7 ms·

Ask HN: Has HN had an upgrade?

26 points by xupybd 4y ago

I've noticed a couple of stories with a huge number of comments and the site is running fine. In the past I've had to logout when the comment count gets too high. What has changed?

comfypotato 4y ago
On the contrary, I’ve had more problems with the site in the last week than ever before. Maybe it was the threads you were talking about. Maybe it was said upgrade process. It was probably coincidence. Personally I doubt anything has changed. What are you considering a lot of comments? The largest I’ve seen since I’ve been here was the Roe v. Wade overturn post, and it was around 1000. The site’s acting no different for me now than it did then.
- roxgib 4y ago
  I've noticed the same. Never seen it get overloaded before, but it's happened several times over the past week.
  - luckylion 4y ago
    I thought that's a soft-lockout that's supposed to tell you to stop trying to comment on a topic. If you're persistent and really want to, you can after a minute or two, but if it's not that important, you go "meh, I guess not" and go on your merry way.
    - comfypotato 4y ago
      If my understanding is correct, they disable the “reply” to limit more comments. On every comment beyond a certain depth, reply is disabled for some time immediately following the comment.
nik736 4y ago
Logout because of too many comments? What browser and OS are you using?
- bluehatbrit 4y ago
  In the past it's sometimes been requested by dang on particularly popular threads so they can serve the page from cache. Here's one example [0], it's from 2016 but is just an illustration. I'm not sure I've seen it suggested for some time though. 0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12909752#12911870 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12909752#12911870
- eps 4y ago
  HN backend sometimes is laggy preparing user-specific view of threads.
  - qingdao99 4y ago
    User-specific? Why isn't the page excluding the header part cached separately, or am I missing something?
    - foldr 4y ago
      Presumably basic stuff like showing whether or not you've upvoted a comment and showing your own comments differently to other people's.
      - tuukkah 4y ago
        It would be cheaper to render those afterwards client-side given a list of comment ids that the logged-in user has upvoted.
        proto_lambda 4y ago
        That would require users to run client-side scripts for basic site functionality.
        yardstick 4y ago
        Upvoting is a client-side script already.
petodo 4y ago
> In the past I've had to logout when the comment count gets too high. Never experienced this in years. Everything seems same as always. Still unreadable flagged/downvoted comments, still too small font, stil Downvote button, still Flag button without requiring public reason.
- booleandilemma 4y ago
  Your account is 78 days old.
  - petodo 4y ago
    People switch accounts you know, I had to switch account after people set up downvote bots on my account when I had downvoted comments within minute from posting.
    - jraph 4y ago
      > account after people set up downvote bots on my account What's the motivation behind such thing? Why bother setting up bots for downvoting accounts? (FWIW I often get upvoted within seconds of posting)
      - petodo 4y ago
        silent the views you disagree with by making them unreadable and it's rather trivial to set up for folks here this stopped happening immediately after I created new account, if HN would be transparent and showing who flagged or downvoted your comment and everyone would need to provide publicly visible reason for doing it we wouldn't have this discussion
  - lampshades 4y ago
    I’ve had multiple accounts going back to at least 2013. People make new accounts all the time.
- Maken 4y ago
  You need high karma to have access to the down-vote button.
ihatepython 4y ago
[flagged]
petercooper 4y ago
Following on from the main question, it would be neat to know what the current state of play with HN's architecture and hardware is as of 2023. We've heard lots of bits and pieces from over the years but, well, curiosity always has the better of me.
tiffanyh 4y ago
dang probably moved HN off AWS back to M5 hosting.
voisin 4y ago
Off topic, but I’d love for HN to have larger buttons on mobile. Particularly the up/down vote buttons. I have to zoom in to press which makes it the only site I regularly interact with that requires this.
- cyberge99 4y ago
  I literally just did exactly this to your comment. Bigger button or touch area for mobile would be fantastic.
- pupppet 4y ago
  Yes! And the button hit-area is a little strange, even zoomed in. Half the time I'm not even sure I hit the right arrow.
- readthenotes1 4y ago
  I'm a contrarian by Nature so I will play devil's advocate and point out that having a little obstacle to your vote is a step in the direction of making sure you really mean it. I say that after zooming in to give you an upvote of course
- FractalHQ 4y ago
  Oh wow I thought everyone used third party client apps on mobile..! My experience with Octal on iOS has been really nice. The lack of a dark reader extension on iOS makes the regular site even harder to stomach but perhaps I should give it another chance.
abdulstevenson 4y ago
I've noticed buggy behaviour too, my comments are being flagged
DeathArrow 4y ago
Maybe they upgraded from Samsung Galaxy A52 to A53. :D Joking aside, even if the site has a massive number of users, it seems pretty efficient to me and I don't think it needs a ton of resources.

