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I'm mostly happy with the minimalistic approach that HN takes. Two minor things I'd like to see addressed though: - the flag button needs a confirmation modal.

I'm mostly happy with the minimalistic approach that HN takes. Two minor things I'd like to see addressed though: - the flag button needs a confirmation modal. It's way too easy to hit it by mistake when trying to hide a story. - Support for autoformatting markdown style tables. I'm not asking for full markdown since I know people would just abuse headings, etc.

cheschire 1y ago
just unflag it if you flag it?
- Krssst 1y ago
  I often din't realize when I accidentally flag something with my big fingers; when I go to my flagged page later I am often surprised to see a few pages I have no memory of and no reason at all for flagging.
  - gurjeet 1y ago
    Just out of curiosity I cheked my list for flagged comments and posts. There are a few comments I flagged, and they've been marked dead, correctly. But holy* I have so may flagged posts that the list doesn't fit on one page. The latest one is from 2024/03 and oldest one is from 2020/06 (maybe that's when I started owning an iPhone, but not sure). And I don't see any reason why I'd flag any of those submissions. I think it's very likely that the order of the text/link below the story title (on the frontpage) is to blame. For example: > nn points by xxxxx n hours ago | flag | hide | nnn comments The fact that links 'n hours ago' and 'flag' are right next to each other makes it very easy to click on the 'flag' accidentally. So a +1 from me to do something to fix this problem.
  - baubino 1y ago
    I haven’t flagged anything but just checked and yeah. Now unflagging the wrongly flagged.
- tfsh 1y ago
  I've been PSAs before on the front page with a reminder to check your flagged stories. I and others visited the link and were surprised to see how many stories I had fat-finger flagged. In fact I had never intentionally flagged a story yet the list was at least 10-15 long
  - tyre 1y ago
    Wow I checked mine and had about 20. I've never intentionally flagged a submission as far as I can remember and none of these were even close to flag worthy.
  - beala 1y ago
    I've apparently flagged 6 articles and 1 post by accident. That said, it's possible this is all accounted for in the system. Maybe the mods only get notified above some threshold and that threshold has been tuned to ignore the background noise of accidental flags. Adding a confirmation would lower the noise level, but perhaps not translate into any real benefit.
- k1t 1y ago
  The problem is that the user experience is not "oops, I accidentally flagged an article, I should go unflag it." The experience is more like "I clicked on a link to an article, but instead of loading the article, the HN page just reloaded. Now I have to scroll down to find it again... Hmm.. Where is it? Maybe it's moved to a different page...? What was I even looking for again? Oh well"
silisili 1y ago
Same with hide. Which is about worse since it disappears. I often figure out I've hidden things weeks after the fact.
- me_vinayakakv 1y ago
  Sometimes I feel hide can be used as some sort of bookmarking functionality since it can be accessed from profile always.
jv22222 1y ago
The flagged thing has come up quite a few times in past similar threads. Unfortunately, I guess if the powers that be were going to fix it they would have.
yjftsjthsd-h 1y ago
> I'm not asking for full markdown since I know people would just abuse headings, etc. While we're at it - I also would favor a strict subset of markdown, but it would be really nice to have a strict subset of markdown instead of the homebrew thing we have now. The biggest one that regularly catches people out is that * foo * bar formats as * foo * bar instead of a bullet-point list. And on that note, I'd really like ``` to do code blocks instead of needing 2+ space indentation as the way to make a code block.
mamcx 1y ago
And dark mode!
- mixmastamyk 1y ago
  Been using the "Dark Background and Light Text" extension for... dunno a decade or so.
- frm88 1y ago
  I've been using Hacki, the app (yes, I know) on mobile which adds a couple of features like separating the comment, upvote, flag etc. functions into a separate swipe-right menu and, more to your point: dark mode. It's a great experience. I wish I could find out whether the author has a patreon because a comforting app like this should not go unrewarded but they are obscure. One thing it misses is a menu point for the active link.
- ghssds 1y ago
  Paste that into uBlock Origin: news.ycombinator.com##html:style(filter:invert(100%) hue-rotate(180deg)) news.ycombinator.com##body:style(background: white) news.ycombinator.com##div.toptext:style(color: black) news.ycombinator.com###hnmain td[bgcolor="#000000"] Not my idea, I took it from a comment on HN a few weeks ago.
insin 1y ago
My browser extension for HN adds confirmation of flagging/hiding on mobile, among other things: https://soitis.dev/comments-owl-for-hacker-news https://soitis.dev/comments-owl-for-hacker-news
1718627440 1y ago
I would like it if you could filter comments by time after, so you don't need to reread a lot to see what's new. There is latest, but then you completely loose the context of any discussion. This feature could additionally leave the two parents of any new comment for context.

cheschire 1y ago

just unflag it if you flag it?

