9 ms·

Show HN: Collapse HN Comments

141 points by Igglyboo 12y ago

Little chrome extension I made to collapse comments on HN, feel free to use it if you want.

sillysaurus3 12y ago
I've been using this: http://hckrnews.com/about.html#extensions http://hckrnews.com/about.html#extensions In addition to collapsing threads, it also tastefully identifies new comments: http://i.imgur.com/qs6FDRU.png http://i.imgur.com/qs6FDRU.png It doesn't mess with the layout beyond that, which I like. By the way, http://hckrnews.com/ http://hckrnews.com/ itself is wonderful. It's HN, but in chronological order. That seems like a bad thing, but in fact there are only a few dozen submissions per day, and it's easy to pick out the interesting ones.
- ProAm 12y ago
  Does this have a 'Dark' mode? It looks great but I use the following Stylish script [1] for UI so its not like staring at a lightbulb all day. [1] https://userstyles.org/styles/81626/jellybeans-hacker-news-w-unicode-arrows https://userstyles.org/styles/81626/jellybeans-hacker-news-w...
  - TheSpiceIsLife 12y ago
    Have you ever used f.lux? https://justgetflux.com/ https://justgetflux.com/ it adjusts the colour temperature of your display(s) based on the time of day. I often use my laptop in bed with the brightness turned down and colour temperature at 2700k, makes the screen look like it's backlit by candles.
    - logn 12y ago
      Or Redshift on Linux.
      - ProAm 12y ago
        f.lux work in linux these days too.
    - ProAm 12y ago
      Yeah Flux is great, have used it for years, but dark mode it much different, basically inverts the colors 100%, HN for me has a black background, and grey text. Super easy on the eyes. I do this in all my IDEs, reddit, HN, stackoverflow, etc....
- nilkn 12y ago
  I've seen this linked to, but I never understood what the selling point was. It turns out I never realized that it sorted the posts in chronological order according to when they first appeared on the front page. Pretty cool! This definitely feels good for someone like me who refreshes the front page repeatedly throughout the day. I don't have to expend energy trying to figure out what's new.
- graedus 12y ago
  Nice, I'll try that. Here's my bookmarklet for highlighting recent comments (subtly for <1h old, less subtly for <10m old): javascript:var jq=document.createElement("script");jq.src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1/jquery.min.js";document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(jq);window.setTimeout(function(){jQuery.noConflict();jQuery("span.comhead:contains('minutes ago')").parent().parent().css("background","#fdfdf0");jQuery("span.comhead:contains(' 0 minutes ago'), span.comhead:contains(' 1 minutes ago'), span.comhead:contains(' 2 minutes ago'), span.comhead:contains(' 3 minutes ago'), span.comhead:contains(' 4 minutes ago'), span.comhead:contains(' 5 minutes ago'), span.comhead:contains( '6 minutes ago'), span.comhead:contains(' 7 minutes ago'), span.comhead:contains(' 8 minutes ago'), span.comhead:contains(' 9 minutes ago'), span.comhead:contains(' 10 minutes ago') ").parent().parent().css("background","#ffffe9")},500)
  - nkurz 12y ago
    It may not have been clear from sillysaurus3's comment, but the "hckrnews" extension defines "new" differently. It keeps a database of the last time that you've visited each page, and highlights all the comments that are new since your last visit. I use it as well, and it's great. When I access HN from a browser without it it feels practically unusable. My only issue with it is that I sometimes accidentally click on the "collapse thread" option. Ironically, considering the topic of this thread, I don't use or want that functionality, and would prefer an option to disable it. But highlighting the posts since the last visit is fabulous!
kissickas 12y ago
On Firefox I've been using HN Utility Suite. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/hn-utility-suite/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/hn-utility-su...
Ethan_Mick 12y ago
I've been using Hacker News Collapsible Comments [0], since I enjoy the default look of HN, but wanted to collapse the comments. [0] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-collapsible-c/hockhafcdegocajmjhafgjncjpodihkd https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-collap...
- tinalumfoil 12y ago
