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Please, please do make this. I have exchanged very useful information with other commenters on HN this way. Sometimes I ask a question in the comments, and it

Please, please do make this. I have exchanged very useful information with other commenters on HN this way. Sometimes I ask a question in the comments, and it gets answered days later. I go through "comments" in my profile periodically to see if someone replied to those. In this process I also see if someone asked my something and reply there as well. IMHO, HN should have a "private message" feature if comments get policed this hard.

beloch 13y ago
I endorse this post strongly. I too have occasionally had some informative back-and-forth's in buried threads. With this update, this would only work if both users have >1000 karma.
- wtvanhest 13y ago
  Additionally, people may be more willing to have these conversations if the comments made in old threads didn't impact their average karma. Long ago I decided I didn't care about average karma and just try to add something to a larger discussion or attempt to have a conversation in an old thread, but in the beginning I was concerned. The back and forth comments deep in threads no one reads are some of the most interesting I have had.
  - tripzilch 13y ago
    That'd be nice, it explains why my avg karma is still less than 2 while I also get quite a few upvotes. On the other hand, if I'm having a useful discussion with someone in an old thread, I often give them an upvote for their troubles as well. It's not like it affects the sorting or anything.
gk1 13y ago
By the way, you can use HN Notify (http://hnnotify.com/ http://hnnotify.com/) to get an email when someone responds to your comment. This way you don't have to dig into your comments every time just to find replies.
- bmelton 13y ago
  FWIW, anecdotally, HNNotify doesn't appear to work all that well on topics older than a few days... or maybe it's just me. I've noticed that I definitely miss comments, and the trend there tends to be when the discussion has cooled somewhat. I always get discussion notifications for topics that are still on the home page.
thaumaturgy 13y ago
It does: put an email address in your profile. I don't entirely disagree with you guys, but I wonder why these discussions aren't being taken to email (or whatever you kids are using these days) anyhow.
- neilk 13y ago
  Fair point but sometimes people don't want their real identity known. Either as a matter of policy or because they are using a throwaway to discuss something sensitive.
- saraid216 13y ago
  Anonymity? The bar for having an engaged, non-private conversation shouldn't be creating a new email account.
- cbhl 13y ago
  Keeping the comment thread together is useful for anyone who happens upon the thread later. Moving the discussion to email just results in rage: https://xkcd.com/979/ https://xkcd.com/979/
- doorhammer 13y ago
  I think what I don't like about the e-mail route is that it removes the conversation from HN Any time I learn about a new tech or shiny thing, I search for it on HN and read as much of the back and forth as I can. A number of times I've noticed those conversations didn't happen that long ago, even on old threads. Having it there is pretty invaluable to me to get perspective on stuff. I actually think that coming up with a way of tying those old posts back into the new posts to continue growing those conversations would be nice. (take that as a total aside; I'm really shooting from the hip by even saying that, because any implementation I'd say would be an idea I had uh, well about ten seconds ago, when I suggested it, and it's not really relevant to the point at hand)
  - thaumaturgy 13y ago
    HN is not a good place for conversation. (I wrote about this once and it was sorta well-received and then, case in point, everyone forgot about it the next day.) HN is primarily a news feed. There is some discussion, but it's topical and very short-lived. I only mention this because the site seems a lot better once you give up on the notion of it being conversational.
JoshTriplett 13y ago
> Sometimes I ask a question in the comments, and it gets answered days later. I go through "comments" in my profile periodically to see if someone replied to those. In this process I also see if someone asked my something and reply there as well. I use http://hnnotify.com/ http://hnnotify.com/ , and it works incredibly well for this case.
- dfc 13y ago
  I am a big fan of HNNotify. I have had a link to hn notify in my profile for a while now. There is one glaring problem with the service: in addition to notifying you to comment replies it sends an email for every top level comment on stories you submit. I sent the owner an email a while ago pointing out the issue and it sounded like the system was set up in such a way the the developer could not differentiate between comment/submission replies.
- mbreese 13y ago
  This would be a really nice feature if it was integrated into the current system. You wouldn't even need to use email, there could just be some kind of notification in the threads screen. Maybe an "inbox" section that shows the most recently replied to comment.

