Quoth RiderOfGiraffes 34 minutes ago,
Ironic that PG's definitive reply is now below the fold:
Ask HN/PG: Why are comments being paginated?
101–110 of 122 posts
Re: Ask HN/PG: Why are comments being paginated?
#102The new system can easily be "gamed," as has been discussed already several times. Here's a specific example. I wanted to observe the irony that PG's definitive answer is now below the fold, but I wanted my comment to be "above the fold" so that people could find PG's comment. Realising that if I simply commented in the appropriate place - as a reply to the original submission, as I have done with this comment - then my comment would repidly disappear even further below the fold, I added it as a reply to the unshakeably top reply:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2119471
Thus my comment is technically mis-placed, but guaranteed to be on the first page of replies and discussion.
There has to be a better solution to the problem of load. It depends on the cause, of course, but in the absence of profiling information (always the first step) I would investigate more cacheing to make the system less dynamic.
ADDED IN EDIT: I love the way this comment has attracted down-votes - I've been watching it bounce up and down for a bit now. It's clearly alright to discuss the merits and otherwise, but for some people, clearly not alright to demonstrate the effect. On a forum for hackers, I find that delightful!
Re: Ask HN/PG: Why are comments being paginated?
#103I agree, I think this basically disincentivizes commenting when you know you're going to end up "below the fold". I went into the feature request thread to see if anyone had requested the ability to turn this off, but gave up on looking after rapid-fire clicking "More" 25+ times. Content more than a page or two back might as well not exist.
Ironic that PG's definitive reply is now below the fold: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2118936
Double ironic that his post is below the fold - but this one isn't.
Re: Ask HN/PG: Why are comments being paginated?
#104Yet another reason to use Auto Patch Work - https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/aeolcjbaammbkgai...
I didn't even notice the pages were paginated thanks to the extension (it auto appends page 2... page 3... to the bottom of paginated content)
Re: Ask HN/PG: Why are comments being paginated?
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ironic that PG's definitive reply is now below the fold: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2118936
Double ironic that his post is below the fold - but this one isn't.
That's deliberate gaming of the system by me, as discussed here:
Re: Ask HN/PG: Why are comments being paginated?
#106Re: Ask HN/PG: Why are comments being paginated?
#107To cut load. I'm not sure it helped much though, so I may not keep it.
it's fun that this answer is below the fold.
I wouldn't keep it.
Re: Ask HN/PG: Why are comments being paginated?
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Reddit community actually speaks of this phenomenon in threads addressed to new members ("things you should know about Reddit", etc). They say that once there's several long threads with a lot of upvotes, you're better off not commenting as your comment will most likely languish without any attention whatsoever. I'd say that's partially due to scrolling, but you're correct - that More button is so non-obvious tha…
It could be counterbalanced by some sort of notification (on the Threads page, especially) for replies. I don't care if it's fallen off the front page, if somebody is carrying an interesting discussion in a thread in which I've commented, I may still like to know. Even if there are several days between each comment. The site's incentives to only comment on the hot threads are probably detrimental.
You can get reply notifications (email or mobile) using Notifo (YC W10)[1]. I think it's only for replies to your comments, not for all activity in a thread.
[1]: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1720763Re: Ask HN/PG: Why are comments being paginated?
#109Ironically, if PG does respond to this, his answer might end up unseen below the fold :)