

Ask HN Mods: Can we add some extra options to comments? - hashtag

In large threads where there are hundreds of comments, I find myself frustrated at times with the way comments are displayed.<p>1. They don&#x27;t seem to display in order so new comments coming in can appear anywhere making me have to scroll through all the comments again just to find the new ones (even with browser plug-ins that highlight new comments).<p>2. There is no way to just view top level comments (yes, I have a browser plugin that allows me to collapse comments, which I think HN should do on its own, but I&#x27;d have to manually collapse each one just to read the top comments). Ideally I&#x27;d like a fast way to view all top level comments by default<p>Some threads where this immediately becomes applicable are threads like &quot;Who&#x27;s Hiring&quot; and &quot;Idea Sunday&quot;, etc... I&#x27;m sure there have been other popular threads where comments just grow out of control and I wish there was a better way to manage this.
======
kevin
I totally hear you.

Collapsing comments is something we'll definitely be implementing. Collapsing
all comments does sound useful.

The problem of finding new comments on popular threads is tricky. I'll
probably always lean towards the most minimal change possible for a community
as active as HN.

A light way to do it would be to have some visual indicator that makes new
comments easier to find. Another way to do it would be to have a separate view
for each thread that's like /newcomments (an RSS feed wouldn't hurt either) I
may play with providing sort options that does this dynamically with JS.

~~~
brudgers
Maybe adding modality to the 'COMMENTS' link would work. From the front page
it would work as it does now. From a comments page it would time sort that
submission's comments.

[Disclaimer] I have rarely used the 'COMMENTS' link since my early days of
karma hunting when I would try to identify active discussions in which to seek
commenting opportunities particularly snark injections.

------
roryokane
If anyone is wondering, this is the browser plugin that allows one to collapse
comments on HN:

Hacker News collapsible comments –
[http://userscripts.org/scripts/reviews/138037](http://userscripts.org/scripts/reviews/138037)

It’s a user script, which means it requires GreaseMonkey or a similar
extension to run.

------
e15ctr0n
I'm using an experimental Firefox add-on that collapses all comments so that
all top-level comments are immediately available. Seems to be working out ok
so far. [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/hacker-
news-r...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/hacker-news-reader/)

------
dang
I see the problem, and experience it myself to some extent. Yes, we'd be open
to fixing it, as long as whatever we did fit well with HN's design style,
which is to be minimal and unobtrusive, text-oriented, and so on.

I've written software to help me manage HN threads for moderation purposes. A
lot of it might be useful for non-moderation purposes too, i.e. just reading
the site. I'd like to open source it eventually.

