
Ask HN: What tips and tricks do you have for new HNers? - pitaj
I&#x27;m pretty new, but here&#x27;s a few things I&#x27;ve learned<p>- Use `&gt;` (not code blocks) for blockquotes [1]
 - Read and consult the Guidelines and FAQ
 - If you dislike the &quot;brutalist&quot; aesthetic, you can use a userstyle to improve your experience. I use [2]
 - If you would prefer for comment to still be shown, but their replies hidden, you can change that with CSS [3]
 - If you want automatic code highlighting in code blocks, you can use a simple userscript [4]<p>[1] You can use this script to automatically convert `&gt;` to blockquotes on page load. Could probably be done better but it works for me ¯\_(ツ)_&#x2F;¯<p><pre><code>    [...document.querySelectorAll(&#x27;.comment [class^=&quot;c&quot;]&#x27;)]
      .filter(x =&gt; &#x2F;(^|&gt;)\s*&amp;gt;&#x2F;m.test(x.innerHTML))
      .forEach(x =&gt; {
        const out = x.innerHTML
          .replace(&#x2F;(^|&gt;)\s*&amp;gt;(.+?)(?=&lt;|$)&#x2F;mg, &#x27;$1&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;$2&lt;&#x2F;p&gt;&lt;&#x2F;blockquote&gt;&#x27;)
          .replace(&#x2F;(?:&lt;p&gt;(&lt;blockquote&gt;))|(?:(&lt;\&#x2F;blockquote&gt;)&lt;\&#x2F;p&gt;)&#x2F;g, &#x27;$1$2&#x27;)
          .replace(&#x2F;&lt;\&#x2F;blockquote&gt;[\s\n]*&lt;blockquote&gt;&#x2F;g, &#x27;&#x27;)
          .replace(&#x2F;(?:&lt;i&gt;(&lt;blockquote&gt;))|(?:(&lt;\&#x2F;blockquote&gt;)&lt;\&#x2F;i&gt;)&#x2F;g, &#x27;$1$2&#x27;)
          .replace(&#x2F;(?:(&lt;blockquote&gt;)&lt;i&gt;)|(?:&lt;\&#x2F;i&gt;(&lt;\&#x2F;blockquote&gt;))&#x2F;g, &#x27;$1$2&#x27;);
        x.innerHTML = out;
      });
</code></pre>
[2] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;userstyles.org&#x2F;styles&#x2F;22794&#x2F;a-dark-hacker-news
[3]<p><pre><code>    .noshow.comment {
      display: block;
    }
</code></pre>
[4]<p><pre><code>    var script = document.createElement(&quot;script&quot;);
    script.onload = () =&gt; {
      const elems = [...document.querySelectorAll(&#x27;code&#x27;)];
      elems.forEach(elem =&gt; hljs.highlightBlock(elem));
      elems.filter(elem =&gt; elem.parentNode.tagName !== &#x27;PRE&#x27;).forEach(elem =&gt; elem.classList.add(&#x27;not-block&#x27;));
    };
    document.head.appendChild(script);
    script.src = &#x27;https:&#x2F;&#x2F;cdnjs.cloudflare.com&#x2F;ajax&#x2F;libs&#x2F;highlight.js&#x2F;9.4.0&#x2F;highlight.min.js&#x27;;
</code></pre>
I&#x27;d like to know what some of HN veterans do to make their experience better on this site. Do you access HN from Lynx on your custom-built Gentoo machine?
======
Gustomaximus
Not sure I'm a veteran but I try upvote posts, not on what I find interesting,
but what could be useful for startup communities.

I dont want HN descending further to Reddit circle jerking over political,
current or other popularity issues no matter how important and/or interesting
they are.

------
pmoriarty
Read and use the links at the bottom of every page. There's a lot of useful
stuff there.

Check out the posts and comments by HN's top users (who can be found on the
"Lists" link at the bottom of every HN page).

Try to be nice or at least civil to other HN users.

------
mod
Don't make reddit-style jokes here--they won't go over well.

~~~
mrmondo
Yes indeed, it's a place for constructive conversation.

There's no problem with humour in your comment but that shouldn't be the point
of your comment (at least IMO).

Before anything else read the guidelines, they're short, easy to understand
(IMO) and practical.

It's never a game for points.

Before voting on an article (link) make sure you've read enough of the article
to actually place value (or lack there of) in it, again it's not a game for
points.

If someone is rude, overly negative towards someone else without being
constructive it's totally within anyone's rights to politely refer them to the
guidelines.

Practise empath and respect for others regardless of their personal opinions
(as long as they are framed as opinions!).

Learn from anything you were wrong / mistaken about and better yet - share
what you learnt and how you discovered you were mistaken with others, that can
really help communities prosper.

Tldr; Read the guidelines, if you're going to be critical - be constructive
(which is a great thing!), learn and share with others not for points, but for
the greater good and practise empathy.

------
anotheryou
hide seen links on firefox with:
[https://github.com/GMouron/HNMarkAllRead](https://github.com/GMouron/HNMarkAllRead)
(useful to also have some stylish CSS that colors actually visited links
different than "seen" links)

So useful I can't stand browsing on my phone any more because I'd have to see
the same * again on my desktop.

