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Ask HN: Why do some timestamps on HN have a full stop at the end?

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121–129 of 129 posts

Re: Ask HN: Why do some timestamps on HN have a full stop at the end?

#122
post #107

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25197967 is correct: it means it's the most recent post by that user. This is one of those things that pops into your head and takes 2 minutes to deploy, so I just did it. It was late last night and I forgot to not turn it on for everyone. Then I thought it would be fun to see what sort of discussion I'd wake up to. Not sure whether to keep it. Advantage: it's a concise way of dis…

It triggers mild OCD reactions for me, since there is inconsistency between the formatting of posts, a bit like missing apostrophes do, and as noted in a sibling comment affects how screen readers cover it.

Perhaps keep it a mod only feature?

Re: Ask HN: Why do some timestamps on HN have a full stop at the end?

#123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stop your carping...

that's enough fish puns. think we should scale back

Whale, I enjoyed them. But you're right, they're causing the conversation to flounder...

Re: Ask HN: Why do some timestamps on HN have a full stop at the end?

#124
post #107

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25197967 is correct: it means it's the most recent post by that user. This is one of those things that pops into your head and takes 2 minutes to deploy, so I just did it. It was late last night and I forgot to not turn it on for everyone. Then I thought it would be fun to see what sort of discussion I'd wake up to. Not sure whether to keep it. Advantage: it's a concise way of dis…

I forgot to not turn it on for everyone This makes me think you have a lot of moderation tools like this. Is there any way you could discuss the kinds of tools moderators have that most users don't see? It would be interesting to read about, though I guess it also would increase the chance of gaming the system...

Yes, the moderation tools have developed a lot over the years. I have a Chrome extension written in Arc (it has gone through a number of Lispy incarnations over the years, but we implemented an Arc-to-JS transpiler to get the last version and it works nicely). I rely on it heavily to navigate around the site. Eventually I'd like to open-source it and/or make it an option for any user to wants to load that JS to do so.

Re: Ask HN: Why do some timestamps on HN have a full stop at the end?

#125
post #107

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25197967 is correct: it means it's the most recent post by that user. This is one of those things that pops into your head and takes 2 minutes to deploy, so I just did it. It was late last night and I forgot to not turn it on for everyone. Then I thought it would be fun to see what sort of discussion I'd wake up to. Not sure whether to keep it. Advantage: it's a concise way of dis…

I don't prefer this feature to remain for end users (those who are not mods). If someone wants to know the most recent post by a user, they can visit their profile and find it. I do not see value in making that easier, and for a reason I cannot explain well, it also triggers a sense of exposing someone's habits, behavior, etc.

Re: Ask HN: Why do some timestamps on HN have a full stop at the end?

#126
post #125
post #107

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25197967 is correct: it means it's the most recent post by that user. This is one of those things that pops into your head and takes 2 minutes to deploy, so I just did it. It was late last night and I forgot to not turn it on for everyone. Then I thought it would be fun to see what sort of discussion I'd wake up to. Not sure whether to keep it. Advantage: it's a concise way of dis…

I don't prefer this feature to remain for end users (those who are not mods). If someone wants to know the most recent post by a user, they can visit their profile and find it. I do not see value in making that easier, and for a reason I cannot explain well, it also triggers a sense of exposing someone's habits, behavior, etc.

That's a subtle point but I think you may be making the right distinction here. There's a difference in both style and ethos between the regular view of the site and the kinds of things that moderators need to keep track of.

Re: Ask HN: Why do some timestamps on HN have a full stop at the end?

#127
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I forgot to not turn it on for everyone This makes me think you have a lot of moderation tools like this. Is there any way you could discuss the kinds of tools moderators have that most users don't see? It would be interesting to read about, though I guess it also would increase the chance of gaming the system...

Yes, the moderation tools have developed a lot over the years. I have a Chrome extension written in Arc (it has gone through a number of Lispy incarnations over the years, but we implemented an Arc-to-JS transpiler to get the last version and it works nicely). I rely on it heavily to navigate around the site. Eventually I'd like to open-source it and/or make it an option for any user to wants to load that JS to do so…

You use Chrome? Not judging (I use it too), but it was good to know given the pro-FF community here.

Re: Ask HN: Why do some timestamps on HN have a full stop at the end?

#128
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the moderation tools have developed a lot over the years. I have a Chrome extension written in Arc (it has gone through a number of Lispy incarnations over the years, but we implemented an Arc-to-JS transpiler to get the last version and it works nicely). I rely on it heavily to navigate around the site. Eventually I'd like to open-source it and/or make it an option for any user to wants to load that JS to do so…

You use Chrome? Not judging (I use it too), but it was good to know given the pro-FF community here.

I use both, but at the time I first wrote this software it was easiest to make it be a Chrome extension. This was long before FF adopted Chrome's extensions API. It's on my list to see if I can get it running in FF but, like most things on that list, it never seems to get too close to the top.

Re: Ask HN: Why do some timestamps on HN have a full stop at the end?

#129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's enough fish puns. think we should scale back

Whale, I enjoyed them. But you're right, they're causing the conversation to flounder...

Oh, for Cod's hake, can't you do any betta than that?
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