
Ask HN: Would you like to see notifications in HackerNews? - wuliwong
I often miss out on responses and conversations die on HN. I have to revisit a page or check my profile to see if anyone has responded. Some, simple implementation of notifications would remedy that. I was wondering if other people felt the same way?<p>I know there was a lot of buzz about getting an official Show HN section which eventually was implemented. So I thought I&#x27;d throw this out there and see if there was support for the idea.
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jaysonelliot
I'd rather not.

There are enough nagging notifications in my day as it is. When I want to see
whether I have any active conversations, I click on "threads."

HN has one of the best comment sections on the web, in my opinion, because
it's focused on thoughtful discussions that add to the main article as opposed
to long Reddit-style conversations that bob and weave and become almost a
separate entity of their own.

I think a notification feature in HN would encourage a more Reddit-style
comment section, and take away from the slightly more laconic, thoughtful, and
ultimately valuable comments that appear here now. The great and valuable
comments would still appear, but they'd stand a chance of being immersed in a
larger sea of back-and-forth noise, making them less prominent.

~~~
skizm
So more clicks/effort to get back to your comments means you're more willing
to put in an effort when making comments? And therefore leads to better
comments in general?

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JeremyMorgan
Part of me says yeah, that would be kind of nice... but what I really like
about HN since I started using it, is the simplicity. I like the flat no
frills interface and design and it's one of the things that keeps me here.

Too many buttons, features and widgets and I'll enjoy this place a lot less.
I'm sure many feel this way.

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antr
[http://hnnotify.com/](http://hnnotify.com/)

or

[http://hnnotifier.com/](http://hnnotifier.com/)

~~~
hollerith
I second the recommendation of [http://hnnotify.com/](http://hnnotify.com/).

Been using it for years.

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grayclhn
You may want to explain why you feel that clicking on the "threads" link in
the menubar is insufficient. If you're logged in, it will take you to

[https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=wuliwong](https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=wuliwong)

~~~
alain94040
Actually, what would be really useful is to print a count of replies next to
the threads link. So I could at a glance find out if there are new messages in
the threads I care about. It could be as simple as:

    
    
      new | threads (12) | comments | show | ask | jobs | submit
    

I'll leave it to the implementer to decide whether the count gets reset every
time I click on threads, or not.

~~~
blablabla123
You just have to remember #points in the upper right. When you didn't get up
or down votes, checking out threads isn't worth it anyways. ;)

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msluyter
Playing devil's advocate for a second, I'm wondering whether HN's somewhat
kludgy method of following someone's responses to your comments has the
unexpected benefit of allowing conversations to die a natural death. The dark
side of non-dying conversations is never ending back-and-forth or flame wars
that rage on longer than they might otherwise. I agree that HN isn't an ideal
forum for conversation, but perhaps that's not such a bad thing?

~~~
wuliwong
Another person had a similar notion. I think it is interesting. I do believe
there could be some UI built to keep the quality at the top but longer
"discussions" accessible. The fact that I posted this and completely forgot
and now I come back a couple days later and there are tons of comments which I
missed is my counter argument. :p

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sidcool
Absolutely yes. I have been waiting for this feature for long. It makes
conversations followable.

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ecaron
We set it up so [https://TrackIf.com](https://TrackIf.com) can track if a
HackerNews story gets a new comment (or if a comment gets a new comment, etc.
etc.) It was 100% for selfish reasons and once we did it we recognized we
don't actually use it that often.

As awesome as HN is, there's never a reason* that you need to immediately come
back and respond unless you're getting your flamewar on...

* Or if you're wearing your PR hat and there's a story about your company, but we really don't want to make things easy for those people unless we want to see the forums overrun.

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higherpurpose
I never liked how there's no way to sort by newest comments, either. This can
be especially a problem for when there's a post with over 100 comments, and
some get drown out in a few hours, and you could miss them.

~~~
jaredsohn
This extension ([https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-
enhanc...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-
enhancement-s/bappiabcodbpphnojdiaddhnilfnjmpm)) shows you which comments you
haven't read yet.

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cessor
No. I want the website to leave me alone. If it becomes hard to keep track of
conversations, then maybe you should have less conversations and only discuss
matters that are really important to you.

~~~
wuliwong
I certainly don't have many conversations going at once but I posted this
question, got busy at work, then got on a flight and totally forgot until
today. I missed tons of interesting comments, I would have loved to reply to.
If I had gotten some sort of notification, it would have been cool for me.

I think it can be done very minimally, like someone suggested, just adding a
number next to the threads link "threads (12)". I feel like the website isn't
bothering you too much in that case.

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jpetersonmn
For the people that are saying they don't want it, couldn't they just not use
the feature if it was there? I'm not following how it would make anything more
complicated for them.

~~~
grayclhn
Some people have said that they think it will degrade the quality of the
discussion by encouraging shorter and quicker replies at the expense of longer
and more thoughtful ones. So it wouldn't make things more complicated for
people not using it; it would just make the site worse. :)

~~~
jpetersonmn
Aha, that's a good point, didn't think of that angle.

