HN Explorer

Tell HN: New features and a moderator

2381 points by dang ↗ HN
Today we'd like to introduce five features and one moderator.

1. You can collapse comments in threads. If you're logged in, collapses persist across page refreshes and devices for a week.

2. You can tell which way you voted and undo a vote if you want. An 'unvote' or 'undown' link appears after a post's timestamp when you vote.

3. Save and share the best stories and comments. Click on a post's timestamp to go to its page, then click 'favorite' at the top. Your favorites are linked from your profile, and you can browse other users' from theirs.

4. On the front page and /newest, click 'hide' if you no longer want to see a story. The next story in the list will slide up at the bottom. If you change your mind, visit /hidden and click 'unhide'. If you're logged in, hidden stories persist for a week.

5. Find out which stories were the most popular on HN on a given day by visiting /front?day=yyyy-mm-dd. You'll see all the front page stories for that day, sorted by how much time they spent there. For example, Alan Kay's AMA had the most front page time on June 20: https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2016-06-20.

Finally, I'm pleased to introduce sctb, a.k.a. Scott Bell, as a Hacker News moderator. Scott has been moderating HN incognito for a long time, but starting today he and I will be sharing the public part of the job. Since Scott is familiar with all aspects of HN moderation, you shouldn't notice any changes in practice; this is just an internal refactoring to enable such innovations as vacations and a day off. Scott is my cofounder from Skysheet (YC W09), an excellent programmer with a meticulous eye for detail, and a thoroughly decent human being. Please welcome him and be nice!

474 comments

[ 2.0 ms ] story [ 313 ms ] thread
Aelinsaar
1.) I stopped reading there for a minute, because I had to wipe away the tears of joy. Seriously, thanks for this one!
dsr_
Collapsing threads! Thanks!
strictnein
There were no multi-level collapsible threads, so I'm replying to your post to see it work :)
srathi
Another reply for deeper testing!
egeozcan
It seems to work. I mean of course it will, and it's going to be a great way to skip "I'm surprised by all the negativity here" posts.
abraae
And thank you for extending the test case!
cryptoz
The problem is that the collapse is on the right. It used to be this way on Reddit too, but after users complained they moved it to the left. Right now it's hard to collapse a series of top level comments in a row since you have to keep moving the mouse around a lot.

Feature request to move the collapse to the left side, like on reddit?

egeozcan
For people holding a mobile phone with their right hand and using their right thumb to collapse, works wonderfully.
jakub_h
Is there a reason not to have the mobile version slightly different from the desktop one? You could keep happy both populations.
pen2l
For me it's on both sides: https://i.imgur.com/vTPD63G.png

One of those is because of a chrome extension. I guess just get the extension. :)

jakub_h
The one thing the web should have had from the beginning: flexibility of what happens to the contents on the client. Somehow this "feels right", given the original Alan Kay's vision of what should be happening on a personal device. Users should always be able to tweak things the way they like them.
thehodge
Great features, the collapsable comments chrome plugin is one of the first things I install on a fresh machine
mgr86
These are great! especially the collapse comment threads!

Welcome sctb.

Analemma_
Hacker News, adding features that people have been requesting for years? Is it April 1st already?

Nah, I kid ;) This all looks great, thanks!

wildmusings
Very cool. Great work!

Small suggestion: Maybe put a link to /hidden somewhere, like the user's own profile page.

dang
Good idea. Will add to list.
smarks
I'd appreciate a link to /hidden as well, as I just spent some time hunting around for one.
soheil
Love the collapse comments in threads feature.
minimaxir
Why is hiding stories available to logged-out users? Reloading just makes them appear again. :p (EDIT: may be bug)

On a related tangent, why have all instances of "submissions" on HN been replaced with "stories"? It's an change which IMO does not fit the usage. (A Show HN wouldn't make sense as a "story.")

dang
> Reloading just makes them appear again

Well, that's true of collapsed comment threads as well, and I somehow doubt that logged-in users are the only ones who see things on the front page they'd rather not.

> why have all instances of "submissions" on HN been replaced with "stories"

Because posts to HN are either stories or comments? Happy to discuss this at hn@ycombinator.com if you want to apply some lexicographical fine points.

minimaxir
> I somehow doubt that logged-in users are the only ones who see things on the front page they'd rather not.

