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Fix HackerNews Issue #11, which is driving us all crazy: Unknown or expired link

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Re: Fix HackerNews Issue #11, which is driving us all crazy: Unknown or expired link

#12

Post by grinich »

The reason this happens is that the link is actually a reference to a live closure[1] held in memory on the server. Notice how the URL has `fnid=...`? Well fnid is short for function ID.

There isn't an obvious way to fix this without dramatically changing the way pages are rendered. The reason the link expires is probably that the garbage collector picks them up after a timeout interval. I remember this was something on the order of 10-30 min.

Honestly though, HN is a free service built with an experimental programming language buy a guy who worked full-time as a seed-stage investor. That's a miracle in itself. You're not going to "shame" anyone into fixing it.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closure_(computer_programming)

Re: Fix HackerNews Issue #11, which is driving us all crazy: Unknown or expired link

#13

Post by sillysaurus3 »

justplay wrote: post #6

Technically i understand its importance but in terms of UX this thing is terrible. For a non English speakers, they usually take some time to reply and most of the time they end up with `expired link`. I doubt the user who wrote very big comment (usually highest rated comment in that thread) use HN editor, I guess they first write in the word processor and then copy it here since the amount of time it involved in wri…

For a non English speakers, they usually take some time to reply and most of the time they end up with `expired link`. I doubt the user who wrote very big comment (usually highest rated comment in that thread) use HN editor, I guess they first write in the word processor and then copy it here since the amount of time it involved in writing comment is not sufficient.

I use the HN edit box. On mobile, I take care to copy my comment to clipboard before submitting it, so that if I hit the unknown/expired issue then I can hit the back button, refresh, paste, and resubmit. On desktop it's a nonissue because when it happens you can hit the back button and (in firefox/chrome) the edit box will have dutifully saved your whole comment, so nothing will have been lost.

Re: Fix HackerNews Issue #11, which is driving us all crazy: Unknown or expired link

#15

Post by sillysaurus3 »

grinich wrote: post #12

The reason this happens is that the link is actually a reference to a live closure[1] held in memory on the server. Notice how the URL has `fnid=...`? Well fnid is short for function ID. There isn't an obvious way to fix this without dramatically changing the way pages are rendered. The reason the link expires is probably that the garbage collector picks them up after a timeout interval. I remember this was something…

There isn't an obvious way to fix this without dramatically changing the way pages are rendered.

Actually, it's easy to fix, because it's easy to turn dynamic urls ("fnid" urls) into regular URLs (something like "/submitreply?id=xxx").

They just haven't gotten around to it yet, which is fine.

Re: Fix HackerNews Issue #11, which is driving us all crazy: Unknown or expired link

#18

Post by Dylan16807 »

grinich wrote: post #12

The reason this happens is that the link is actually a reference to a live closure[1] held in memory on the server. Notice how the URL has `fnid=...`? Well fnid is short for function ID. There isn't an obvious way to fix this without dramatically changing the way pages are rendered. The reason the link expires is probably that the garbage collector picks them up after a timeout interval. I remember this was something…

Having a parameter for how many pages to skip (and purposely not care about changes between clicks) would not be dramatic at all.

Re: Fix HackerNews Issue #11, which is driving us all crazy: Unknown or expired link

#20

Post by [deleted] »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #15
grinich wrote: post #12

The reason this happens is that the link is actually a reference to a live closure[1] held in memory on the server. Notice how the URL has `fnid=...`? Well fnid is short for function ID. There isn't an obvious way to fix this without dramatically changing the way pages are rendered. The reason the link expires is probably that the garbage collector picks them up after a timeout interval. I remember this was something…

There isn't an obvious way to fix this without dramatically changing the way pages are rendered. Actually, it's easy to fix, because it's easy to turn dynamic urls ("fnid" urls) into regular URLs (something like "/submitreply?id=xxx"). They just haven't gotten around to it yet, which is fine.

[deleted]
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