  I use HN Special [0]. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of the default look of Hacker News and I also couldn't live without features like infinite scrolling, showing which link you just returned from and more accurate domain names . [0] http://gabrielecirulli.github.io/hn-special/ http://gabrielecirulli.github.io/hn-special/
thesilverbanger 12y ago
Can anyone recommend an extension for firefox?
- sync 12y ago
  Works great: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/hn-utility-suite/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/hn-utility-su...
throwaway_yy2Di 12y ago
I love how every comment here links to a different implementation. I also made one (for Firefox/Greasemonkey), https://github.com/tom-szczarkowski/hn-stuff https://github.com/tom-szczarkowski/hn-stuff
- brianpan 12y ago
  It almost seems as if it's an essential feature for browsing HN in a sane way. Naw, everyone replying to the top comment in a post in order to be seen is probably fine.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
joshstrange 12y ago
I use, and have been very happy with, the Chrome extention HackerNew https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hackernew/lgoghlndihpmbbgmbpjohilcphbfhddd?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hackernew/lgoghlnd...
crescentfresh 12y ago
Dropped the .crx onto the Extensions page. http://i.imgur.com/t46u0C5.png http://i.imgur.com/t46u0C5.png Thanks Chrome!
- Houshalter 12y ago
  I would greatly appreciate if anyone knows how to get around this. I never thought I'd need to jailbreak my browser.
- OzzyB 12y ago
  On your Chrome's Extension page there should be a "Developer mode" checkbox on the top-left. Check that and you should be presented with a "Load unpacked extension" that you can use to install extensions locally.
Igglyboo 12y ago
Little chrome extension I made for personal use, feel free to use it if you want. It will allow you to collapse comment trees on HN.
- diminish 12y ago
  On HN Most discussions are stolen by remotely related comments.. This extension helps to dig them for me. Thanks.
542458 12y ago
Cool! For non chrome people, I've been using this bookmarklet since forever javascript:(function()%7Bfunction%20getScript(url,success)%7Bvar%20script=document.createElement('script');script.src=url;var%20head=document.getElementsByTagName('head')%5B0%5D,done=false;script.onload=script.onreadystatechange=function()%7Bif(!done&&(!this.readyState%7C%7Cthis.readyState=='loaded'%7C%7Cthis.readyState=='complete'))%7Bdone=true;success();script.onload=script.onreadystatechange=null;head.removeChild(script)%7D%7D;head.appendChild(script)%7DgetScript('//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.7.2/jquery.min.js',function()%7Bif(typeof%20jQuery!=='undefined')%7Bif(!$('body').hasClass('collapsible-comments'))%7B$('body').addClass('collapsible-comments');var%20span_html='%3Cspan%20style=%5C'cursor:pointer;margin-right:10px;%5C'%20class=%5C'expand-handle%5C'%3E%5B-%5D%3C/span%3E';if(window.location.href.indexOf('item?id=')!=-1)%7B$('center%20%3E%20table%20%3E%20tbody%20%3E%20tr:eq(2)%20%3E%20td%20%3E%20table:eq(1)%20span.comhead').prepend(span_html)%7Delse%20if(window.location.href.indexOf('threads?id=')!=-1)%7B$('center%20%3E%20table%20%3E%20tbody%20%3E%20tr%20%3E%20td%20%3E%20table%20span.comhead').prepend(span_html)%7D$('.expand-handle').live('click',function()%7Bcurrent_level_width=parseInt($(this).closest('tr').find('td:eq(0)%20%3E%20img').attr('width'),10);$(this).closest('table').closest('tr').nextAll().each(function(index,el)%7Bvar%20elWidth=parseInt($('tbody%20%3E%20tr%20%3E%20td%20%3E%20img',this).attr('width'),10);if(elWidth%3Ecurrent_level_width)%7Bif(elWidth%3C=inner_level_width)%7Binner_level_width=1000;$(this).hide()%7Dif(inner_level_width==1000&&$('.comment',this).css('display')=='none')%7Binner_level_width=elWidth%7D%7Delse%7Breturn%20false%7D%7D);inner_level_width=1000;$(this).text('%5B+%5D').addClass('expand-handle-collapsed').removeClass('expand-handle');$(this).closest('div').nextAll().hide();$(this).closest('div').parent().prev().hide();$(this).closest('div').css(%7B'margin-left':'18px','margin-bottom':'5px'%7D)%7D);$('.expand-handle-collapsed').live('click',function()%7Bcurrent_level_width=parseInt($(this).closest('tr').find('td%20%3E%20img').attr('width'),10);$(this).closest('table').closest('tr').nextAll().each(function(index,el)%7Bvar%20elWidth=parseInt($('tbody%20%3E%20tr%20%3E%20td%20%3E%20img',this).attr('width'),10);if(elWidth%3Ecurrent_level_width)%7Bif(elWidth%3C=inner_level_width)%7Binner_level_width=1000;$(this).show()%7Dif(inner_level_width==1000&&$('.comment',this).css('display')=='none')%7Binner_level_width=elWidth%7D%7Delse%7Breturn%20false%7D%7D);inner_level_width=1000;$(this).text('%5B-%5D').addClass('expand-handle').removeClass('expand-handle-collapsed');$(this).closest('div').nextAll().show();$(this).closest('div').parent().prev().show();$(this).closest('div').css(%7B'margin-left':'0','margin-bottom':'-10px'%7D)%7D)%7D%7D%7D);var%20current_level_width=0;var%20inner_level_width=1000%7D)();
