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Show HN: Hacked Hacker News - new comment highlighting and keyboard navigation

48 points by prophetjohn 14y ago

prophetjohn 14y ago
I created this based on how difficult I found it to be to follow conversations here, especially long ones. It's always been fairly easy to keep track of replies to your own comments, but if you haven't commented in a thread or subthread, you're basically stuck counting timestamps. Since I've gotten it working it's made the browsing experience better. Please report any issues here or on github.
- laurent123456 14y ago
  Great extension, I'll definitely be using it. If I can suggest something, I think it would be better to bold the unread comments (in the home page) only if you've actually open the link or read the previous comments. Otherwise it adds a lot of distraction on the page, and the bold links don't tell me whether I cared or didn't care about the associated news.
  - prophetjohn 14y ago
    Great idea. I changed it to only be bold comments if the number of unread comments is greater than 0 and less than the total number of comments. It's been pushed to the Chrome Store. Thanks for the feedback!
  - ivan_ah 14y ago
    On that note I suggest that the UI should have the following three "states": 1/ New article, never read: 22 comments I know that they are all unread, don't need to tell me. 2/ Visited article 25 comments (3 unread) This is nicer IMHO than having another | separator. The 3 unread could be bold as it is now. 3/ Visited and all read: 25 comments (0 unread) But this time 0 unread does not need to be bold.
- noibl 14y ago
  Very nice. If it had a key handler to collapse the current comment with all replies[1], then I think it would be heaven. (Helps with long tangent threads at the top of the comment page.) I know, this should be a pull request... Edit: BTW, I just saw '(-1 unread)' which I'm guessing has something to do with showdead being on. [1] http://alexander.kirk.at/2010/02/16/collapsible-threads-for-hacker-news/ http://alexander.kirk.at/2010/02/16/collapsible-threads-for-...
  - prophetjohn 14y ago
    -1 unread happens if you (or someone else) deletes a comment. It should fix itself after a page load.
- lmm 14y ago
  Could you make it keep the original titles for stories? The thing that makes it hardest for me to follow conversations is when a mod changes the name of the story.
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zheng 14y ago
Very cool, I've tried lots of other HN reader-type things, and this one is my favorite. Very unobtrusive, but solves some major pain points.
joshschreuder 14y ago
Nice! Without having tried this, does the infinite scroll get around the 'unknown link' error when you wait too long to hit the Next Page link?
- prophetjohn 14y ago
  It doesn't. The best solution for that that I could think of was to re-GET the current page and pull the new link out of it, but I'm nervous about doing that since HN is so sensitive about HTTP requests being made in rapid succession[1]. [1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4981907 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4981907
  - joshschreuder 14y ago
    Fair enough, still like the extension. That said, I can't seem to get infinite scroll working on the home page / or /news, maybe because of HTTPS? EDIT: Never mind, you click the More and it puts them on the current page. I thought it was done automatically when you scroll down. Good stuff!
greengreens 14y ago
Nice. The infinite scroll doesn't start until the second page though. Is this deliberate?
- greengreens 14y ago
  OK when I hit 'back' from this page then go 'more' it works.
  - prophetjohn 14y ago
    It's currently working for me. Maybe you were just too fast and hit it before domready had fired? Let me know if you have any more issues with it.
    - greengreens 14y ago
      Seems to be working now thanks. Not sure how domready works, how do you tell?
carbocation 14y ago
The unread counts don't work for me on OS X Chrome 23.0.1271.101 .
- prophetjohn 14y ago
  I've got the same setup as you. Are they wrong or just not showing? Console errors?
  - carbocation 14y ago
    No console errors, just not showing. Let me know if there is anything I can send to help debug. Also, not sure if this is by design, but after I post an in-place reply, I have to reload the page to see my post. However, upon editing a post, the page reloads immediately. I didn't see any error in the console.
    - prophetjohn 14y ago
      I was conflicted about whether or not to update new comments inline or force a page refresh. So the behavior with the comments is intentional. I may end up changing it if it's confusing. As for the other problem, I'm confused about why that's the only thing not working. Are you running any other extensions that could be conflicting?
      - carbocation 14y ago
        Makes enough sense re: problem #1. Re: the unread counts not showing up, this still occurs for me even when Hacked Hacker News is the only enabled extension. EDIT: I have no idea why, but as I was hammer-clicking on the Hacker News main button, all of a sudden the unread counts started to appear. I wonder if there was some cache issue or something such as that.
tnorthcutt 14y ago
I get an error message when trying to install: "Manifest file is invalid." Chrome stable, Mac Mountain Lion.
- prophetjohn 14y ago
  I've uninstalled and reinstalled a couple times on Mac and a Windows VM without getting that message. I know Google checks the manifest file on upload for validity, but I've seen reports[1] of seemingly random installation failures. Have it happened more than once? [1] http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=103281 http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=103281
  - tnorthcutt 14y ago
    Yes, more than once, but I tried again just now and it worked fine. Thanks!
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discountgenius 14y ago
Is there any sort of directory for Hacker News skins/mods/hacks? I feel like there is probably a more efficient way for me to view Hacker News, but I've found no convenient way to compare the different options.
etcet 14y ago
I like the way that comments become "read" as you move through them with the shortcut keys. But I prefer the simple orange line highlight that the hckrnews.com extension and (shameless plug) the Hacker News Enhancement Suite [0] use. Your variable width grey highlight becomes looks very chaotic. [0] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-enhancement-s/bappiabcodbpphnojdiaddhnilfnjmpm https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-enhanc...
- prophetjohn 14y ago
  I agree that the style in your link is cleaner looking. I don't have a very good sense for how to make things look nice. I might clean it up a bit because my goal is to keep HN simplistic but just add the few features that I've been itching for. I hadn't seen your before, though. It looks nice.
tomkinstinch 14y ago
I like this a lot. Just one small issue: The default background color for new comments seems too dark for me--the contrast is low enough that new comments are more difficult to read than previously read ones. What about making the background for new comments lighter than the HN default?
ivan_ah 14y ago
Very cool! I wish I had that last week when I was scrambling to reply to comments... (I used text search the page for "minute" and "minutes" but that not very efficient...) Bonus if you adapt the script to reddit -- the same problem of not knowing which comments are new exists (except for top level comments which can be seen if you sort by new).
- hayksaakian 14y ago
  I would expect RES (Reddit enhancement suite) to support these features already. (I don't personally use it, but others can probably vouch).
  - werid 14y ago
    reddit gold has that feature.
crazydiamond 14y ago
Works great on OSX ML. Anything similar for Firefox ?, I just prefer that to Chrome (FF esp with Pentadactyl).
- prophetjohn 14y ago
  If there ends up being enough interest, I'll support FF and Safari.
  - crazydiamond 14y ago
    I believe FF is heavily used in the HN community.
treskot 14y ago
Will be very handy! Good job. I wonder why it isn't part of HN already. Would love to use it on my Firefox.