26 points by xupybd 4y ago

I've noticed a couple of stories with a huge number of comments and the site is running fine. In the past I've had to logout when the comment count gets too high. What has changed?

comfypotato 4y ago

On the contrary, I’ve had more problems with the site in the last week than ever before. Maybe it was the threads you were talking about. Maybe it was said upgrade process. It was probably coincidence. Personally I doubt anything has changed. What are you considering a lot of comments? The largest I’ve seen since I’ve been here was the Roe v. Wade overturn post, and it was around 1000. The site’s acting no different for me now than it did then.

roxgib 4y ago
I've noticed the same. Never seen it get overloaded before, but it's happened several times over the past week.
- luckylion 4y ago
  I thought that's a soft-lockout that's supposed to tell you to stop trying to comment on a topic. If you're persistent and really want to, you can after a minute or two, but if it's not that important, you go "meh, I guess not" and go on your merry way.
  - comfypotato 4y ago
    If my understanding is correct, they disable the “reply” to limit more comments. On every comment beyond a certain depth, reply is disabled for some time immediately following the comment.

nik736 4y ago

Logout because of too many comments? What browser and OS are you using?

bluehatbrit 4y ago
In the past it's sometimes been requested by dang on particularly popular threads so they can serve the page from cache. Here's one example [0], it's from 2016 but is just an illustration. I'm not sure I've seen it suggested for some time though. 0: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12909752#12911870 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12909752#12911870
eps 4y ago
HN backend sometimes is laggy preparing user-specific view of threads.
- qingdao99 4y ago
  User-specific? Why isn't the page excluding the header part cached separately, or am I missing something?
  - foldr 4y ago
    Presumably basic stuff like showing whether or not you've upvoted a comment and showing your own comments differently to other people's.
    - tuukkah 4y ago
      It would be cheaper to render those afterwards client-side given a list of comment ids that the logged-in user has upvoted.
      - proto_lambda 4y ago
        That would require users to run client-side scripts for basic site functionality.
        yardstick 4y ago
        Upvoting is a client-side script already.

petodo 4y ago

> In the past I've had to logout when the comment count gets too high. Never experienced this in years. Everything seems same as always. Still unreadable flagged/downvoted comments, still too small font, stil Downvote button, still Flag button without requiring public reason.

booleandilemma 4y ago
Your account is 78 days old.
- petodo 4y ago
  People switch accounts you know, I had to switch account after people set up downvote bots on my account when I had downvoted comments within minute from posting.
  - jraph 4y ago
    > account after people set up downvote bots on my account What's the motivation behind such thing? Why bother setting up bots for downvoting accounts? (FWIW I often get upvoted within seconds of posting)
    - petodo 4y ago
      silent the views you disagree with by making them unreadable and it's rather trivial to set up for folks here this stopped happening immediately after I created new account, if HN would be transparent and showing who flagged or downvoted your comment and everyone would need to provide publicly visible reason for doing it we wouldn't have this discussion
- lampshades 4y ago
  I’ve had multiple accounts going back to at least 2013. People make new accounts all the time.
Maken 4y ago
You need high karma to have access to the down-vote button.

ihatepython 4y ago

[flagged]

petercooper 4y ago

Following on from the main question, it would be neat to know what the current state of play with HN's architecture and hardware is as of 2023. We've heard lots of bits and pieces from over the years but, well, curiosity always has the better of me.

tiffanyh 4y ago

dang probably moved HN off AWS back to M5 hosting.

voisin 4y ago

Off topic, but I’d love for HN to have larger buttons on mobile. Particularly the up/down vote buttons. I have to zoom in to press which makes it the only site I regularly interact with that requires this.

cyberge99 4y ago
I literally just did exactly this to your comment. Bigger button or touch area for mobile would be fantastic.
pupppet 4y ago
Yes! And the button hit-area is a little strange, even zoomed in. Half the time I'm not even sure I hit the right arrow.
readthenotes1 4y ago
I'm a contrarian by Nature so I will play devil's advocate and point out that having a little obstacle to your vote is a step in the direction of making sure you really mean it. I say that after zooming in to give you an upvote of course
FractalHQ 4y ago
Oh wow I thought everyone used third party client apps on mobile..! My experience with Octal on iOS has been really nice. The lack of a dark reader extension on iOS makes the regular site even harder to stomach but perhaps I should give it another chance.

abdulstevenson 4y ago

I've noticed buggy behaviour too, my comments are being flagged

DeathArrow 4y ago

Maybe they upgraded from Samsung Galaxy A52 to A53. :D Joking aside, even if the site has a massive number of users, it seems pretty efficient to me and I don't think it needs a ton of resources.