Fuzzwah 12y ago
I've been using the Hacker News Enhancement Suite extension for Chrome for so long I couldn't imagine using the site with out it. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-enhancement-s/bappiabcodbpphnojdiaddhnilfnjmpm https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-enhanc... edit: I'll also mention that I use http://hckrnews.com/ http://hckrnews.com/ as my frontpage for HN.
- dubin 12y ago
  Highly recommended. Of all the Hacker News styles I've tried, this has been the only one that I've used consistently. Notably, it preserves the compactness of the front page. A lot of other styles tend to space out stories on the front page too much, which makes it harder to read through. I do wish there was a similar theme for Firefox.
- edwinyzh 12y ago
  This one is better than (http://hckrnews.com/about.html#extensions http://hckrnews.com/about.html#extensions), because after collapsed, the horizontal position doesn't shift. Haven't tried the OP's though.
fivedogit 12y ago
http://hackbook.club http://hackbook.club, a Chrome extension. Follow other HN users, notifications when replied to, notifications when your karma changes, notifications when followed, comment viewing while on article/video/page, and chat.
nodata 12y ago
I use Hacker News Threadify: https://github.com/scouttyg/hacker-news-threadify https://github.com/scouttyg/hacker-news-threadify available as bookmarklet or Grease Monkey script.
- eggbrain 12y ago
  Small world, this is my repo! It actually originally was created by https://github.com/giu/hacker-news-threadify https://github.com/giu/hacker-news-threadify -- I forked it, made some fixes, and submitted it back to him (https://github.com/giu/hacker-news-threadify/commit/cfd57f588df66c8e188cf88908393af9c4b9dc0f https://github.com/giu/hacker-news-threadify/commit/cfd57f58...).
evo_9 12y ago
I still don't get why HN is against adding features like this or open links in new windows/tab AS AN OPTION. I get that some people don't want anything to change on HN - no problem - but what is the harm in adding features that we individually can turn on that would not effect anyone else? Aka, add the features but have them off by default.
- trevmckendrick 12y ago
  Their desired audience is hackers. Pure speculation, but maybe they know the best hackers will find solutions around all this (e.g. all the extensions linked to in this thread).
- yzzxy 12y ago
  I have it on good authority that comment collapse is rolling out at some point in the near future.
  - teach 12y ago
    Yes, I thought that was one of the touted benefits of moving to the new API.
    - meesterdude 12y ago
      they need a new API to manipulate nested DOM elements in the web browser? Maybe they're doing more like making each comment atomic so you can dig deep into nests, but at the surface adding such a toggle would be a very trivial thing to implement via HTML/JS. I think its ridiculous that something with so much traction gets so little love and people have to create extensions to fix some of the basic site interactions.
      - icebraining 12y ago
        They needed an API so that third-party tools could stop relying on scraping, and so the HTML could be changed without breaking them.
SuperKlaus 12y ago
I've been using this one: http://gabrielecirulli.github.io/hn-special/ http://gabrielecirulli.github.io/hn-special/
thebrokencube 12y ago
Despite there being a whole bunch of implementations out there, I had also written one a while ago: https://github.com/thebrokencube/yahnes https://github.com/thebrokencube/yahnes . It does need some updating, but seems to work well enough for my use (plus, I just wanted to scratch my own itch). Probably best to sort of consolidate some of these into a few really good ones, but we'll see.
hardwaresofton 12y ago