Currently, the change is not persistent across reloads, which make the feature (to hide undesirable submissions) not helpful. I'm unsure if that is a bug but that does not seem intentional, and it reproduces on several browsers. FWIW, it works as described on logged-in accounts.

(Edit: Scott mentioned in another comment about Local Storage issues. That may be related.)

> Because posts to HN are either stories or comments?

Edited OP to note that "story" doesn't fit the tone of content unrelated to news, like Show HN. It's not a big deal, but it was a recent change I found odd and unprompted.

sctb
OK, we've disabled hiding for logged-out users for now, since they weren't persisted (that part wasn't a bug) and had other issues.
blfr
Now that we have thread collapsing there's no reason not to discuss finer lexicographical points right here!

Great changes btw.

cm3
Is there a place to ask for features?
vinchuco
A quick HN search indicates people submit them as individual posts.

I for one would be curious of which users I've upvoted stories/comments the most, and vice versa.

But I feel most features should be chrome extensions, the simplicity of the site is its strongest feature.

dang
Emailing hn@ycombinator.com is the way to ask us anything.
cm3
I was thinking more of a public place where others can see it.

For instance, I would ask for a feature that downvoting shall require a mandatory comment or similar improvements to discourage anonymous drive-by-downvoting which gives you no info as to what's objectionable/irrelevant in your comment. From experience, 2/3 of the downvotes appear to be subjective likes/unlikes leading to anonymous downvotes. In fact, I never downvote anything, so I'd be fine if the downvote button was replaced with the FLAG link. But there are some who see use in the downvote function, so that's to be considered as well.

danso
FWIW, here's a fun solicitation from pg from nearly 10 years ago: "Please tell us what features you'd like in news.ycombinator" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=363

There are more than 1,700 comments (which would be a ton of comments on any thread today)...so I only skimmed through, but I think I saw way more suggestions that sound good that, for whatever reason, aren't implemented today.

krapp
Would you consider setting up an issues page here? It might be good to have some public location where people could post requests/bugs and communicate with the developers.
epaga
Huge thanks to you guys. Collapsing comments are working perfectly on iPad.
kup0
Very useful updates. Especially glad to see #2 and #3, as those have been features where I've naturally run into their absence when using HN
Fenntrek
>Save and share the best stories and comments.

Tried using different bookmarking apps etc but always prefer native saving of items on actual sites, great addition!

...Also welcome Scott!

splawn
I bet whoever has the top comment on this one is going to see their karma go up and down as everyone tests out the unvote and undown feature. :)
joshmanders
I tested it on you, and left the upvote. :)
Symbiote
A pessimist would see their karma go down, then back up -- maybe.
jfaucett
Finally! I tested on you :) The upvote is awesome, there have many times over the years I've mistakingly hit the up/down and wished for a redo.
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__mp
I can't downvote. How much Karma do I need to activate it?
avitzurel
I got my downvote ability at around 550 or so...
macintux
For me it was 500.
[dead] SalimoS
I'm at -17 guess not going to downvote ever :D
ricree
I'm not sure the number is constant. I think it scales with either the age or the prominence of the comment. I've seen threads where I was unable to downvote top tier comments, even though I could downvote their children.
dang
It's constant at 501.
macintux
I did see interesting behavior when I crossed the threshold: I couldn't downvote comments that existed before I reached that karma level (or at least the UI didn't render them with a down vote button).
dang
Downvoting wouldn't be affected by that per se, but downvote arrows last for a much briefer time window than upvote arrows do.
antognini
I think after 8 hours you can't downvote a comment anymore.
BozeWolf
Are you sure you do not suffer from a mitm?
enedil
I have 117 and can downvote.
jshevek
Are you certain? Maybe you are thinking of the 'collapse' button, which is represented by a minus sign?
enedil
Yep, although it is not near the upvote button and sits among such links as parent and flag.
jacquesm
400 or 500 points, I forgot which. Maybe someone with something between those two can tell?
chucksmash
Don't know for sure but empirically it's more than 450.
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dharmon
I'm at 495 and can't downvote.

Quick, 5 people upvote me and I'll tell you if it kicks in.

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dharmon
OK, at exactly 501 you get a little down arrow (doesn't appear at 500).

dang already confirmed it below, but at least I got to feel like a camgirl for 5 minutes.

Thanks for playing!

