
pancrufty 4y ago
Hey it’s that “threads” link in the header. You’re welcome.
- josefresco 4y ago
  I do like how there's no "badge" indicating new replies attached to the "threads" link.
  - smcl 4y ago
    Yeah weirdly I also think that's a good feature to be missing. If we had this we'd definitely see more comments and engagement, but I don't think it would be better. Getting an instant audio-visual notification (i.e. you keep the tab open, see a "(1)" appended to the title of the tab and you hear a little *ping!*) during more heated discussions would diminish the "cooldown" period where you have a couple of minutes to step back and think "do I really need to reply...?" We have enough of this kind of discussion already, if I'm honest I'm no stranger to them :)
- ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
  Different beast. But https://www.hnreplies.com https://www.hnreplies.com works fairly well. I have found that it forgets about me, after a while, so I stopped using it. Every now and then, one of my downvote stalkers likes to go to an old comment I made, and write an insult. I assume that because the comment is so old, the post defies the Banhammer. I don't mind missing those, and I guess it makes them feel better about themselves, so it's all good.
- dunham 4y ago
  Wow, I'd somehow never noticed that. I've just been looking at profile -> comments whenever the number in the top right corner changed.
nixpulvis 4y ago
Gotta love when you see something change and have no idea why, but you've conditioned yourself to like it. A rare occurrence with technology.
- chaostheory 4y ago
  Tbf he just didn’t mention the reason he liked it, but to me it’s obvious. When you don’t have near real time notifications of replies or any at all, there’s much less of a chance for a flame war
- Supermancho 4y ago
  Did something change on HN that users had to be conditioned to accept? No. It's a simply a different experience that is one among many that people continue to engage in. It's not like users "condition" themselves to only use HN.
conductr 4y ago
Low comment/response velocity is what keeps it from turning into reddit IMO. Meaning, high velocity encourages arguments, negativity and other low value response posts which is what I see all over on Reddit.
- renewiltord 4y ago
  The one unifying characteristic of all social network communities is that they all have a defined Other that they are better than. They all invent some rationale for why they are better but all of them are, in the end, the same.
  - necrotic_comp 4y ago
    eh - I think Hacker News is qualitatively different. There's a lot of shared values here, and low-effort comments are actively discouraged. It's a lot more pleasant to read the comments here than on a place like Reddit, even in some of the higher-functioning subs. Maybe it's the way comments are weighted here, or the fact that post scores aren't shared, but it's definitely the best place on the web for me.
    - dsfyu404ed 4y ago
      It's quantitatively different, not qualitatively different. The non-contributors here here speak in full sentences, cite cherry picked links to back up their assertions of the local dogma and link to the Wikipedia page of whatever trope they want to reference rather than just stating it. These sorts of comments perform the same social utility (tribe signaling basically) to the people who peddle them as saying "yikes" and "the front fell off" on reddit and the snarky bigoted quips they use on the chans. Such non-contributions seem to be of roughly the same prevalence on all platforms, ours are just the most polished.
  - epolanski 4y ago
    Well, I guess having different phylosophies and different flows/features is what makes some products more palatable. On the other hand, I really would not mind notifications for replies to my posts, and I don't think they would negatively impact my HN experience. What I like about HN is mostly the community, the content, reading the comments, the UX/UI comes quite behind.
xwolfi 4y ago
Totally freeing me from the constant aggressivity of reddit, both towards and from myself.
bnralt 4y ago
One of the issues with both is that there’s an invisible timer countdown until the point were any reply becomes unseen. On web forums I like to wait a few days before responding, to judge whether or not a response is actually worth the time and will result in a productive conversation. On places like Reddit and Hacker News we don’t have this option - a person usually has a couple of hours, at most a day or two before any reply on the site would be as effective as writing a reply on a paper note and burning it afterwards.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- kazinator 4y ago
  Plenty of times I've received replies to comments that were themselves replies to posts that were a fair number of days old. It depends on how often that person visits HN, how busy is their "threads" timeline and how deeply they go into it. Then, finally, whether or not your comment requires or provokes a response.
  - bnralt 4y ago
    It can happen, but after a few hours it’s _extremely_ rare for people to read comments. If you’re an infrequent commentator, you’ll notice this. You’re almost never going to see your points change if you haven’t made a comment that day. On the rare occasion it does happen, it’s going to be one point for a post made in the past week. Your reply actually made me curious and I logged into an old Hacker News account that I hadn’t used in a few years. Hundreds of comments on that account, many that had a very positive responses (thousands of total points). Yet not a single point was given since I switched accounts, likely because close to no one has read any of those comments since they were made. On web forums it’s not unusual for me to get replies and reactions for comments that were made a decade ago.
    - kazinator 4y ago
      > On web forums it’s not unusual for me to get replies and reactions for comments that were made a decade ago That can be a problem, which is why some web forums lock threads against necroposting. HN also doesn't allow necroposting. If you view some months-old posting, the reply link won't be there.

