Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Is the Hacker News source code public?

news.ycombinator.com

51–60 of 63 posts

Re: Ask HN: Is the Hacker News source code public?

#51
post #40

how did they make it so fast? I'm always surprised by its loading speed

I remember reading a couple years ago, that there's no database. It just reads stuff off disk, and then caches it in memory.

It probably also helps that the html/css/js is minimal

Re: Ask HN: Is the Hacker News source code public?

#52

Hacker news was originally written by Paul Graham in Arc. Arc is a Lisp-inspired programming language also written/invented by PG at the same time and Hacker News programmed in it to (also) prove it works. Arc did not catch on outside of Hacker News. Arc is free and open source. Regarding Hacker News, itself: "Ask PG: Why don’t you open source HN? (2013): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5006037 PG's response is:…

I think it's pretty good. I only need one feature that is a piece of message that shows me which one of my comments has been replied when it happens. But then again I'm fine without it so I guess it's not necessary.

Re: Ask HN: Is the Hacker News source code public?

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use https://github.com/weiran/Hackers because it’s nice to read on, but then to comment I have to use the site, so yea lol If there was a dark mode on the site I’d just use that

Octal lets you comment from the app, if that’s something you are missing.

Oh cool, thanks I’ll take a look

Re: Ask HN: Is the Hacker News source code public?

#54
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pagination. I'm sure most people don't know that you can click on "More replies" at the bottom of the page to read more comments. At least I didn't know at first and spent many years reading only the first page. Edit: It's actually "More" not "More replies".

I have never understood this. On websites, paginators are always at the end of pages. This one is there and it clearly says what it does. How can someone miss it?

I think people ctrl+F for something and then post a comment "I can't believe no one mentioned X...".

People don't usually reach the bottom of the first page when they go through comments, because the first page is quite big, so they never have to see the pagination (though they do need to know it's not the complete view).

Re: Ask HN: Is the Hacker News source code public?

#55
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that’s why we’re stuck with the broken thing I've been using HN for 10+ years but I don't think I've ever found anything that was broken. What are you referring to exactly?

> for the iOS app

HN doesn't have any iOS app nor any other app for that matter. So I'm guessing the author must confuse HN with something else.

Re: Ask HN: Is the Hacker News source code public?

#56
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's still missing modern privacy features, such as the "right to be forgotten".

Right to be forgotten is an old EU law, the new GDPR law is 'right to erasure' In the event you don't feel like deleting your own comments the mods will likely help you. A general best practice is to avoid posting personally identifiable information.

You can’t delete your comments after 2 hours.

Re: Ask HN: Is the Hacker News source code public?

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

really? like what? I like hn precisely because of its minimalistic approach.

Option to set colours for more than just the top bar and … that’s about it

I use stylish to changes fonts and colors, here's my custom stylesheet

  * {
    color: #F3F1A1 !important;
    background-color: #000 !important;
  }
  body > center > table > tbody > tr:first-child * {
    background-color: #073642 !important;
  }
  body > center > table > tbody > tr:first-child * a:hover {
    background: #002b36 !important;
  }
  code, pre, input, textarea {
    background: #073642 !important;
  }
  a, .pagetop, .hnname a:visited, .rank, .athing {
    color: #b58900 !important;
  }
  .commtext {
    font-size: 125%;
  }
  .title {
    font-size: 112%;
  }
  .subtext {
      font-size:75%;
  }
  .subtext *, .sitebit, .sitestr, .subtext:nth-child(2) {
      color: #9e7800 !important;
  }
  a:visited, a:visited span {
      color: #717600 !important;
  }
  a:hover, a:hover span {
      background: #073642 !important;
  }
P.s. I am a slightly colorblind, please don't judge my colors palette

Re: Ask HN: Is the Hacker News source code public?

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right to be forgotten is an old EU law, the new GDPR law is 'right to erasure' In the event you don't feel like deleting your own comments the mods will likely help you. A general best practice is to avoid posting personally identifiable information.

You can’t delete your comments after 2 hours.

You can have any problematic comments anonymised or removed by emailing the hn@yc address.

By default, it's an important part of HN that comments stay up, unless they will cause problems for the poster. PG explained why, many years ago:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6813226

Re: Ask HN: Is the Hacker News source code public?

#60
post #47
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a lot of people complain about the font size, for instance.

A strange thing to complain about, given browsers can override with user settings, if not user plugins.

One could argue that if your text-based forum, which is designed to be read, depends on browser settings and plugins to be readable to a vocal minority of users, then your design is deficient. Many people on HN would make that argument with regards to the need for browsers to have a reader mode.

Ignoring modern web typography standards and keeping the default font size, line spacing and contrast such that it's uncomfortable for many people to read is an anti-feature. Particularly given the only reason it is the way it is is that pg didn't consider it worth caring about.

Post reply on HN