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A List of Hacker News's Undocumented Features and Behaviors

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Re: A List of Hacker News's Undocumented Features and Behaviors

#111

Post by jdavis703 »

tptacek wrote: post #106
tabtab wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While we are on the subject of downvotes, I'd love to have it require a comment (reason) to downvote. Not knowing why something gets downvoted is super frustrating. The comment doesn't have to be visible in the default listing; it perhaps can be a side option/listing or pop-up.

It's not going to happen; it's part of the ethos of the site to downvote in lieu of writing insubstantial criticisms, a policy Paul Graham actually wrote out once long ago. It's the right policy, I think. The last thing we need are dozens more one-line "why this sucks" comments on each thread.

Some posts clearly deserve downvoting, for example trolling or spamming. I have however either made some controversial or unintentionally ignorant comments that have been downvoted. In those cases it would’ve been helpful to know why people thought an opinion or fact was wrong.

Re: A List of Hacker News's Undocumented Features and Behaviors

#112

Post by tptacek »

jdavis703 wrote: post #111
tptacek wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not going to happen; it's part of the ethos of the site to downvote in lieu of writing insubstantial criticisms, a policy Paul Graham actually wrote out once long ago. It's the right policy, I think. The last thing we need are dozens more one-line "why this sucks" comments on each thread.

Some posts clearly deserve downvoting, for example trolling or spamming. I have however either made some controversial or unintentionally ignorant comments that have been downvoted. In those cases it would’ve been helpful to know why people thought an opinion or fact was wrong.

That happens anyways. When people have things to say on HN, they tend to say them. It's not an either/or thing.

Re: A List of Hacker News's Undocumented Features and Behaviors

#113

Post by Nomentatus »

jonbaer wrote: post #6

My only wish is that dupes weren't marked as dupes. It's not like you are submitting with the intention of creating a duplicate link (normally), it should just take you there instead of a [dupe] mark on your submission.

I'd like it to be easier to get to the search box, so fewer people would post dupes.

Re: A List of Hacker News's Undocumented Features and Behaviors

#114

Post by dang »

shaunpersad wrote: post #7

I don't believe this is an actual feature, but I've noticed a trend that I've been calling "twos", where, at any given moment, a particular subject (present as a word or phrase in the article's title) will show up twice on the front page. Funnily enough, currently the "twos" subject is "Hacker News", with this article and "What I've Learned from Hacker News" both being present in the front page at the same time.

We call those copycat or follow-up posts and mostly downweight them, on the grounds that predictability makes HN less interesting.

Re: A List of Hacker News's Undocumented Features and Behaviors

#115

Post by dang »

_ps6d wrote: post #104

Lots of people posting random feature requests in here, but is HN even developed any more? The last significant changes I remember were two and a half years ago ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12073675 ) and I think even those were the first ones in a long time.

It's interesting to see that question show up, because we work so hard on the code. It makes sense that you'd ask it, though, because most of the changes are either not visible (like anti-spam or anti-voting-ring features), or are subtle. For example, you may have noticed more capitalized titles on the front page in the last couple days—but this is an experiment we're going to roll back.

One reason we don't do a lot of visible changes is that HN's minimalism is one of its biggest assets. Another is that users don't like things to change, and the internal pressures that cause companies to do arbitrary redesigns are thankfully not in play here.

Re: A List of Hacker News's Undocumented Features and Behaviors

#116

Post by spectre256 »

jacques_chester wrote: post #46
shaunpersad wrote: post #7

I don't believe this is an actual feature, but I've noticed a trend that I've been calling "twos", where, at any given moment, a particular subject (present as a word or phrase in the article's title) will show up twice on the front page. Funnily enough, currently the "twos" subject is "Hacker News", with this article and "What I've Learned from Hacker News" both being present in the front page at the same time.

Very often this is readers following some link, seeing other links from that page and submitting them.

That's how I interpret it as well. I also think interesting articles on a topic jog people's memory and cause them to re-submit interesting articles from the past on that topic.

Re: A List of Hacker News's Undocumented Features and Behaviors

#117

Post by dang »

jonbaer wrote: post #6

My only wish is that dupes weren't marked as dupes. It's not like you are submitting with the intention of creating a duplicate link (normally), it should just take you there instead of a [dupe] mark on your submission.

The software already does that when it can. The [dupe] marks are added by moderators, or in some cases by user flagging. I'm sorry if it feels like a stigma—that's not the intention!—it's rather that otherwise a lot of complaints arise about why the story is buried.

Re: A List of Hacker News's Undocumented Features and Behaviors

#118

Post by dang »

dooglius wrote: post #13

>If a user has 251 Karma, they can set the color of the top bar in their profile settings Why on earth is there a karma requirement for this, let alone such a high one?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=97573

https://web.archive.org/web/20080115223854/http://ycombinato...

Re: A List of Hacker News's Undocumented Features and Behaviors

#119

Post by dang »

segfaultbuserr wrote: post #15
dooglius wrote: post #13

>If a user has 251 Karma, they can set the color of the top bar in their profile settings Why on earth is there a karma requirement for this, let alone such a high one?

Think of it like a video game, which often gives people surprises by unlocking the hidden feature based on unclear conditions. I was really impressed was I discovered it for the first time. This feature is more of a Easter egg than a practical option. If you really NEED to change the color, you can simply load a custom CSS in your web browser.

Maybe we should add another. Any ideas?
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