beloch 13y ago

I endorse this post strongly. I too have occasionally had some informative back-and-forth's in buried threads. With this update, this would only work if both users have >1000 karma.

wtvanhest 13y ago
Additionally, people may be more willing to have these conversations if the comments made in old threads didn't impact their average karma. Long ago I decided I didn't care about average karma and just try to add something to a larger discussion or attempt to have a conversation in an old thread, but in the beginning I was concerned. The back and forth comments deep in threads no one reads are some of the most interesting I have had.
- tripzilch 13y ago
  That'd be nice, it explains why my avg karma is still less than 2 while I also get quite a few upvotes. On the other hand, if I'm having a useful discussion with someone in an old thread, I often give them an upvote for their troubles as well. It's not like it affects the sorting or anything.

gk1 13y ago

By the way, you can use HN Notify (http://hnnotify.com/ http://hnnotify.com/) to get an email when someone responds to your comment. This way you don't have to dig into your comments every time just to find replies.

bmelton 13y ago
FWIW, anecdotally, HNNotify doesn't appear to work all that well on topics older than a few days... or maybe it's just me. I've noticed that I definitely miss comments, and the trend there tends to be when the discussion has cooled somewhat. I always get discussion notifications for topics that are still on the home page.

thaumaturgy 13y ago

It does: put an email address in your profile. I don't entirely disagree with you guys, but I wonder why these discussions aren't being taken to email (or whatever you kids are using these days) anyhow.

neilk 13y ago
Fair point but sometimes people don't want their real identity known. Either as a matter of policy or because they are using a throwaway to discuss something sensitive.
saraid216 13y ago
Anonymity? The bar for having an engaged, non-private conversation shouldn't be creating a new email account.
cbhl 13y ago
Keeping the comment thread together is useful for anyone who happens upon the thread later. Moving the discussion to email just results in rage: https://xkcd.com/979/ https://xkcd.com/979/
doorhammer 13y ago
I think what I don't like about the e-mail route is that it removes the conversation from HN Any time I learn about a new tech or shiny thing, I search for it on HN and read as much of the back and forth as I can. A number of times I've noticed those conversations didn't happen that long ago, even on old threads. Having it there is pretty invaluable to me to get perspective on stuff. I actually think that coming up with a way of tying those old posts back into the new posts to continue growing those conversations would be nice. (take that as a total aside; I'm really shooting from the hip by even saying that, because any implementation I'd say would be an idea I had uh, well about ten seconds ago, when I suggested it, and it's not really relevant to the point at hand)
- thaumaturgy 13y ago
  HN is not a good place for conversation. (I wrote about this once and it was sorta well-received and then, case in point, everyone forgot about it the next day.) HN is primarily a news feed. There is some discussion, but it's topical and very short-lived. I only mention this because the site seems a lot better once you give up on the notion of it being conversational.

JoshTriplett 13y ago

> Sometimes I ask a question in the comments, and it gets answered days later. I go through "comments" in my profile periodically to see if someone replied to those. In this process I also see if someone asked my something and reply there as well. I use http://hnnotify.com/ http://hnnotify.com/ , and it works incredibly well for this case.

dfc 13y ago
I am a big fan of HNNotify. I have had a link to hn notify in my profile for a while now. There is one glaring problem with the service: in addition to notifying you to comment replies it sends an email for every top level comment on stories you submit. I sent the owner an email a while ago pointing out the issue and it sounded like the system was set up in such a way the the developer could not differentiate between comment/submission replies.
mbreese 13y ago
This would be a really nice feature if it was integrated into the current system. You wouldn't even need to use email, there could just be some kind of notification in the threads screen. Maybe an "inbox" section that shows the most recently replied to comment.