Because HN is a non profit thing that doesn't make money on "engagement".
Seriously, you don't have enough interruptions?
If you really want to see if your comments have been replied to, you can see that in the list of your comments.
Ask HN: Why doesn't HN alert users in some manner to new replies?
71–80 of 239 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why doesn't HN alert users in some manner to new replies?
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
They don't change nothing, but they're very careful when they introduce a change. Most are so subtle you wouldn't notice, and that's the point. Some in recent memory I can think of: * prev/next/parent links * Show HN can now have both a text body and a link (they used to only have a link and you had to submit a reply with your explanation)
> Most are so subtle you wouldn't notice I certainly notice every time I fat finger these useless links.
I find them very useful. Whenever I've gone deep enough in a comment thread, I use the "parent" link to navigate to its root, and then I either collapse it or use the "next" link to read the next thread.
Re: Ask HN: Why doesn't HN alert users in some manner to new replies?
#73there's this: https://www.hnreplies.com I understand it is built by an HN moderator, actually, so somewhat endorsed.
I use hnreplies and quite like it. Another option is https://hnrss.github.io/#reply-feeds which gives you a feed of replies to a user (quite possibly yourself). The RSS option is of course more flexible because you can do whatever you want with the feed but I just read my RSS via email anyways so I just use hnreplies. IIUC it is also faster because it is polling for everyone quite frequently whereas individually polling the RSS feed I would probably do it at a lower interval.
Re: Ask HN: Why doesn't HN alert users in some manner to new replies?
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
They could do delayed notifications. Not having them at all sucks because you are pretty much guaranteed not to see replies to older comments.
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.
Maybe a way then to flag a comment to watch for a response? Sometimes I ask a question I'd love answered, or if someone else responds to a conversation I think is important - I'd be happy if they eventually replied.
Re: Ask HN: Why doesn't HN alert users in some manner to new replies?
#75Re: Ask HN: Why doesn't HN alert users in some manner to new replies?
#76If 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.
Yeah, I can imagine that'd be good for many people. I get no thrill out of my karma. To me it's just a signal that something I said got attention and that I might want to quickly glance at my comments page in case there's an opportunity to engage with someone. The number itself is pretty meaningless and doesn't drive me to HN.
Re: Ask HN: Why doesn't HN alert users in some manner to new replies?
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
They could do delayed notifications. Not having them at all sucks because you are pretty much guaranteed not to see replies to older comments.
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.
> 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.
That tends to happen even when there are notifications in my experience - it only takes one participant to stop.
> In my experience, extended discussions here tend to be unproductive flame-war level discussion.
As in here on HN? That can hardly be due to notifications since there are none. I'm also not looking for extended discussion, just being able to see if someone has something to add to an old comment of mine.
Re: Ask HN: Why doesn't HN alert users in some manner to new replies?
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Maybe a way then to flag a comment to watch for a response? Sometimes I ask a question I'd love answered, or if someone else responds to a conversation I think is important - I'd be happy if they eventually replied.
Yeah.
Like, I "owe" people a response here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30310575#30310784
I am trying to put some degree of effort into the answer, but it feels like they might not even see my responses to their comments.
Re: Ask HN: Why doesn't HN alert users in some manner to new replies?
#79Because HN is a non profit thing that doesn't make money on "engagement". Seriously, you don't have enough interruptions? If you really want to see if your comments have been replied to, you can see that in the list of your comments.
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.
Re: Ask HN: Why doesn't HN alert users in some manner to new replies?
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
I used to do that, but you can just click "threads".
Oh sweet. Thank you. Unfortunately that's not a thing in my mobile client of choice, but handy for when I'm on desktop.
> Unfortunately that's not a thing in my mobile client of choice, but handy for when I'm on desktop.
Threads are part of the HN home page header when logged in.
How does your browsers disable this link? Does it disable other header links as well?