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Tell HN: Thank you for the noprocrast flag
130 points by nullptr_deref on Feb 28, 2022 | hide | past | favorite | 34 comments
Thank you HackerNews for providing the `noprocast` flag! I was meddling with my account settings and I noticed the flag. I activated it and then HN said me to go to work. I really am grateful this feature exists within HN.

Thanks for wonderful feature!




If you're a fan of the noprocrast flag, I'll also recommend reading HN through https://serializer.io/ which shows you only what's new on the top list since you last visited. It lets you "clear" HN much faster and helps you avoid burning another 20 minutes reading threads you've already read.

I'm not affiliated with serializer but it's totally changed my life.


That looks great, but it would be nice if I can only see the 30 stories on the front page. As it stands, I can just scroll forever, doesn't that kind of defeat the point?


You're seeing an infinite list because you've never visited before. Having scrolled down a bit, scroll back up and click the "Mark all as read" button at the top of the page. The next time you hit the site you'll only see new stuff that hit the HN home page since your last visit.


Oh very interesting, thanks! I thought it would be getting everything from the "new" queue as well because I didn't recognize some stories, and I got confused.


Any chance this is open source? I'd love to skin it exactly like HN and add a watch button for stories I'm interested in looking through comments later. I've been meaning to build this for a couple years now, just haven't gotten around to it.


Not the project author, but the code for serializer is at https://github.com/charlieegan3/serializer


https://hnrss.github.io/ has many nice RSS feeds as well. You can set a customizable amount of points to increase or decrease the amount of stories in your feed.


Thanks for your kind words about serializer :)

Really happy you enjoy using it.


I want serializer for Twitter. Please.


Another protip: Use Hacker News 'favorites' extensively to bookmark things to read later.

It forms a nice reading queue from interesting stuff on HN. I also submit (appropriate) articles and favorite them for reading later.


This is especially useful when you see something interesting but with few comments - bookmark it and return later when the majority of comments have been hashed out.


Also the Instapaper browser extension adds a plain-text 'instapaper' link next to the 'x comments' text when you visit hackernews.


I’m just going to plug LeechBlock NG which is a fantastic extension for cutting down on procrastination on doomscrolling sites.

Not affiliated just a happy user.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/leechblock-ng...

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/leechblock-ng/blaa...


Could someone explain what this does?


It will let you browse HN for x minutes and then take a break for y minutes.

Default x and y are 20 and 180.

This means you read for 20 minutes and then are blocked for 3 hours.

When you are blocked it will display the remaining minutes to be able to read HN again.


Thanks for letting us know. Now, be the next level helpful and point how to find it for others! I can't see it on my profile


It's in all profiles. If it isn't, there's a bug.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html has a description.


Must not be rolled out to your profile. Click on your profile name, then under "email" I have "showdead", then "noprocrast", "maxvisit". and "minaway".


I've been using the Hacker News API[0] and Python's Flask web server to create my own curated version of the website. Not only does it place new articles, since the last time I refreshed, at the top of the list and marks them with an asterisk but it also features a carefully considered blocklist of terms and combinations of terms that I tend to fall into a rabbit hole on. Also some subjects, particularly highly charged political content that while important and deserving of careful consideration I would simply prefer to discuss elsewhere, do not show up in my feed.

[0]https://github.com/HackerNews/API


I have it set to allow only 1 visit in 100-ish years. But, since it still allows posting, and you can read the site while not logged in... Well, it doesn't really stop me.

Honestly, I'd much rather that HN would just allow me to delete my account. That would help more.


> I'd much rather that HN would just allow me to delete my account.

Agreed, but: remove your email address and change the password to random characters. The account may still be there but now you can't log in with it.


I have my noprocrast set to something insane (462?) and I don't even know what it means. So it shows up from time to time and I say to myself, oh. What? But then the minaway is only 2 minutes.


This is good, but I have way more sites I can procrastinate on. So I use a browser add-on to block them - LeechBlock NG for Firefox.


Does anyone know of an implementation of HN-style noprocrast that works for other websites?

Seems like it would be perfect for a browser extension!


Leechblock is good and it works well.


I tried it, but then read HN in a private tab and ended up removing the flag again.


What does "showdead" do?


Shows you dead posts https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html#dead


Ah thanks


Shows dead


If you enjoy this feature, I'd recommend Self-Control. It works on all sites (offline too).


I subscribe to a weekly hacker news newsletter (https://hackernewsletter.com/) and find that helps me tame the urge to keep checking the website during the day.


Similar: https://bengtan.com/interesting-things/


I miss the http://n-gate.com/ weekly hacker news newsletter.




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