Quick gif with LICEcap (http://www.cockos.com/licecap/ http://www.cockos.com/licecap/) would do wonders to show how awesome this is... would be a nice-to-have on the README
reledi 12y ago
I've been using "Reddit-Style Comments for Hacker News" [1] for years, works great. 1: https://github.com/andrewheins/HN-Comment-Hider https://github.com/andrewheins/HN-Comment-Hider edit: This has the collapse button between the voting arrows and username, just like reddit. Seems like something minor, but it's a big detail. (1) I'm used to that location from reddit, and (2) it doesn't move, which isn't the case with many other extensions that have it on the end.
sanqui 12y ago
All I'd like is to be able to click on the left margin of a post to skip under it. Sometimes it's just that the first comment has too many replies and I'd like to jump past it easily.
- teach 12y ago
  That's a really nice HCI idea. Maybe not too discoverable but very very easy to "trigger" when you want it.
- rcfox 12y ago
  I have also wanted this for a long time. I think you'd have to go back to the top of the parent, or else you'd wind up jumping way past the end of that thread.
abdullahdiaa 12y ago
I've just ported the addon for Firefox https://github.com/AbdullahDiaa/hn-collapse https://github.com/AbdullahDiaa/hn-collapse https://github.com/AbdullahDiaa/hn-collapse/blob/master/hn-collapse.xpi https://github.com/AbdullahDiaa/hn-collapse/blob/master/hn-c... Hope that helps.
rbdn 12y ago
I’ve also hacked bigger voting buttons (for the sake of Fitt’s law [1]) and some indentation marks [0] which I find quite helpful, both included with ~/.js [2]. [0]: https://i.imgur.com/Bp3ra28.png https://i.imgur.com/Bp3ra28.png [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts%27s_law [2]: https://github.com/defunkt/dotjs https://github.com/defunkt/dotjs td { vertical-align: top } td > img { background: repeating-linear-gradient(to right, rgba(0,0,0,0), rgba(0,0,0,0) 38px, rgba(0,0,0,0.3) 38px, rgba(0,0,0,0.3) 40px); margin-top: 4px; height: 12px!important } div.votearrow { padding-bottom: 3px; background: url('https://i.imgur.com/UVPQXRX.png') !important; width: 20px!important;}
insin 12y ago
Here's mine: https://github.com/insin/greasemonkey/blob/master/hncommenttrees.user.js https://github.com/insin/greasemonkey/blob/master/hncommentt... In addition to collapsing, it highlights new comments and shows how many new comments there are on story list pages since you last looked at the full thread. If you click the "X new" link it adds, it automatically collapses all threads which don't have new comments on page load. Screenshot of that: https://twitter.com/jbscript/status/462657449497874432/photo/1 https://twitter.com/jbscript/status/462657449497874432/photo...
thekingshorses 12y ago
http://hn.premii.com/ http://hn.premii.com/ - You can collapse threads (children and parents). - Use keyboard shortcuts (j-next / k-prev / x-collapse+next) - Light/Dark Theme
- QuasarLogic 12y ago
  Thanks for this website! I use it all the time. I love the way comments collapse under the mouse so that the next parent is at the same position the cursor was at. Lets me skim through threads super fast
valgaze 12y ago
See line 17, https://github.com/Igglyboo/hn_collapse/blob/master/collapse.js https://github.com/Igglyboo/hn_collapse/blob/master/collapse... var currentRow = comment.parentNode.parentNode.parentNode.parentNode.parentNode.parentNode.nextSibling; Lotta parentNodes!
chdir 12y ago
HN will integrate it natively some day. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8297695 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8297695
btw0 12y ago
I built a Chrome Extension to help myself better identify hot content on HN years ago and can't live without it. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/social-hotness/ahabkiagphnfbeehielogfcdkfhkonjh https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/social-hotness/aha...
sagargv 12y ago
Collapsed by default HN (bookmarklet): http://sagargv.blogspot.in/2014/06/flat-hacker-news.html http://sagargv.blogspot.in/2014/06/flat-hacker-news.html
progx 12y ago
Great! Is there a extension to highlight messages since last visit? The tree is not really good on longer discussions, you did not find the new messages.
marknutter 12y ago
Maybe Ycombinator should just stop trying to maintain hacker news and move to a subreddit, and thereby get all the benefits of reddit's features and ecosystem.