~~~
wuliwong
It is interesting, I wonder if there could be some included UI updates to keep
the current "quality" of comments at the same level but also allow for deeper
back-and-forth discussions that don't dominate the page. It would seem only
surfacing the top level or two of comments and having the rest
expandable/collapsible might supply the best of both worlds.

My biggest counter argument to no-notifications is this post. I made it, and
completely forgot about it until today. I would have loved to see all these
comments and reply back closer to real time.

~~~
grayclhn
>My biggest counter argument to no-notifications is this post. I made it, and
completely forgot about it until today. I would have loved to see all these
comments and reply back closer to real time.

That's a weak counterargument. I'm sure you would have liked the comments, but
you have to make the case that the conversation we all enjoyed would have been
better with the participation of someone who forgot his own question :)

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webmaven
Yes, please.

An API suitable for consumption by an extension or mobile app would be your
MVP, no need to actually add it directly to the website UI just yet.

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virde
Not really, I am drowning in notifications all day with Quora, Facebook and
twitter. What I'd really like is a auto HN to Pocket app, where all HN
articles are synced into Pocket app and I can read and mark them done at my
own leisure in piece on say a long bus ride. Maybe I'll build one this weekend
unless I find one online.

~~~
wuliwong
I was thinking more just a number in the navbar. I definitely don't need any
more email notifications.

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benjymau5
Just my opinion but, HN isn’t Reddit. That's a good thing. There are
extensions/etc. that handle notifications. Perhaps in the spirit of HN
wullwong should 'hack' it. Make a plugin or service to do this and show us
what they created to make notifications easier.

~~~
wuliwong
Sounds like I've been beaten to it several times over from this discussion. :)

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6cxs2hd6
Would "responded" include only actual replies, or also no-reply downvotes?

I ask because lately I'm experiencing an increasing proportion of the latter.
Apparently pg has endorsed these on the grounds that they are the pure logical
inverse of no-reply upvotes. Although I disagree, that's the official stance,
and if it is to continue to be the reality here, I think any new notification
feature ought to include those, too.

Because that way, if a comment is being downvoted, then I'd know sooner. I'd
have the option of adding clarification -- just like if someone took the time
to reply with an actual comment and I were to get notified.

~~~
wuliwong
I don't even see a down vote button, I guess that is something that surfaces
at a higher reputation? I agree, it would be nice to know if people are down
voting your comments. I see comments becoming lighter gray, I'm guessing they
are down voted? Often, I think they are fine comments in my eyes. hah.

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andyjohnson0
I'd prefer HN to stay simple, the way it is now. I don't need extra features.

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johnchristopher
I'd rather not.

I'd rather have a better CSS when I am surfing with my smartphone, the text is
too small and I have to scroll horizontally to read each line.

~~~
eric_h
ihackernews.com

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keerthiko
This Ask HN probably warranted poll counters. I would imagine it's heavily
"no" based on the response so far.

I like that I'm not tempted to compulsively refresh HN to see if I have new
notifications like with every other thing that says (#) in the tab title, this
means a LOT to me. I only have so much will power to go around.

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beltex
[https://github.com/HackerNews/HN](https://github.com/HackerNews/HN)

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HNJohnC
No, definitely not. This UI is about as simple as it gets and it should stay
that way quirks and all.

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dodonator
I support this idea. I also want notification for HN.

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typicalrunt
No. At least let's delay that feature.

What I'd like to see first is a responsive design so I don't have to zoom
1000% to upvote.

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ecocentrik
No. If somehow it get's implemented please have it disabled by default.

What I'd really like to see from HN is a responsive website.

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hughes
No.

~~~
hughes
To elaborate, I like how my HN account is quiet. I can come here to think and
relax without jumping at the little red number or envelope icon.

Facebook/reddit are a constant stream of notifications that makes it difficult
to concentrate on anything.

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thirdtruck
I would love to have a periodic digest of replies to my comments.

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hack_edu
For the nth time, no.

~~~
darkstar999
Why not?

~~~
hack_edu
The general HN feature philosophy: HN is a simple site with a simple purpose.

Its worked just fine this way for 10 years. Is it actually broken now and
worth fixing, and further, why devote the energy when it continues to work
fine? And really, the last thing HN needs are giant tangent comment trees.
These rarely remain professional and on-topic.

~~~
wuliwong
Obviously saying that it "works fine" is subjective. For instance, I posted
this and got caught up at work and then on a plane and completely forgot about
it until today. Some sort of notification would have been cool if it would
have gave me a visual cue that people are responding to my post.

From what people have posted, I would argue that the "threads" link is a
failed attempt at something nearing notifications. I literally never clicked
it until today after years of using HN. At some point, someone thought it was
a good idea to implement the tracking of all the conversations you participate
in. Why not try to make it more useful? I think the suggestion for "threads
(12)" is great. You can't possibly think that makes things too complex?

~~~
hack_edu
Well coincidentally I just saw this a few minutes after you replied ;) We both
didn't look all weekend. Our lives went on, and we still made it back here
anyway, and we can still have this conversation without urgency (or the
distraction of karma, I might add). I save my comment trees for reddit...

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geekam
Yes.

