5 ms·

HN Idea: Show links in questions after N upvotes

41 points by alexkay 18y ago

Several 'Review my app' type of questions are posted here every day. The questions are either just a link to the app in question, or an explanatory post containing the URL which we are supposed to copy/paste to visit it. Am I the only one wishing that I could just click the link in the latter type of questions? I understand why the restriction is in place, to prevent spam/abuse/etc, it's even in the FAQ. However, if the question is legitimate and gets upvoted, why not just show the link after a certain number of upvotes? Do I make any sense?

brk 18y ago
Do I make any sense? Yes, I like your suggestion personally. It's not terribly difficult to copy/paste links. However, when it's clear the link is non-spammy, it would be more convenient to make it clickable, and it would probably help the site owner somewhat to see where the referrers are coming from.
- kylec 18y ago
  > It's not terribly difficult to copy/paste links. Unless you're using an iPhone or iPod touch, in which case it's pretty much impossible.
  - swombat 18y ago
    As I browse HN every morning on my iPhone, I would say that's a pretty critical use case as far as I'm concerned! :-)
    - palish 18y ago
      I'm posting this from my doctor's office using my iPhone. I also use it to check HN whenever my main computer is tied up with a lengthy operation. So yeah, I visit HN on an iPhone a lot.
  - peregrine 18y ago
    Just type it in.
    - palish 18y ago
      Could we get the parent comment back up to at least -1 karma? It's not a troll, it's just an unpopular opinion. A score of -7 should be reserved for trolling.
  - natch 18y ago
    OK, here's a solution I would love to see: only after so many upvotes, and only for the mobile Safari browser. On top of this it would be nice if there were smarts that detected abuse and withheld the behavior for posts that were being upvoted mostly by a cluster of related users.
    - kirubakaran 18y ago
      only for the mobile Safari browser Dude! What about us Android users?
      - jdoliner 18y ago
        True us android users need some love too. Although I'm a little embarrassed Android hasn't fixed that problem yet. I mean it's smart enough to recognize a street address and give me 1 touch directions to that address. So I can't imagine it would be to hard to have a regex running for websites too but oh well.
zepolen 18y ago
I never realised this could be a chore to other people. On linux you just select the url with the mouse and middle click.
- JoelSutherland 18y ago
  This is a feature available on all systems with middle-buttoned mice. Alternatively a Ctrl (or Cmd) + Click will open a link in a new tab.
  - zepolen 18y ago
    No I meant highlighting a non <a href> url in the text (which saves it to the copy buffer) and middle clicking into a browser window (which pastes it).
kirubakaran 18y ago
Yes, that would be a great feature. Related: Enable links in profile page of users above a karma threshold. Right now, it is disabled to deter spammers. Example: http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=kirubakaran http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=kirubakaran
- allenbrunson 18y ago
  strangely enough, some hn profiles do have clickable links in them. case in point: http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=mattmaroon http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=mattmaroon i've tried to figure out whatever the trick is, but i can't.
  - kirubakaran 18y ago
    I even wrote to pg couple months ago about the "discrimination" :-) His reply: "They just haven't edited their profiles since I turned off live links after spammers discovered using them as landing pages for spam campaigns."
gojomo 18y ago
You can do this yourself, via a bookmarklet such as the 'linkify' bookmarklet on this page: http://www.7is7.com/software/bookmarklets/ http://www.7is7.com/software/bookmarklets/ Yes, it even works on iPhone or iPod Touch MobileSafari. (You can transfer complicated bookmarklets like that one by adding to desktop Safari, then using the bookmarklets sync option under the 'Info' tab in the ITunes>Devices>iPhone area. Beware, the first sync may clobber previous iPhone bookmarks with those from the desktop.)
pg 18y ago
Links aren't turned off to protect against spam, but to discourage people from submitting sites with editorial comment appended.
- jmackinn 18y ago
  Why are editorial comments something you want to discourage? I'm not for or against the idea really but I have always wondered what the reasoning is.
  - pg 18y ago
    What I want to avoid is editorial titles. The idea is roughly that comments are individual property, because people can make as many of them as they want, but link titles are common property in that everyone has to share one (except to the extent duplicate detection fails). If links worked in "Ask HN" text, people would use such submissions as a way to get de facto extra long link titles. I know because they used to, and they did.