48 points by prophetjohn 14y ago

I created this based on how difficult I found it to be to follow conversations here, especially long ones. It's always been fairly easy to keep track of replies to your own comments, but if you haven't commented in a thread or subthread, you're basically stuck counting timestamps. Since I've gotten it working it's made the browsing experience better. Please report any issues here or on github.

laurent123456 14y ago
Great extension, I'll definitely be using it. If I can suggest something, I think it would be better to bold the unread comments (in the home page) only if you've actually open the link or read the previous comments. Otherwise it adds a lot of distraction on the page, and the bold links don't tell me whether I cared or didn't care about the associated news.
- prophetjohn 14y ago
  Great idea. I changed it to only be bold comments if the number of unread comments is greater than 0 and less than the total number of comments. It's been pushed to the Chrome Store. Thanks for the feedback!
- ivan_ah 14y ago
  On that note I suggest that the UI should have the following three "states": 1/ New article, never read: 22 comments I know that they are all unread, don't need to tell me. 2/ Visited article 25 comments (3 unread) This is nicer IMHO than having another | separator. The 3 unread could be bold as it is now. 3/ Visited and all read: 25 comments (0 unread) But this time 0 unread does not need to be bold.
noibl 14y ago
Very nice. If it had a key handler to collapse the current comment with all replies[1], then I think it would be heaven. (Helps with long tangent threads at the top of the comment page.) I know, this should be a pull request... Edit: BTW, I just saw '(-1 unread)' which I'm guessing has something to do with showdead being on. [1] http://alexander.kirk.at/2010/02/16/collapsible-threads-for-hacker-news/ http://alexander.kirk.at/2010/02/16/collapsible-threads-for-...
- prophetjohn 14y ago
  -1 unread happens if you (or someone else) deletes a comment. It should fix itself after a page load.
lmm 14y ago
Could you make it keep the original titles for stories? The thing that makes it hardest for me to follow conversations is when a mod changes the name of the story.
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zheng 14y ago

Very cool, I've tried lots of other HN reader-type things, and this one is my favorite. Very unobtrusive, but solves some major pain points.

joshschreuder 14y ago

Nice! Without having tried this, does the infinite scroll get around the 'unknown link' error when you wait too long to hit the Next Page link?

