

Why aren't HN comments collapsible? - coryfklein

I find it difficult to read comments on HN, and I think this mostly comes from the inability to collapse comments.<p>1) The top comment on a post gets hugely inflated with discussion.<p>2) Since scores aren&#x27;t shown, I&#x27;m not sure what comments have value, so I tend to not read anything besides the first few comments.<p>Given that most other sites I have visited have this ability, I wonder if it was a conscious design decision, and why?
======
alariccole
I'm attempting to solve this, at least for iOS devices. My technique is to
collapse everything first. If you want to continue in that discussion, you tap
to expand. I think it helps mitigate the need to comment on the top thread,
and should make for more diverse discussion.

I think every platform needs its own interface for this, and I suppose the
thought behind the web interface is that you can always just scroll down. It's
suboptimal on long threads, though. I found my technique worked best on
mobile, since you can quickly tap the entire comment to expand it. With a
little JS, this might also work on the web.

(If interested, the app is called Pivit, and is in review -- follow
@alariccole if you want to know when it drops in the next few days.)

------
michaelwww
I don't understand what your issue is with a browser ext. The one I use just
works -- so well that I forget and had to stop and think about your headline
that comments aren't collapsible.

[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-
collap...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-
collapsible-c/hockhafcdegocajmjhafgjncjpodihkd)

~~~
pdenya
Are you saying that his points about how non-collapsible comments shape the
discussion topography are not valid?

~~~
michaelwww
I said no such thing. I said I didn't understand. I take he is saying top
comments tend to get more up votes? I dismissed that because it's obvious and
wondered if he had another issue. I assume everyone is using a browser ext to
collapse expand.

reddit has hot/new/rising/controversial/top but I've haven't found a great
need for that personally.

~~~
coryfklein
Actually I'm saying that top comments _don 't_ get more upvotes. Once the
single top comment has enough discussion underneath it, the comment votes
become skewed and inaccurate. At that point, the "top" comment (which may or
may not be the "top" comment anymore) gets an unproportional amount of votes
with respect to it's vertical location on the page.

The second, third, and fourth comments may be great or even better than the
comment at the top of the page, but they don't get any discussion because they
are too far down the page.

Sure, using a browser extension fixes that issue for _me_ , but it doesn't
change the fact that 80% of the discussion and exposure is only going to
happen on the first thread.

I expect there is a good reason why HN has chosen not to implement comment
collapse. I posted this question in hopes of getting an answer as to what that
reason is. Maybe if I understand the system better then I will be able to use
it more efficiently.

------
coryfklein
Also, I know that there exist browser extensions to allow comment collapsing,
but the problem extends beyond a mere functionality problem - since comments
can't be collapsed, the actual comment structure changes, and that is
something no browser extension can fix.

------
kaixi
I wrote an userscript to solve this:
[http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/138037](http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/138037)

------
burgerz
> Since scores aren't shown, I'm not sure what comments have value, so I tend
> to not read anything besides the first few comments.

Maybe you should browse Reddit instead if you're used to reading the top
comment (usually one liner) and collapse to the next without engaging in any
real discussion.

~~~
coryfklein
What if the top comment is a line of discussion I'm not interested in? Too
bad, because that is the only line of discussion anybody will engage in,
because you never see the second comment.

I know _I_ could scroll down 7 pages and find the second comment and discuss
there if that line of discussion interests me, but who else would talk with
me? Nobody, because noone wants to scroll down 7 pages.