141 points by Igglyboo 12y ago

Little chrome extension I made to collapse comments on HN, feel free to use it if you want.

I've been using this: http://hckrnews.com/about.html#extensions http://hckrnews.com/about.html#extensions In addition to collapsing threads, it also tastefully identifies new comments: http://i.imgur.com/qs6FDRU.png http://i.imgur.com/qs6FDRU.png It doesn't mess with the layout beyond that, which I like. By the way, http://hckrnews.com/ http://hckrnews.com/ itself is wonderful. It's HN, but in chronological order. That seems like a bad thing, but in fact there are only a few dozen submissions per day, and it's easy to pick out the interesting ones.

ProAm 12y ago
Does this have a 'Dark' mode? It looks great but I use the following Stylish script [1] for UI so its not like staring at a lightbulb all day. [1] https://userstyles.org/styles/81626/jellybeans-hacker-news-w-unicode-arrows https://userstyles.org/styles/81626/jellybeans-hacker-news-w...
- TheSpiceIsLife 12y ago
  Have you ever used f.lux? https://justgetflux.com/ https://justgetflux.com/ it adjusts the colour temperature of your display(s) based on the time of day. I often use my laptop in bed with the brightness turned down and colour temperature at 2700k, makes the screen look like it's backlit by candles.
  - logn 12y ago
    Or Redshift on Linux.
    - ProAm 12y ago
      f.lux work in linux these days too.
  - ProAm 12y ago
    Yeah Flux is great, have used it for years, but dark mode it much different, basically inverts the colors 100%, HN for me has a black background, and grey text. Super easy on the eyes. I do this in all my IDEs, reddit, HN, stackoverflow, etc....
nilkn 12y ago
I've seen this linked to, but I never understood what the selling point was. It turns out I never realized that it sorted the posts in chronological order according to when they first appeared on the front page. Pretty cool! This definitely feels good for someone like me who refreshes the front page repeatedly throughout the day. I don't have to expend energy trying to figure out what's new.
graedus 12y ago
Nice, I'll try that. Here's my bookmarklet for highlighting recent comments (subtly for <1h old, less subtly for <10m old): javascript:var jq=document.createElement("script");jq.src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1/jquery.min.js";document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(jq);window.setTimeout(function(){jQuery.noConflict();jQuery("span.comhead:contains('minutes ago')").parent().parent().css("background","#fdfdf0");jQuery("span.comhead:contains(' 0 minutes ago'), span.comhead:contains(' 1 minutes ago'), span.comhead:contains(' 2 minutes ago'), span.comhead:contains(' 3 minutes ago'), span.comhead:contains(' 4 minutes ago'), span.comhead:contains(' 5 minutes ago'), span.comhead:contains( '6 minutes ago'), span.comhead:contains(' 7 minutes ago'), span.comhead:contains(' 8 minutes ago'), span.comhead:contains(' 9 minutes ago'), span.comhead:contains(' 10 minutes ago') ").parent().parent().css("background","#ffffe9")},500)
- nkurz 12y ago
  It may not have been clear from sillysaurus3's comment, but the "hckrnews" extension defines "new" differently. It keeps a database of the last time that you've visited each page, and highlights all the comments that are new since your last visit. I use it as well, and it's great. When I access HN from a browser without it it feels practically unusable. My only issue with it is that I sometimes accidentally click on the "collapse thread" option. Ironically, considering the topic of this thread, I don't use or want that functionality, and would prefer an option to disable it. But highlighting the posts since the last visit is fabulous!

kissickas 12y ago

On Firefox I've been using HN Utility Suite. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/hn-utility-suite/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/hn-utility-su...