Someone
Would you like to know whether you lose your downvoting ability if your karma drops below 500 again? Just ask, and I'm sure the HN crowd is willing to help you find out :-)

Also, would that freeze the downvotes you gave earlier, or would you still be able to undo them?

kami8845
Haha, looking at your profile page, your comment karma is increasing at about 20 upvotes / min
JimmaDaRustla
Tested upvote, worked.

Tested undo upvote, worked.

Tested downvote, worked.

My testing is complete.

AstroJetson
I went for iterations - up, down, up, down, up, down. So it seems to track. I left an upvote to make sure it stuck when I come back in a few hours to revisit.
hrez
Now put that in a loop to see if they have any memory leaks :)
amenghra
You are on some kind of genius crowd sourced testing thing, you should start a SaaS!
danvayn
nice username, i love memes too!
BinaryIdiot
So was the final state of your vote down or did you change it afterwards? Did you test attempting to upvote twice in a row, downvote twice in a row, etc? :)
theswaagar
new user so pardon my ignorance but I dont have a downvote button. Do I need to enable it somewhere?
trca
you need to have a certain amount of karma (number next to your account) for the downvote function to be available.
niftich
A few weeks ago I recently obtained the downvote ability at 500 karma.
justinpombrio
I suspect you mean 501. I reached 500 a few weeks ago, and left it there for a while... it was such a nice, round number.
wila
Sorry upvoted you, onwards to the next round number.
tedmiston
^ This is correct. I was equally confused when mine hit 500 and downvote wasn't there.
tempestn
Presumably somewhere in the HN code you would find `karma > KARMA_THRESHOLD_DOWNVOTE`.
wje
More likely (> karma downvote-threshold) since news.arc is written in, well, arc.
tempestn
Sure. I should have disclaimed my pseudo-code I guess. Point was just that I expect there's a > and a 500, as opposed to a 501.
inopinatus
Can I suggest 512 for an even nicer round number.
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perseusprime11
What did you do to get to 500? I am still at 84 and feels like it will be forever.
pigscantfly
You need to have a certain amount of karma before you can downvote comments. I'm not sure what the threshold is these days.
nv-vn
You get it after 500
jchendy
You need a certain amount of karma to downvote. I think it's 500, but I'm not sure because I don't have that much yet. :)

Edit: it's confirmed at 501: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12074198

ASalazarMX
Just 5400 more days and I'll be able to downvote! What a time to be alive!
barking
I just upvoted you there because I'm nice like that.
jchendy
Thanks! Only three more votes before I get superpowers. :)
xenophonf
I upvoted you. With great power comes yadda yadda yadda.

Edited to add: PSYCH!! Now it's going to take 4 upvotes to get super powers. BWAHAHAHA!!

Edited to add #2: Just kidding! You're 2 upvotes away again!

P.S. Dear friends, I'm sorry. I won't abuse my vast and terrible ability to grant or deny imaginary Internet points ever again. -xf

Ezhik
That's not how karma trains work!!
__jal
With imaginary power comes imaginary responsibility, and don't you forget it!
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kloncks
Just upvoted you twice and it seems you're now past the 501 mark! Welcome to voting land :P
hrayr
I was confused as to why I have a downvote button now, I just realized I barely passed 500 few days ago, woo.
avree
And down vote arrows do not appear on aging posts.
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captn3m0
There is a karma limit (of ~500) to get downvote privileges.
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SEJeff
No, you generally don't get to downvote in HN until your karma is above some threshold that changes occasionally.
pknerd
You need a certain Troll Level.
joelthelion
There is a bug after you undo your vote for the 500th time :)
martin-adams
I followed your testing instructions on your comment. Test passed.
oxryly1
You can downvote?? Are you a wizard?
roflchoppa
when does one get down vote power? edit: never mind i read below.
askafriend
I can repro this. Thank you for the instructions.
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foota
I'm having fun refreshing your profile page and watching your karma jump around.
chrisfosterelli
Wow that is quite impressive jumping. Sometimes I forget how many people lurk on HN.
thecosas
Same lol.

1314, 1313, 1311, 1314....

b_emery
GP's karma is in the 1500's now. Wow that's a great comment.
shin_lao
I wanted to upvote that comment and so I did!

Then later I changed my mind because really, it deserved a downvote.

