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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

by 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
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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.

by bnralt 4y ago

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.