41 points by alexkay 18y ago

brk 18y ago

Do I make any sense? Yes, I like your suggestion personally. It's not terribly difficult to copy/paste links. However, when it's clear the link is non-spammy, it would be more convenient to make it clickable, and it would probably help the site owner somewhat to see where the referrers are coming from.

kylec 18y ago
> It's not terribly difficult to copy/paste links. Unless you're using an iPhone or iPod touch, in which case it's pretty much impossible.
- swombat 18y ago
  As I browse HN every morning on my iPhone, I would say that's a pretty critical use case as far as I'm concerned! :-)
  - palish 18y ago
    I'm posting this from my doctor's office using my iPhone. I also use it to check HN whenever my main computer is tied up with a lengthy operation. So yeah, I visit HN on an iPhone a lot.
- peregrine 18y ago
  Just type it in.
  - palish 18y ago
    Could we get the parent comment back up to at least -1 karma? It's not a troll, it's just an unpopular opinion. A score of -7 should be reserved for trolling.
- natch 18y ago
  OK, here's a solution I would love to see: only after so many upvotes, and only for the mobile Safari browser. On top of this it would be nice if there were smarts that detected abuse and withheld the behavior for posts that were being upvoted mostly by a cluster of related users.
  - kirubakaran 18y ago
    only for the mobile Safari browser Dude! What about us Android users?
    - jdoliner 18y ago
      True us android users need some love too. Although I'm a little embarrassed Android hasn't fixed that problem yet. I mean it's smart enough to recognize a street address and give me 1 touch directions to that address. So I can't imagine it would be to hard to have a regex running for websites too but oh well.

zepolen 18y ago

I never realised this could be a chore to other people. On linux you just select the url with the mouse and middle click.

JoelSutherland 18y ago
This is a feature available on all systems with middle-buttoned mice. Alternatively a Ctrl (or Cmd) + Click will open a link in a new tab.
- zepolen 18y ago
  No I meant highlighting a non <a href> url in the text (which saves it to the copy buffer) and middle clicking into a browser window (which pastes it).

kirubakaran 18y ago

Yes, that would be a great feature. Related: Enable links in profile page of users above a karma threshold. Right now, it is disabled to deter spammers. Example: http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=kirubakaran http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=kirubakaran

allenbrunson 18y ago
strangely enough, some hn profiles do have clickable links in them. case in point: http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=mattmaroon http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=mattmaroon i've tried to figure out whatever the trick is, but i can't.
- kirubakaran 18y ago
  I even wrote to pg couple months ago about the "discrimination" :-) His reply: "They just haven't edited their profiles since I turned off live links after spammers discovered using them as landing pages for spam campaigns."

gojomo 18y ago

You can do this yourself, via a bookmarklet such as the 'linkify' bookmarklet on this page: http://www.7is7.com/software/bookmarklets/ http://www.7is7.com/software/bookmarklets/ Yes, it even works on iPhone or iPod Touch MobileSafari. (You can transfer complicated bookmarklets like that one by adding to desktop Safari, then using the bookmarklets sync option under the 'Info' tab in the ITunes>Devices>iPhone area. Beware, the first sync may clobber previous iPhone bookmarks with those from the desktop.)

pg 18y ago

Links aren't turned off to protect against spam, but to discourage people from submitting sites with editorial comment appended.

jmackinn 18y ago
Why are editorial comments something you want to discourage? I'm not for or against the idea really but I have always wondered what the reasoning is.
- pg 18y ago
  What I want to avoid is editorial titles. The idea is roughly that comments are individual property, because people can make as many of them as they want, but link titles are common property in that everyone has to share one (except to the extent duplicate detection fails). If links worked in "Ask HN" text, people would use such submissions as a way to get de facto extra long link titles. I know because they used to, and they did.