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Well, I personally like to see the most interesting comments at the top. But that creates the inherit problem - the first interesting comment gets stuck at the

Well, I personally like to see the most interesting comments at the top. But that creates the inherit problem - the first interesting comment gets stuck at the top and prevents all the newer ones from being seen.

waterlesscloud 14y ago
For HN specifically, collapsible comments would make a huge difference. A top-level comment in position one can have dozens of comments under it, making the next comment (which is perhaps only 1 upvote lower) appear far, far down the page. If you could collapse the top level comments, this problem would evaporate.
- aptwebapps 14y ago
  This is exactly why HN needs collapsible comments. Not so I can collapse them for my convenience, so that stuff doesn't get buried so easily. Sometimes the top thread is all there is on the first page ... for example, there was this great blog post by raganwald a while. Here's the new version [1] since I assume the posterous one won't be around much longer. And here's the HN discussion of the original [2] in which, as he noted, a comment about IQ testing (completely tangential to the post) took the whole first page. 1 http://braythwayt.com/2012/03/29/a-womans-story.html http://braythwayt.com/2012/03/29/a-womans-story.html 2 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3772292 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3772292
  - ceol 14y ago
    In that case, you would collapse the top comment chain and be shown nothing underneath, since HN only shows X amount of total comments before requiring you to click More. I think HN would have to increase the total number of comments per page before allowing collapsable chains.
    - aptwebapps 14y ago
      That's true, once it got that big, but I think the hope is that it wouldn't necessarily remain the top comment under those circumstances. Allowing people to collapse the thread, before it took a whole page, would allow them to see and upvote the other comments if they wished.
- Serow225 14y ago
  Already possible with extensions, see https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hckr-news/mnlaodleonmmfkdhfofamacceeikgecp https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hckr-news/mnlaodle...
kansface 14y ago
HN and reddit should randomize comment placement based on the poster's karma, the ranking of the comment with some notion of number of readers and/or time to normalize the expected value. Ideally, the algorithm would also keep track of how well comments due in their temporarily elevated positions.

waterlesscloud 14y ago

For HN specifically, collapsible comments would make a huge difference. A top-level comment in position one can have dozens of comments under it, making the next comment (which is perhaps only 1 upvote lower) appear far, far down the page. If you could collapse the top level comments, this problem would evaporate.

aptwebapps 14y ago
This is exactly why HN needs collapsible comments. Not so I can collapse them for my convenience, so that stuff doesn't get buried so easily. Sometimes the top thread is all there is on the first page ... for example, there was this great blog post by raganwald a while. Here's the new version [1] since I assume the posterous one won't be around much longer. And here's the HN discussion of the original [2] in which, as he noted, a comment about IQ testing (completely tangential to the post) took the whole first page. 1 http://braythwayt.com/2012/03/29/a-womans-story.html http://braythwayt.com/2012/03/29/a-womans-story.html 2 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3772292 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3772292
- ceol 14y ago
  In that case, you would collapse the top comment chain and be shown nothing underneath, since HN only shows X amount of total comments before requiring you to click More. I think HN would have to increase the total number of comments per page before allowing collapsable chains.
  - aptwebapps 14y ago
    That's true, once it got that big, but I think the hope is that it wouldn't necessarily remain the top comment under those circumstances. Allowing people to collapse the thread, before it took a whole page, would allow them to see and upvote the other comments if they wished.
Serow225 14y ago
Already possible with extensions, see https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hckr-news/mnlaodleonmmfkdhfofamacceeikgecp https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hckr-news/mnlaodle...

kansface 14y ago

HN and reddit should randomize comment placement based on the poster's karma, the ranking of the comment with some notion of number of readers and/or time to normalize the expected value. Ideally, the algorithm would also keep track of how well comments due in their temporarily elevated positions.