Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A List of Hacker News's Undocumented Features and Behaviors

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

161–170 of 196 posts

Re: A List of Hacker News's Undocumented Features and Behaviors

#161

Post by wtmt »

craftyguy wrote: post #148
tptacek wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not going to happen; it's part of the ethos of the site to downvote in lieu of writing insubstantial criticisms, a policy Paul Graham actually wrote out once long ago. It's the right policy, I think. The last thing we need are dozens more one-line "why this sucks" comments on each thread.

lobste.rs does this pretty well, they require you to select one of the provided reasons for downvoting a comment. It gives direct feedback to the commenter as to why their comment was downvoted. The HN and reddit policy is, intentionally or not, "downvote if you disagree." Without any direct feedback mechanism, it will stay that way.

Tangentially, joining lobste.rs is a pain. I once hung around on chat asking for an invite and then gave up. HN on the other hand makes signing up just a matter of seconds, and also has a better breadth of content (because it doesn't make one jump through hoops to sign up). Given this context, the choice between a site where downvoting with a reason is available and a site where downvoting doesn't provide anything more is quite clear at least to me.

Re: A List of Hacker News's Undocumented Features and Behaviors

#162

Post by wtmt »

dang wrote: post #119
segfaultbuserr wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think of it like a video game, which often gives people surprises by unlocking the hidden feature based on unclear conditions. I was really impressed was I discovered it for the first time. This feature is more of a Easter egg than a practical option. If you really NEED to change the color, you can simply load a custom CSS in your web browser.

Maybe we should add another. Any ideas?

Enhance/increase the font size, the size of the voting buttons, the gap between the voting buttons, and the size of the collapse buttons for users who have more than 50 karma (they must have perseverance and patience to stick around, so why not reward them)? I really find the usability of these very difficult and hit the wrong one many a times. Simplicity is nice, but going through HN comments and acting on them is painful, more so on touchscreen devices.

Re: A List of Hacker News's Undocumented Features and Behaviors

#164

Post by Zecar »

dang wrote: post #151
krapp wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I know people have strong feelings about downvoting, but those feelings are rooted in something other than discussion quality. How do you know? People have different opinions about what constitutes and contributes to quality. From what I've seen, a lot of people assume Reddit's standard should apply here, and they seem surprised to learn that it doesn't. Those people do seem to be concerned about discussion quality.…

I appreciate your passion on topics HN-related! Taking the last point first: HN downvotes aren't arbitrary and excessive. In most cases, not 99% but maybe 90 and certainly 80, it's easy to see why a comment has been downvoted—except when you agree with it on a topic that pushes your buttons, in which case you will always think the downvote was unfair, but then your opinion can't be trusted. (That applies to all us; w…

you don't think think there could possibly be downsides from promoting only one set of viewpoints? That seems naive to say the least.

Re: A List of Hacker News's Undocumented Features and Behaviors

#165

Post by [deleted] »

xnxn wrote: post #77
lxmcneill wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this has less to do with respect and more to do with detracting from the original discussion e.g. source code integrity having nothing to do with human genitalia.

Gender is also not about genitalia, fwiw. I see that the author of the edited comment got defensive about it and went on an irrelevant rant about singular they. Wish people like that would grow up a bit.

[deleted]

Re: A List of Hacker News's Undocumented Features and Behaviors

#166

Post by lukehack »

m_fayer wrote: post #159
dang wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's interesting to see that question show up, because we work so hard on the code. It makes sense that you'd ask it, though, because most of the changes are either not visible (like anti-spam or anti-voting-ring features), or are subtle. For example, you may have noticed more capitalized titles on the front page in the last couple days—but this is an experiment we're going to roll back. One reason we don't do a lot…

A well designed official API would go a long way toward letting a thousand flowers bloom. I know there's web and mobile apps already out there, but IMO the average quality is not great. Which is not surprising, given the awkwardness of the existing firebase API, which probably keeps many developers away and eats too much of the efforts of those devs that do try their hand.

IMO, the higher barrier to entry is a benefit to this site. Features that would lower friction increase content dilution. From what I understand, this site is not trying to become Reddit.