Ethan_Mick 12y ago

I've been using Hacker News Collapsible Comments [0], since I enjoy the default look of HN, but wanted to collapse the comments. [0] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-collapsible-c/hockhafcdegocajmjhafgjncjpodihkd https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-collap...

tinalumfoil 12y ago
I use HN Special [0]. Personally, I'm not a huge fan of the default look of Hacker News and I also couldn't live without features like infinite scrolling, showing which link you just returned from and more accurate domain names . [0] http://gabrielecirulli.github.io/hn-special/ http://gabrielecirulli.github.io/hn-special/

thesilverbanger 12y ago

Can anyone recommend an extension for firefox?

sync 12y ago
Works great: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/hn-utility-suite/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/hn-utility-su...

throwaway_yy2Di 12y ago

I love how every comment here links to a different implementation. I also made one (for Firefox/Greasemonkey), https://github.com/tom-szczarkowski/hn-stuff https://github.com/tom-szczarkowski/hn-stuff

brianpan 12y ago
It almost seems as if it's an essential feature for browsing HN in a sane way. Naw, everyone replying to the top comment in a post in order to be seen is probably fine.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]

joshstrange 12y ago

I use, and have been very happy with, the Chrome extention HackerNew https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hackernew/lgoghlndihpmbbgmbpjohilcphbfhddd?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hackernew/lgoghlnd...

crescentfresh 12y ago

Dropped the .crx onto the Extensions page. http://i.imgur.com/t46u0C5.png http://i.imgur.com/t46u0C5.png Thanks Chrome!

Houshalter 12y ago
I would greatly appreciate if anyone knows how to get around this. I never thought I'd need to jailbreak my browser.
OzzyB 12y ago
On your Chrome's Extension page there should be a "Developer mode" checkbox on the top-left. Check that and you should be presented with a "Load unpacked extension" that you can use to install extensions locally.

Igglyboo 12y ago

Little chrome extension I made for personal use, feel free to use it if you want. It will allow you to collapse comment trees on HN.

diminish 12y ago
On HN Most discussions are stolen by remotely related comments.. This extension helps to dig them for me. Thanks.

542458 12y ago

Cool! For non chrome people, I've been using this bookmarklet since forever javascript:(function()%7Bfunction%20getScript(url,success)%7Bvar%20script=document.createElement('script');script.src=url;var%20head=document.getElementsByTagName('head')%5B0%5D,done=false;script.onload=script.onreadystatechange=function()%7Bif(!done&&(!this.readyState%7C%7Cthis.readyState=='loaded'%7C%7Cthis.readyState=='complete'))%7Bdone=true;success();script.onload=script.onreadystatechange=null;head.removeChild(script)%7D%7D;head.appendChild(script)%7DgetScript('//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.7.2/jquery.min.js',function()%7Bif(typeof%20jQuery!=='undefined')%7Bif(!$('body').hasClass('collapsible-comments'))%7B$('body').addClass('collapsible-comments');var%20span_html='%3Cspan%20style=%5C'cursor:pointer;margin-right:10px;%5C'%20class=%5C'expand-handle%5C'%3E%5B-%5D%3C/span%3E';if(window.location.href.indexOf('item?id=')!=-1)%7B$('center%20%3E%20table%20%3E%20tbody%20%3E%20tr:eq(2)%20%3E%20td%20%3E%20table:eq(1)%20span.comhead').prepend(span_html)%7Delse%20if(window.location.href.indexOf('threads?id=')!=-1)%7B$('center%20%3E%20table%20%3E%20tbody%20%3E%20tr%20%3E%20td%20%3E%20table%20span.comhead').prepend(span_html)%7D$('.expand-handle').live('click',function()%7Bcurrent_level_width=parseInt($(this).closest('tr').find('td:eq(0)%20%3E%20img').attr('width'),10);$(this).closest('table').closest('tr').nextAll().each(function(index,el)%7Bvar%20elWidth=parseInt($('tbody%20%3E%20tr%20%3E%20td%20%3E%20img',this).attr('width'),10);if(elWidth%3Ecurrent_level_width)%7Bif(elWidth%3C=inner_level_width)%7Binner_level_width=1000;$(this).hide()%7Dif(inner_level_width==1000&&$('.comment',this).css('display')=='none')%7Binner_level_width=elWidth%7D%7Delse%7Breturn%20false%7D%7D);inner_level_width=1000;$(this).text('%5B+%5D').addClass('expand-handle-collapsed').removeClass('expand-handle');$(this).closest('div').nextAll().hide();$(this).closest('div').parent().prev().hide();$(this).closest('div').css(%7B'margin-left':'18px','margin-bottom':'5px'%7D)%7D);$('.expand-handle-collapsed').live('click',function()%7Bcurrent_level_width=parseInt($(this).closest('tr').find('td%20%3E%20img').attr('width'),10);$(this).closest('table').closest('tr').nextAll().each(function(index,el)%7Bvar%20elWidth=parseInt($('tbody%20%3E%20tr%20%3E%20td%20%3E%20img',this).attr('width'),10);if(elWidth%3Ecurrent_level_width)%7Bif(elWidth%3C=inner_level_width)%7Binner_level_width=1000;$(this).show()%7Dif(inner_level_width==1000&&$('.comment',this).css('display')=='none')%7Binner_level_width=elWidth%7D%7Delse%7Breturn%20false%7D%7D);inner_level_width=1000;$(this).text('%5B-%5D').addClass('expand-handle').removeClass('expand-handle-collapsed');$(this).closest('div').nextAll().show();$(this).closest('div').parent().prev().show();$(this).closest('div').css(%7B'margin-left':'0','margin-bottom':'-10px'%7D)%7D)%7D%7D%7D);var%20current_level_width=0;var%20inner_level_width=1000%7D)();

