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Honestly I’m glad it doesn’t. Reply notifications may increase engagement, but I’d argue they reduce the quality of discussion, since such notifications would encourage rapid back and forth arguments.
If I see my karma go up, that usually tells me that someone may have replied to something I said. Otherwise, I'm glad there's no alert for new replies. Conversation should be intentional. If I'm gonna be reading what someone said in response to me, I better already have enough motivation to check back and see if someone replied. When I don't check back, it's probably because I've got something more important to focus…
I use a custom style sheet to hide my karma score (except on user profile page where I can go if I'm super curious). It's broke an unhealthy cycle I would subconsciously try to craft the perfect reply and get an addiction-inducing high from some big karma boost. Or big productivity-killing negative response.
I guess I should learn how to build that custom style sheet myself. Unless you can share yours here? ;-)
Not exactly what you're asking but I made a Safari extension (iOS/Mac) to highlights new comments: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/hn-comments/id1602932281 A whopping 5 downloads so far. :p
This has been addressed by dang before, one representative pastequote from a recent (ish) comment: Yes, I think we'll continue to avoid the notification system, not just because of flamewars but also because (relatedly) it's not so compatible with curiosity. Push notifications seem to jack up the nervous system in a way that's good for engagement but not necessarily for users—we all experience this elsewhere on the i…
I very much appreciate this!
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I don't think they're asking for notifications. Even just an icon next to my profile name to indicate someone has responded to a comment would be something. And make it opt-in since a lot of people here seem to be happy with the status quo.
This is still a notification, even if it's not using the browser notifications or mobile push notifications.
I was responding to this. That kind of notification won't interrupt me like, say, my phone vibrating or a desktop notification.
Honestly I’m glad it doesn’t. Reply notifications may increase engagement, but I’d argue they reduce the quality of discussion, since such notifications would encourage rapid back and forth arguments.
They could do delayed notifications. Not having them at all sucks because you are pretty much guaranteed not to see replies to older comments.
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you are pretty much guaranteed not to see replieds to older comments. I consider this a feature, not a bug. IMO, it's good to let older conversations just kinda "run out of steam" as attention moves elsewhere. In my experience, extended discussions here tend to be unproductive flame-war level discussion. I don't see any value in making it easier to sustain that.
Im not sure i agree with that. old forums used to have interesting threads that would go on for a while and in depth. One thing I dont like about this, idk what this is called, new generation of message board?, is that past 3 or 4 comments deep everything dies and past like 12 hours commenting dies. it actually feels a lot more shallow
I'm pretty sure upvoting a comment is seen as a means to notify someone on HN. Maybe it's only in my head but that's how I see it.
There's nothing in the HN UI that I've yet noticed that shows when a comment is upvoted (or downvoted) beyond the fake internet points counter next to my username Up/down votes are irrelevant, though, in this context: if I've asked a question, I shouldn't have to go hunting to find out if people replied (or if they've asked something back, etc)
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No, it's not If you ask a question, and I happen to see it a couple days later and can answer it, why would you not want to see said answer?
An edge case like that isn't really the point. I mean, what percentage of "responses to old comments" fall into that bucket? My guess is that it's a very small percentage. Weighed against the "propagating / encouraging low-value flame wars" possibility, I absolutely consider the lack of such notifications to a Good Thing. Especially considering somebody who's particularly motivated to find delayed answers to specific…
This is the normal case for commenting :: if someone replies, it shouldn't be difficult to find that out