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“12 years ago today, I finished writing Hacker News”

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Re: “12 years ago today, I finished writing Hacker News”

#51

Post by dangrossman »

babuskov wrote: post #28
pavlov wrote: post #3

"Finished" is the right word. Apart from small UI tweaks it's still the same site as in 2007... And that's part of what makes HN great! I can't help but think that a team of Very Serious Expensive UX Professionals would have made a mess of HN thrice over by this time. (Can't you just imagine the 2010 rewrite in Java and GWT, and the 2014 redesign as an Angular SPA with sophisticated giant web fonts all over the place…

The only thing I miss are comment reply notifications. Someone might reply to something I wrote in comments a week ago and I have to visit my comment history periodically to check that. It doesn't have to be an active notification. Just add a numeric field added to user account that means "you got N new replies" and show it in the top-right corner next to my username. Once I see it, I will go and browse through comme…

I host http://hnreplies.com which provides comment reply notifications by email, FYI.

Re: “12 years ago today, I finished writing Hacker News”

#52

Post by baud147258 »

laichzeit0 wrote: post #6
pavlov wrote: post #3

"Finished" is the right word. Apart from small UI tweaks it's still the same site as in 2007... And that's part of what makes HN great! I can't help but think that a team of Very Serious Expensive UX Professionals would have made a mess of HN thrice over by this time. (Can't you just imagine the 2010 rewrite in Java and GWT, and the 2014 redesign as an Angular SPA with sophisticated giant web fonts all over the place…

Like when they re-did the Slashdot interface. I remember it was crap and I stopped using it then. That's probably 10 years ago now.

More recently there's the imgur redesign. But it's still usable at least.

Re: “12 years ago today, I finished writing Hacker News”

#53

Post by whostolemyhat »

nothrabannosir wrote: post #43
0xcoffee wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And an easier way to collapse comments on mobile

Easier than the [-] next to each comment? If you have javascript enabled, they should show up. Not sure how it could be improved?

It's tiny and right next to a couple of other links, so very difficult to press on mobile.

Re: “12 years ago today, I finished writing Hacker News”

#54

Post by giancarlostoro »

hiccuphippo wrote: post #49
mywittyname wrote: post #22

Does HN make money?

Can I turn around this question and ask how much does it cost to run HN?

This I definitely want to know. I figure PG has no problem funding HN but how much does it cost to run HN? It wouldn't surprise me if it's bills are footed by someone else though, like reddit or somebody whose grateful to ycombinator.

Re: “12 years ago today, I finished writing Hacker News”

#55

Post by japhyr »

jermaink wrote: post #13

HN is a perfect example of an classic, evergreen product. Or call it a crocodile product, as crocodiles are somewhat location-loyal. Are there more examples of products that did (on purpose) not change significantly? If you consider the sentiment on the recent GMail redesign, Facebook, .. it often appears that product managers are the only ones that want to change the product and its appeal. I think Reddit also had t…

> Are there more examples of products that did (on purpose) not change significantly?

I think Craigslist would be the classic example of a simple design that hasn't changed significantly over its lifetime.

Re: “12 years ago today, I finished writing Hacker News”

#56

Post by thrower123 »

asaph wrote: post #17
leemailll wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never get the idea for avatars. And in fact I more than often use Adblock to block any of those on the websites I visit frequently. Can any one shed the light on why they like it?

It's a way to personalize your account and a way for people to easily recognize an online identity across comments, articles and communities. It helps you discover that @asaph on HN is the same person as @asaph on GitHub, Twitter, Stack Overflow, etc.

One of the features of HN is that identity is downplayed. Personally, I think that this encourages engaging with the arguments that someone makes, rather than who they are.

It's also a throwback to the old internet where pseudonymity was normal. It's refreshing to see usernames like AdmiralAsshat and TooMuchToDo.

Re: “12 years ago today, I finished writing Hacker News”

#57

Post by Insanity »

sbinthree wrote: post #24
asaph wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I for one would like to see some improvements. Here is my wishlist: 1. Markdown support 2. More profile capabilities. e.g. avatars, vanity URLs, link to your GitHub, Twitter, Stack Overflow, blog, etc. 3. Automatically create cache link for articles in case their hosts go down after being linked from HN. 4. Revision history for comments.

I would dislike all of this except markdown support.

cache links sounds like an okay idea.

OTOH, the avatars sounds like a horrible idea to me.

I'm neutral on the markdown one, it wouldn't be too bad but it might end up making comments look like mini-articles rather than just comments.

Re: “12 years ago today, I finished writing Hacker News”

#58

Post by BOBOTWINSTON »

shittyadmin wrote: post #42
babuskov wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only thing I miss are comment reply notifications. Someone might reply to something I wrote in comments a week ago and I have to visit my comment history periodically to check that. It doesn't have to be an active notification. Just add a numeric field added to user account that means "you got N new replies" and show it in the top-right corner next to my username. Once I see it, I will go and browse through comme…

I honestly don't mind the lack of comment reply notifications because I find that it makes conversations less aggressive than on sites like reddit which do that. Less of a feeling of a mandated reply, more opportunities for other users to speak up on your behalf.

If someone engages with me near the post time on Reddit, then I have no issues ignoring them or responding respectfully.

If someone counterpoints something I wrote 30+ days ago... nobody else is reading so it is now a cage match.

Re: “12 years ago today, I finished writing Hacker News”

#59

Post by hiccuphippo »

shittyadmin wrote: post #42
babuskov wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only thing I miss are comment reply notifications. Someone might reply to something I wrote in comments a week ago and I have to visit my comment history periodically to check that. It doesn't have to be an active notification. Just add a numeric field added to user account that means "you got N new replies" and show it in the top-right corner next to my username. Once I see it, I will go and browse through comme…

I honestly don't mind the lack of comment reply notifications because I find that it makes conversations less aggressive than on sites like reddit which do that. Less of a feeling of a mandated reply, more opportunities for other users to speak up on your behalf.

The main reason I'd like that functionality is so I can read the responses.

Sometimes karma changes are an indicator you got responses but not always.

Re: “12 years ago today, I finished writing Hacker News”

#60

Post by azhenley »

babuskov wrote: post #28
pavlov wrote: post #3

"Finished" is the right word. Apart from small UI tweaks it's still the same site as in 2007... And that's part of what makes HN great! I can't help but think that a team of Very Serious Expensive UX Professionals would have made a mess of HN thrice over by this time. (Can't you just imagine the 2010 rewrite in Java and GWT, and the 2014 redesign as an Angular SPA with sophisticated giant web fonts all over the place…

The only thing I miss are comment reply notifications. Someone might reply to something I wrote in comments a week ago and I have to visit my comment history periodically to check that. It doesn't have to be an active notification. Just add a numeric field added to user account that means "you got N new replies" and show it in the top-right corner next to my username. Once I see it, I will go and browse through comme…

I agree completely. I use https://hnnotify.xyz/ which emails me periodically with all my new replies (other similar services exist, my friend happened to make this one).
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