Fuzzwah 12y ago

I've been using the Hacker News Enhancement Suite extension for Chrome for so long I couldn't imagine using the site with out it. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-enhancement-s/bappiabcodbpphnojdiaddhnilfnjmpm https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-enhanc... edit: I'll also mention that I use http://hckrnews.com/ http://hckrnews.com/ as my frontpage for HN.

dubin 12y ago
Highly recommended. Of all the Hacker News styles I've tried, this has been the only one that I've used consistently. Notably, it preserves the compactness of the front page. A lot of other styles tend to space out stories on the front page too much, which makes it harder to read through. I do wish there was a similar theme for Firefox.
edwinyzh 12y ago
This one is better than (http://hckrnews.com/about.html#extensions http://hckrnews.com/about.html#extensions), because after collapsed, the horizontal position doesn't shift. Haven't tried the OP's though.

fivedogit 12y ago

http://hackbook.club http://hackbook.club, a Chrome extension. Follow other HN users, notifications when replied to, notifications when your karma changes, notifications when followed, comment viewing while on article/video/page, and chat.

nodata 12y ago

I use Hacker News Threadify: https://github.com/scouttyg/hacker-news-threadify https://github.com/scouttyg/hacker-news-threadify available as bookmarklet or Grease Monkey script.

eggbrain 12y ago
Small world, this is my repo! It actually originally was created by https://github.com/giu/hacker-news-threadify https://github.com/giu/hacker-news-threadify -- I forked it, made some fixes, and submitted it back to him (https://github.com/giu/hacker-news-threadify/commit/cfd57f588df66c8e188cf88908393af9c4b9dc0f https://github.com/giu/hacker-news-threadify/commit/cfd57f58...).

evo_9 12y ago

I still don't get why HN is against adding features like this or open links in new windows/tab AS AN OPTION. I get that some people don't want anything to change on HN - no problem - but what is the harm in adding features that we individually can turn on that would not effect anyone else? Aka, add the features but have them off by default.

trevmckendrick 12y ago
Their desired audience is hackers. Pure speculation, but maybe they know the best hackers will find solutions around all this (e.g. all the extensions linked to in this thread).
yzzxy 12y ago
I have it on good authority that comment collapse is rolling out at some point in the near future.
- teach 12y ago
  Yes, I thought that was one of the touted benefits of moving to the new API.
  - meesterdude 12y ago
    they need a new API to manipulate nested DOM elements in the web browser? Maybe they're doing more like making each comment atomic so you can dig deep into nests, but at the surface adding such a toggle would be a very trivial thing to implement via HTML/JS. I think its ridiculous that something with so much traction gets so little love and people have to create extensions to fix some of the basic site interactions.
    - icebraining 12y ago
      They needed an API so that third-party tools could stop relying on scraping, and so the HTML could be changed without breaking them.

