HN Explorer

Request HN: Show notification for replies

18 points by neeleshs ↗ HN
I miss out on responses on my replies because I don't know if someone responded without navigating 3 levels deep from the main page. Is it possible to add an asterisk against my username on the home page when someone responds to my comments?

9 comments

[ 6.0 ms ] story [ 45.7 ms ] thread
CarolineW
You can click on your profile page and then the "comments" link to see if anything has changed. Currently that's what I do, but I'm thinking of automating it.

There used to be a service called "HNNotify" which gave you the option of being emailed whenever someone replied to you. It was brilliant.

I think I remember seeing something from the mods, or paraphrasing the mods, that said something like: "We don't want people to get only involved in their own conversations, and we are concerned that a notification system will bias people towards not reading widely, and just reading things they've directly contributed to."

My memory may be faulty, and that might be wrong, but I seem to recall something like it.

Personally, I used HNNotify and lament its demise. I'm idly considering scripting a personal replacement- for me it wouldn't be worth the significant investment in time and effort to make something robust enough for general use. Perhaps someone might create a new version.

Edit: I see the comment[0] from dangrossman[1] mentions a replacement for HNNotify - I might give that a try.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12309551

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=dangrossman

CarolineW
And now I've subscribed to HNReplies - we'll see what happens. But regardless, thanks @dangrossman.
douche
One thing I like about various of the alternative, JS-framework demo, front-ends for HN is that they highlight new comments since the last time you viewed a thread. They probably do horrifying things with cookies or localstorage that the main site shouldn't do, but that is a really convenient feature, compared to rereading everything.
dangrossman
You can get an e-mail whenever someone replies to your comments with http://hnreplies.com
tedmiston
I use Dan's service as well and recommend it. The emails come quickly and include the full text.

I've always what kind of volume you do in terms of number of users or notifications?

kohanz
Can't you just click "threads" at the top and look for changes?
tedmiston
It works really well for short discussions without a lot of nesting.

Finding the new reply in a thread like this post I made the other day becomes a little tiresome: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12302154.

If you use Chrome, Hacker News Enhancement Suite includes this feature.