prophetjohn 14y ago
It doesn't. The best solution for that that I could think of was to re-GET the current page and pull the new link out of it, but I'm nervous about doing that since HN is so sensitive about HTTP requests being made in rapid succession[1]. [1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4981907 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4981907
- joshschreuder 14y ago
  Fair enough, still like the extension. That said, I can't seem to get infinite scroll working on the home page / or /news, maybe because of HTTPS? EDIT: Never mind, you click the More and it puts them on the current page. I thought it was done automatically when you scroll down. Good stuff!

greengreens 14y ago

Nice. The infinite scroll doesn't start until the second page though. Is this deliberate?

greengreens 14y ago
OK when I hit 'back' from this page then go 'more' it works.
- prophetjohn 14y ago
  It's currently working for me. Maybe you were just too fast and hit it before domready had fired? Let me know if you have any more issues with it.
  - greengreens 14y ago
    Seems to be working now thanks. Not sure how domready works, how do you tell?

carbocation 14y ago

The unread counts don't work for me on OS X Chrome 23.0.1271.101 .

prophetjohn 14y ago
I've got the same setup as you. Are they wrong or just not showing? Console errors?
- carbocation 14y ago
  No console errors, just not showing. Let me know if there is anything I can send to help debug. Also, not sure if this is by design, but after I post an in-place reply, I have to reload the page to see my post. However, upon editing a post, the page reloads immediately. I didn't see any error in the console.
  - prophetjohn 14y ago
    I was conflicted about whether or not to update new comments inline or force a page refresh. So the behavior with the comments is intentional. I may end up changing it if it's confusing. As for the other problem, I'm confused about why that's the only thing not working. Are you running any other extensions that could be conflicting?
    - carbocation 14y ago
      Makes enough sense re: problem #1. Re: the unread counts not showing up, this still occurs for me even when Hacked Hacker News is the only enabled extension. EDIT: I have no idea why, but as I was hammer-clicking on the Hacker News main button, all of a sudden the unread counts started to appear. I wonder if there was some cache issue or something such as that.

tnorthcutt 14y ago

I get an error message when trying to install: "Manifest file is invalid." Chrome stable, Mac Mountain Lion.

prophetjohn 14y ago
I've uninstalled and reinstalled a couple times on Mac and a Windows VM without getting that message. I know Google checks the manifest file on upload for validity, but I've seen reports[1] of seemingly random installation failures. Have it happened more than once? [1] http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=103281 http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=103281
- tnorthcutt 14y ago
  Yes, more than once, but I tried again just now and it worked fine. Thanks!

deleted 14y ago

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discountgenius 14y ago

Is there any sort of directory for Hacker News skins/mods/hacks? I feel like there is probably a more efficient way for me to view Hacker News, but I've found no convenient way to compare the different options.

etcet 14y ago

I like the way that comments become "read" as you move through them with the shortcut keys. But I prefer the simple orange line highlight that the hckrnews.com extension and (shameless plug) the Hacker News Enhancement Suite [0] use. Your variable width grey highlight becomes looks very chaotic. [0] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-enhancement-s/bappiabcodbpphnojdiaddhnilfnjmpm https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-enhanc...

prophetjohn 14y ago
I agree that the style in your link is cleaner looking. I don't have a very good sense for how to make things look nice. I might clean it up a bit because my goal is to keep HN simplistic but just add the few features that I've been itching for. I hadn't seen your before, though. It looks nice.

tomkinstinch 14y ago

I like this a lot. Just one small issue: The default background color for new comments seems too dark for me--the contrast is low enough that new comments are more difficult to read than previously read ones. What about making the background for new comments lighter than the HN default?

ivan_ah 14y ago

Very cool! I wish I had that last week when I was scrambling to reply to comments... (I used text search the page for "minute" and "minutes" but that not very efficient...) Bonus if you adapt the script to reddit -- the same problem of not knowing which comments are new exists (except for top level comments which can be seen if you sort by new).

hayksaakian 14y ago
I would expect RES (Reddit enhancement suite) to support these features already. (I don't personally use it, but others can probably vouch).
- werid 14y ago
  reddit gold has that feature.

crazydiamond 14y ago

Works great on OSX ML. Anything similar for Firefox ?, I just prefer that to Chrome (FF esp with Pentadactyl).

prophetjohn 14y ago
If there ends up being enough interest, I'll support FF and Safari.
- crazydiamond 14y ago
  I believe FF is heavily used in the HN community.

treskot 14y ago

Will be very handy! Good job. I wonder why it isn't part of HN already. Would love to use it on my Firefox.