SuperKlaus 12y ago

I've been using this one: http://gabrielecirulli.github.io/hn-special/ http://gabrielecirulli.github.io/hn-special/

thebrokencube 12y ago

Despite there being a whole bunch of implementations out there, I had also written one a while ago: https://github.com/thebrokencube/yahnes https://github.com/thebrokencube/yahnes . It does need some updating, but seems to work well enough for my use (plus, I just wanted to scratch my own itch). Probably best to sort of consolidate some of these into a few really good ones, but we'll see.

hardwaresofton 12y ago

Quick gif with LICEcap (http://www.cockos.com/licecap/ http://www.cockos.com/licecap/) would do wonders to show how awesome this is... would be a nice-to-have on the README

reledi 12y ago

I've been using "Reddit-Style Comments for Hacker News" [1] for years, works great. 1: https://github.com/andrewheins/HN-Comment-Hider https://github.com/andrewheins/HN-Comment-Hider edit: This has the collapse button between the voting arrows and username, just like reddit. Seems like something minor, but it's a big detail. (1) I'm used to that location from reddit, and (2) it doesn't move, which isn't the case with many other extensions that have it on the end.

sanqui 12y ago

All I'd like is to be able to click on the left margin of a post to skip under it. Sometimes it's just that the first comment has too many replies and I'd like to jump past it easily.

teach 12y ago
That's a really nice HCI idea. Maybe not too discoverable but very very easy to "trigger" when you want it.
rcfox 12y ago
I have also wanted this for a long time. I think you'd have to go back to the top of the parent, or else you'd wind up jumping way past the end of that thread.

abdullahdiaa 12y ago

I've just ported the addon for Firefox https://github.com/AbdullahDiaa/hn-collapse https://github.com/AbdullahDiaa/hn-collapse https://github.com/AbdullahDiaa/hn-collapse/blob/master/hn-collapse.xpi https://github.com/AbdullahDiaa/hn-collapse/blob/master/hn-c... Hope that helps.

rbdn 12y ago

I’ve also hacked bigger voting buttons (for the sake of Fitt’s law [1]) and some indentation marks [0] which I find quite helpful, both included with ~/.js [2]. [0]: https://i.imgur.com/Bp3ra28.png https://i.imgur.com/Bp3ra28.png [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitts%27s_law [2]: https://github.com/defunkt/dotjs https://github.com/defunkt/dotjs td { vertical-align: top } td > img { background: repeating-linear-gradient(to right, rgba(0,0,0,0), rgba(0,0,0,0) 38px, rgba(0,0,0,0.3) 38px, rgba(0,0,0,0.3) 40px); margin-top: 4px; height: 12px!important } div.votearrow { padding-bottom: 3px; background: url('https://i.imgur.com/UVPQXRX.png') !important; width: 20px!important;}

insin 12y ago

Here's mine: https://github.com/insin/greasemonkey/blob/master/hncommenttrees.user.js https://github.com/insin/greasemonkey/blob/master/hncommentt... In addition to collapsing, it highlights new comments and shows how many new comments there are on story list pages since you last looked at the full thread. If you click the "X new" link it adds, it automatically collapses all threads which don't have new comments on page load. Screenshot of that: https://twitter.com/jbscript/status/462657449497874432/photo/1 https://twitter.com/jbscript/status/462657449497874432/photo...

thekingshorses 12y ago

http://hn.premii.com/ http://hn.premii.com/ - You can collapse threads (children and parents). - Use keyboard shortcuts (j-next / k-prev / x-collapse+next) - Light/Dark Theme

QuasarLogic 12y ago
Thanks for this website! I use it all the time. I love the way comments collapse under the mouse so that the next parent is at the same position the cursor was at. Lets me skim through threads super fast

valgaze 12y ago

See line 17, https://github.com/Igglyboo/hn_collapse/blob/master/collapse.js https://github.com/Igglyboo/hn_collapse/blob/master/collapse... var currentRow = comment.parentNode.parentNode.parentNode.parentNode.parentNode.parentNode.nextSibling; Lotta parentNodes!

chdir 12y ago

HN will integrate it natively some day. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8297695 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8297695

btw0 12y ago

I built a Chrome Extension to help myself better identify hot content on HN years ago and can't live without it. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/social-hotness/ahabkiagphnfbeehielogfcdkfhkonjh https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/social-hotness/aha...

sagargv 12y ago

Collapsed by default HN (bookmarklet): http://sagargv.blogspot.in/2014/06/flat-hacker-news.html http://sagargv.blogspot.in/2014/06/flat-hacker-news.html

progx 12y ago

Great! Is there a extension to highlight messages since last visit? The tree is not really good on longer discussions, you did not find the new messages.

marknutter 12y ago

Maybe Ycombinator should just stop trying to maintain hacker news and move to a subreddit, and thereby get all the benefits of reddit's features and ecosystem.