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The list at https://news.ycombinator.com/topcolors https://news.ycombinator.com/topcolors is definitely not "the complete set of colors users have set" as claim
by XCabbage 3y ago
The list at https://news.ycombinator.com/topcolors https://news.ycombinator.com/topcolors is definitely not "the complete set of colors users have set" as claimed. I know this because it doesn't include my top color (namely #64BFBD).
- XCabbage 3y agoPerplexingly, my color appeared there shortly after I posted this. Does that link contain colors of recently active users, perhaps?
- dang 3y agoYes; users who have recently posted.
- XCabbage 3y agoAh, nice - so "my color doesn't appear on the list" is a problem that fixes itself automatically when you complain on HN about it!
- dang 3y agoA suitably recursive property for an internet forum, which I doubt pg had in mind when he wrote that code.
- sillysaurusx 3y ago(For the curious, this is because HN only loads profiles into memory whenever users post. Then they stay in memory until a server reboot, which seems to happen every day or two.)
- GreenWatermelon 3y agoEverything I hear about HN makes me feel like it's a hobby side project hosted on an old laptop in someones basement, and not literally the PR arm of a giant venture capital company.
- pests 3y agoWelcome to 1995.
- sillysaurusx 3y agoIt was. That’s why it won.
- dang 3y agos/post/do things/ but otherwise yes.
- dr_kiszonka 3y agoSpeaking of the top colors, the repo doesn't mention that the color changes to red during Christmas.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- antognini 3y agoLooks like it was updated to include that. As someone who is color blind I never noticed that the submission numbers have alternating red and green colors! That was new to me!
- tptacek 3y agoWeird, mine is near the top. I wonder what the sort order is.
- sillysaurusx 3y agoIt’s random. I emailed to submit a patch ordering by popularity and adding caching, but got no answer. EDIT: You can see for yourself how it's ordered here: https://github.com/shawwn/arc/blob/arc3.1/news.arc#L2611-L2615 https://github.com/shawwn/arc/blob/arc3.1/news.arc#L2611-L26... This is the original code, which survived untouched till at least 2019 or so. I've wondered if they changed it since then. The key is the (users) function: https://github.com/shawwn/arc/blob/arc3.1/news.arc#L144-L145 https://github.com/shawwn/arc/blob/arc3.1/news.arc#L144-L145 This returns the keys of the profs* hash table (short for "profiles"). At the time, profs was populated each time the server restarts: https://github.com/shawwn/arc/blob/arc3.1/news.arc#L88-L91 https://github.com/shawwn/arc/blob/arc3.1/news.arc#L88-L91 (dir profdir*) essentially returns an `ls` of the directory in which user profiles are stored. (Yes, they are (or were) stored to disk, not a database.) This was one reason it was hard to add a feature to rename users, which Dan somehow figured out. So it takes the `ls` of that directory, giving a list in mostly random order, and loads them one by one, putting them into a hash table, whose iteration order is also random. In modern times, profs* is populated in a lazy fashion whenever users post after a server reboot. Arc uses "maptable" to iterate over a hash table, which under the hood used hash-table-for-each: https://github.com/shawwn/arc/blob/arc3.1/ac.scm#L1082 https://github.com/shawwn/arc/blob/arc3.1/ac.scm#L1082 Nowadays in Racket, it probably uses hash-for-each: https://docs.racket-lang.org/reference/hashtables.html#%28def._%28%28quote._~23~25kernel%29._hash-for-each%29%29 https://docs.racket-lang.org/reference/hashtables.html#%28de... It does have a "try-order?" option, which gives a deterministic ordering if set. But whenever I set it, I sometimes get strange errors, at least on MacOS. Since it's disabled by default, I doubt they set it. Even if they did, it would be ordered alphabetically, which means your topcolor wouldn't be anywhere close to the top unless someone else whose name starts with "a" also set it. I only know all this because I've spent five years updating Arc for the modern era over at https://github.com/shawwn/sparc https://github.com/shawwn/sparc Past discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38586832 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38586832
- covercash 3y agoMine isn’t on the list either - #9db2cbd
- Jtsummers 3y agoDrop the extra `d` and it's on there.
- TheAceOfHearts 3y agoDidn't know about this list. It's time for a vibe shift, so after a decade I'm switching to #2288ff. Thanks for sharing!
- gjsman-1000 3y agoI’m grumpy because I am 100% sure that the “automatic downweighing” is applied to me (my comments are often below faded despite multiple upvotes), but it’s never been explained. I’m just guilty without knowing the crime.
- pests 3y agoEmail dang he can let you know what's going on.
- hamburglar 3y agoThis actually happened to me when I first signed up and after emailing dang asking why, it went away. I don’t think I ever got any actual explanation but I think it must have been some false positive which, once corrected, would never recur.
- sillysaurusx 3y agoI once submitted this link to the front page, which promptly took down HN because it had no caching. I fired off an email to Scott, frantically telling him "I think I took down HN. If you’re scrambling to figure out what’s wrong, it’s because so-and-so story is on the front page, and you can fix it by booting it off." A minute or two later the site came back to life, so I emailed saying "oh, never mind. I guess it was something else." And to my surprise he emailed back saying you were exactly right, thanks. Presumably they either added caching, prevented it from going to the front page, froze the list for posterity, or it’s still a ticking time bomb that can take down HN again if you happen to submit it. Either way, maybe the explanation of your missing topcolor is there somewhere.
- raverbashing 3y agoWell, given the name I assume it's a ranking? Though some colors are weird and it would be hard to believe a lot of people use it (like #fafafd or #0082a0 ) And yes my choice is there (#ffaa33)