Anger passed and facing the consequences of my actions I was nothing but a broken man. I brought back equilibrium and removed that downvote.

This is when I realized that the timing was perfect for a self-centered comment.

slowmovintarget
This comment made me want to test the reply. When there is a mighty wind, two cheeks are funnier than one.
daveguy
When it settles down you have to tell us how many upvotes you ended up with on this. I tested back and forth several times and left you with an upvote. Your karma was about 200 less last time I checked!
edem
I actually did that before reading this comment. :)
smoyer
I think we really just need to test that down-voting works. But I almost never use down-votes so I'll leave that up to the "crowd".
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bradleyprice
Voted up. Saw the "unvote", didn't click it. I believe Hacker News has tested the functionality. I'll leave the upvote. Here's to you splawn.
tuxone
I failed unvote by tapping on collapse link
elsurudo
As someone who can never keep track of interesting links, I welcome the "favorite" functionality as another system I will use for a while, until it gets cluttered up and meaningless :) But honestly, good stuff.
ergothus
Bug: This appears as a "Please read about some new features. [x]" heading, but clicking the "x" does nothing (including after page reload)

Otherwise: Awesome! The collapse feature in particular is something I've long wanted.

sctb
It looks like this can happen if you have local storage disabled (perhaps temporarily, if you're using an incognito window).
ergothus
Doesn't seem to be the cause for me. I've not disabled anything (in fact, going into local storage I can see a few settings), and I'm not incognito.
sctb
If you'd like to email hn@ycombinator.com and include any errors you see in your browser's console, we can help troubleshoot. Otherwise, we'll remove the banner before long.
Tomte
Ah, I noticed sctb a few days ago when he posted along the lines of "we detached this thread" or something like that and wondered how many low-key or sporadic moderators there are.
dang
One fewer now!
fapjacks
Ah, I for one really appreciate the unvote feature! I have an awful habit of mis-voting or accidentally voting when I just want to see a profile. Thanks!
ryanlm
The persistence of collapsing is a killer feature that I wish reddit had.
dothts
Try RES :) https://redditenhancementsuite.com/ lots of other nice features aside from collapsible comments (got no affiliation to them, just a happy user).
ryanlm
I don't want to have to install browser extensions or configure reddit. Seriously I get enough of that by using Linux desktop.
softawre
RES does this. I know that's not the same thing..
dimino
I recall vaguely that one of the reasons for not allowing collapsable comment trees in the past was related to the desire to make it difficult to continue comment trees, which was a good thing (more comments is generally bad, beyond a point, was the underlying philosophy).

Does this represent a departure from that philosophy, or was this never part of consideration for the feature?

dang
Not sure I follow; introducing collapses makes it harder to extend trees (once they're collapsed), so wouldn't that argument go the other way?

In any case, we didn't think much about that concern in discussing the new features. We did (and do) worry about whether they will lessen the impact of HN's having a single communal front page and threads, now that people can hide and collapse things they don't want to see. That's something we'll try to watch out for, though I'm not sure how to measure it.

dimino
From what I understood, once you start needing to collapse threads, you're already at the threshold of "more comments are detracting from the quality," or that was the theory, anyway. I'm almost certainly misremembering.

I feel positive about this change though, I just was curious about the decision making process is all, thanks.

Pxtl
The comment-collapsing feature is nice, but the big [-] on every comment is somewhat ugly, visually speaking.
vinchuco
I think it's the brackets. A simple - changing to + would suffice IMHO. Also, it would help my OCD (exaggerating) to auto-collapse if I have visited the page before, instead of collapsing all of the comments.
Tomte
Still, the most urgently needed feature is missing: telling me which comments I haven't seen, yet. It's a constant nuisance in longer threads. Really, this is much more vital than just about every feature you've introduced over the last months.
gardano
You read my mind. I'd love to see this feature, too.
sctb
This is definitely on the list.
dang
> Really, this is much more vital than just about every feature you've introduced over the last months

That is a highly disputable claim, given the overall user feedback we've seen.

Such things always remind me of Jerry Weinberg's fable about how he couldn't sleep because a dripping faucet was driving him crazy. He gets up to fix it in the middle of the night, finally gets back to bed, and... now he can't sleep because hears a gate creaking. Moral: when you fix your #1 problem, your #2 problem becomes your #1 problem.

Mz
Welcome Scott.