mddanishyusuf 4y ago

[flagged]

jgrahamc 4y ago
Well, for me I don't want anything like that. I think the site works better without becoming like other sites with all the bells and whistles. But each to his own.
- mddanishyusuf 4y ago
  [flagged]
- robofanatic 4y ago
  threads page is good enough if you are eager to check replies. However a little bell icon in the top right conner wont hurt. Might save a click or 2.

pancrufty 4y ago

Hey it’s that “threads” link in the header. You’re welcome.

josefresco 4y ago
I do like how there's no "badge" indicating new replies attached to the "threads" link.
- smcl 4y ago
  Yeah weirdly I also think that's a good feature to be missing. If we had this we'd definitely see more comments and engagement, but I don't think it would be better. Getting an instant audio-visual notification (i.e. you keep the tab open, see a "(1)" appended to the title of the tab and you hear a little *ping!*) during more heated discussions would diminish the "cooldown" period where you have a couple of minutes to step back and think "do I really need to reply...?" We have enough of this kind of discussion already, if I'm honest I'm no stranger to them :)
ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
Different beast. But https://www.hnreplies.com https://www.hnreplies.com works fairly well. I have found that it forgets about me, after a while, so I stopped using it. Every now and then, one of my downvote stalkers likes to go to an old comment I made, and write an insult. I assume that because the comment is so old, the post defies the Banhammer. I don't mind missing those, and I guess it makes them feel better about themselves, so it's all good.
dunham 4y ago
Wow, I'd somehow never noticed that. I've just been looking at profile -> comments whenever the number in the top right corner changed.

nixpulvis 4y ago

Gotta love when you see something change and have no idea why, but you've conditioned yourself to like it. A rare occurrence with technology.

chaostheory 4y ago
Tbf he just didn’t mention the reason he liked it, but to me it’s obvious. When you don’t have near real time notifications of replies or any at all, there’s much less of a chance for a flame war
Supermancho 4y ago
Did something change on HN that users had to be conditioned to accept? No. It's a simply a different experience that is one among many that people continue to engage in. It's not like users "condition" themselves to only use HN.

conductr 4y ago

Low comment/response velocity is what keeps it from turning into reddit IMO. Meaning, high velocity encourages arguments, negativity and other low value response posts which is what I see all over on Reddit.

renewiltord 4y ago
The one unifying characteristic of all social network communities is that they all have a defined Other that they are better than. They all invent some rationale for why they are better but all of them are, in the end, the same.
- necrotic_comp 4y ago
  eh - I think Hacker News is qualitatively different. There's a lot of shared values here, and low-effort comments are actively discouraged. It's a lot more pleasant to read the comments here than on a place like Reddit, even in some of the higher-functioning subs. Maybe it's the way comments are weighted here, or the fact that post scores aren't shared, but it's definitely the best place on the web for me.
  - dsfyu404ed 4y ago
    It's quantitatively different, not qualitatively different. The non-contributors here here speak in full sentences, cite cherry picked links to back up their assertions of the local dogma and link to the Wikipedia page of whatever trope they want to reference rather than just stating it. These sorts of comments perform the same social utility (tribe signaling basically) to the people who peddle them as saying "yikes" and "the front fell off" on reddit and the snarky bigoted quips they use on the chans. Such non-contributions seem to be of roughly the same prevalence on all platforms, ours are just the most polished.
- epolanski 4y ago
  Well, I guess having different phylosophies and different flows/features is what makes some products more palatable. On the other hand, I really would not mind notifications for replies to my posts, and I don't think they would negatively impact my HN experience. What I like about HN is mostly the community, the content, reading the comments, the UX/UI comes quite behind.

xwolfi 4y ago

Totally freeing me from the constant aggressivity of reddit, both towards and from myself.

bnralt 4y ago

One of the issues with both is that there’s an invisible timer countdown until the point were any reply becomes unseen. On web forums I like to wait a few days before responding, to judge whether or not a response is actually worth the time and will result in a productive conversation. On places like Reddit and Hacker News we don’t have this option - a person usually has a couple of hours, at most a day or two before any reply on the site would be as effective as writing a reply on a paper note and burning it afterwards.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
kazinator 4y ago
Plenty of times I've received replies to comments that were themselves replies to posts that were a fair number of days old. It depends on how often that person visits HN, how busy is their "threads" timeline and how deeply they go into it. Then, finally, whether or not your comment requires or provokes a response.
- bnralt 4y ago
  It can happen, but after a few hours it’s _extremely_ rare for people to read comments. If you’re an infrequent commentator, you’ll notice this. You’re almost never going to see your points change if you haven’t made a comment that day. On the rare occasion it does happen, it’s going to be one point for a post made in the past week. Your reply actually made me curious and I logged into an old Hacker News account that I hadn’t used in a few years. Hundreds of comments on that account, many that had a very positive responses (thousands of total points). Yet not a single point was given since I switched accounts, likely because close to no one has read any of those comments since they were made. On web forums it’s not unusual for me to get replies and reactions for comments that were made a decade ago.
  - kazinator 4y ago
    > On web forums it’s not unusual for me to get replies and reactions for comments that were made a decade ago That can be a problem, which is why some web forums lock threads against necroposting. HN also doesn't allow necroposting. If you view some months-old posting, the reply link won't be there.