Re: A List of Hacker News's Undocumented Features and Behaviors

#167

Post by afiori »

tptacek wrote: post #149
craftyguy wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

lobste.rs does this pretty well, they require you to select one of the provided reasons for downvoting a comment. It gives direct feedback to the commenter as to why their comment was downvoted. The HN and reddit policy is, intentionally or not, "downvote if you disagree." Without any direct feedback mechanism, it will stay that way.

On HN, it's intentional. That is in fact the policy. It didn't just happen; it was a decision.

still a simple checkbox with a few well chosen reasons would be valuable. At the very least it would make you actually think of why you choose to downvote that specific comment. There are many nuances of disagreement, some deserving a downvote some not.

Re: A List of Hacker News's Undocumented Features and Behaviors

#168

Post by krapp »

lukehack wrote: post #166
m_fayer wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A well designed official API would go a long way toward letting a thousand flowers bloom. I know there's web and mobile apps already out there, but IMO the average quality is not great. Which is not surprising, given the awkwardness of the existing firebase API, which probably keeps many developers away and eats too much of the efforts of those devs that do try their hand.

IMO, the higher barrier to entry is a benefit to this site. Features that would lower friction increase content dilution. From what I understand, this site is not trying to become Reddit.

There is no high barrier to entry here. You literally just have to fill out an HTML form, which everyone knows how to do. It's easier to join HN than it is many other sites, which at least include a second auth factor through email to verify an account. Some sites now require a social media account or validation of a real identity. Lobste.rs won't even talk to you unless someone vouches for you, and they read your existing posts on HN and elsewhere, and decide you're worth letting in. Even 4chan has more friction than HN.

And an API, practically by definition, is not a benefit to membership or a draw for whatever HN considers a typical user, much less the sort of "normie" non-technical user HN wants to keep away. The quality of comments is not maintained to a high standard by the API being more difficult to query than it could be, nor would it be diluted by the API being easier to use.

And as far as Reddit goes, a lot of content gets posted here from Reddit, and a lot of the userbase here are also Reddit users, making the cultural contempt HN has for Reddit more than a bit hypocritical.

A lot of people here, pg included, seem to assume that the "low tech" nature of the featureset here is keeping some flood of unwanted users away but I submit that the title of the site being "Hacker News", it being on a subdomain and the lack of evangelism on mainstream social media do a far better job of gatekeeping than purposely adding "friction" to frustrate people.

Re: A List of Hacker News's Undocumented Features and Behaviors

#169

Post by m_fayer »

lukehack wrote: post #166
m_fayer wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A well designed official API would go a long way toward letting a thousand flowers bloom. I know there's web and mobile apps already out there, but IMO the average quality is not great. Which is not surprising, given the awkwardness of the existing firebase API, which probably keeps many developers away and eats too much of the efforts of those devs that do try their hand.

IMO, the higher barrier to entry is a benefit to this site. Features that would lower friction increase content dilution. From what I understand, this site is not trying to become Reddit.

Fair enough, though for what it's worth, I'm not interested in making an HN app that would make it super-smooth, pretty, and compulsively browseable, but rather a couple of power tools to make it easier to participate in and track discussions, and to enable a bit of a "batched, offline" experience.

Re: A List of Hacker News's Undocumented Features and Behaviors

#170

Post by NicoJuicy »

_ps6d wrote: post #139
NicoJuicy wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Web changed from Google to DuckDuckGo. But which features are missing?

There's quite a bit that could be added, without even touching the site's overall mechanics at all. The markdown support is extremely minimal and doesn't support a lot of basics like quotes (which causes many people to "quote" by using a code block, which has issues). A basic private messaging system would be really helpful in a lot of cases. Right now people always have to post email addresses publicly. It would be…

Some people don't want to be contacted. If they want too, they add their email in their profile.

> The markdown support is extremely minimal and doesn't support a lot of basics like quotes (which causes many people to "quote" by using a code block, which has issues).

Obvious enough.

An extra button: moderated, is with a comment.

Scraping is different for each website.

Post reply on HN