Live data from Hacker News

Expand Everything: Userscript to click "show more" links to expand all the text

github.com

11–20 of 37 posts

Re: Expand Everything: Userscript to click "show more" links to expand all the text

#11

Reading too much slows down scrolling and ad views, you must keep scrolling. Also, trying to have meaningful conversations with others might lead to independent ideas or actions that are out of the control of the platform, all ideas or actions must benefit only the platform and its adverisers.

are you sure you want to expand this comment?

[leave it collapsed] [configure exceptions]

Re: Expand Everything: Userscript to click "show more" links to expand all the text

#12

I truly hate whoever came up with this stupid 'feature'. If I clicked on article is because I want to read it, for god's sake.

Did they imagine it would slow down scrapers/bots?

I would imagine it's for measuring engagement. They can then use the data to tailor their ad sale strategy and I imagine their content strategy.

Re: Expand Everything: Userscript to click "show more" links to expand all the text

#13

I truly hate whoever came up with this stupid 'feature'. If I clicked on article is because I want to read it, for god's sake.

I recently learned that ublock origin has an annoyances filter list that's not enabled by default https://a.imagem.app/on42hV.png. not sure if it covers this use case though.

Re: Expand Everything: Userscript to click "show more" links to expand all the text

#14

I truly hate whoever came up with this stupid 'feature'. If I clicked on article is because I want to read it, for god's sake.

I'm especially annoyed on sites like reddit when the "show more comments" link is sometimes a button that will expand inline, and sometimes a link that will take you to another page with some parent comments and some of the child comments. I have to look for "javascript: void 0;" in the URL preview before clicking, which I often forget.

Re: Expand Everything: Userscript to click "show more" links to expand all the text

#17
post #15

What is the point of sites doing this in the first place? Is it to show more ads below the content?

After seeing two Facebook posts of quite different length each having a "more" link that revealed only a few more words, I came to the conclusion that it has nothing to do with a clean layout and everything to do with the algorithm getting a stronger signal from the user that they're actually reading a given post, not just stalling their doomscroll for unrelated reasons such as an IRL distraction.

If I want to see a little less of a certain type of post, but not to the extreme of unfollowing a given poster, I'll try to avoid clicking "more" in hopes of training the system.

Re: Expand Everything: Userscript to click "show more" links to expand all the text

#19
post #9

My sarcastic comment was flagged but the point I was (poorly) trying to make is that this is an awesome extension but it goes against platforms' goals. If it gets popular the platforms will fight against it.

Is there a difference between a script that clicks on something and the user clicking on it, from their pov? I guess they could use tracking and notice it's abnormally fast, but it seems pretty hard to monitor, right?

The platform doesn't get as strong of a signal from the user about which posts they find interesting.
Post reply on HN