Krssst 1y ago
I often din't realize when I accidentally flag something with my big fingers; when I go to my flagged page later I am often surprised to see a few pages I have no memory of and no reason at all for flagging.
- gurjeet 1y ago
  Just out of curiosity I cheked my list for flagged comments and posts. There are a few comments I flagged, and they've been marked dead, correctly. But holy* I have so may flagged posts that the list doesn't fit on one page. The latest one is from 2024/03 and oldest one is from 2020/06 (maybe that's when I started owning an iPhone, but not sure). And I don't see any reason why I'd flag any of those submissions. I think it's very likely that the order of the text/link below the story title (on the frontpage) is to blame. For example: > nn points by xxxxx n hours ago | flag | hide | nnn comments The fact that links 'n hours ago' and 'flag' are right next to each other makes it very easy to click on the 'flag' accidentally. So a +1 from me to do something to fix this problem.
- baubino 1y ago
  I haven’t flagged anything but just checked and yeah. Now unflagging the wrongly flagged.
tfsh 1y ago
I've been PSAs before on the front page with a reminder to check your flagged stories. I and others visited the link and were surprised to see how many stories I had fat-finger flagged. In fact I had never intentionally flagged a story yet the list was at least 10-15 long
- tyre 1y ago
  Wow I checked mine and had about 20. I've never intentionally flagged a submission as far as I can remember and none of these were even close to flag worthy.
- beala 1y ago
  I've apparently flagged 6 articles and 1 post by accident. That said, it's possible this is all accounted for in the system. Maybe the mods only get notified above some threshold and that threshold has been tuned to ignore the background noise of accidental flags. Adding a confirmation would lower the noise level, but perhaps not translate into any real benefit.
k1t 1y ago
The problem is that the user experience is not "oops, I accidentally flagged an article, I should go unflag it." The experience is more like "I clicked on a link to an article, but instead of loading the article, the HN page just reloaded. Now I have to scroll down to find it again... Hmm.. Where is it? Maybe it's moved to a different page...? What was I even looking for again? Oh well"

silisili 1y ago

Same with hide. Which is about worse since it disappears. I often figure out I've hidden things weeks after the fact.

me_vinayakakv 1y ago
Sometimes I feel hide can be used as some sort of bookmarking functionality since it can be accessed from profile always.

jv22222 1y ago

The flagged thing has come up quite a few times in past similar threads. Unfortunately, I guess if the powers that be were going to fix it they would have.

yjftsjthsd-h 1y ago

> I'm not asking for full markdown since I know people would just abuse headings, etc. While we're at it - I also would favor a strict subset of markdown, but it would be really nice to have a strict subset of markdown instead of the homebrew thing we have now. The biggest one that regularly catches people out is that * foo * bar formats as * foo * bar instead of a bullet-point list. And on that note, I'd really like ``` to do code blocks instead of needing 2+ space indentation as the way to make a code block.

mamcx 1y ago

And dark mode!

mixmastamyk 1y ago
Been using the "Dark Background and Light Text" extension for... dunno a decade or so.
frm88 1y ago
I've been using Hacki, the app (yes, I know) on mobile which adds a couple of features like separating the comment, upvote, flag etc. functions into a separate swipe-right menu and, more to your point: dark mode. It's a great experience. I wish I could find out whether the author has a patreon because a comforting app like this should not go unrewarded but they are obscure. One thing it misses is a menu point for the active link.
ghssds 1y ago
Paste that into uBlock Origin: news.ycombinator.com##html:style(filter:invert(100%) hue-rotate(180deg)) news.ycombinator.com##body:style(background: white) news.ycombinator.com##div.toptext:style(color: black) news.ycombinator.com###hnmain td[bgcolor="#000000"] Not my idea, I took it from a comment on HN a few weeks ago.

insin 1y ago

My browser extension for HN adds confirmation of flagging/hiding on mobile, among other things: https://soitis.dev/comments-owl-for-hacker-news https://soitis.dev/comments-owl-for-hacker-news

1718627440 1y ago

I would like it if you could filter comments by time after, so you don't need to reread a lot to see what's new. There is latest, but then you completely loose the context of any discussion. This feature could additionally leave the two parents of any new comment for context.