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Ask pg: All I want for Christmas is...

16 points by dmpayton ↗ HN
...the option for clickable URLs inside self posts.

While waiting on the Mrs. to finish up some last-minute shopping this evening, I was browsing on my iPhone and it was a real drag not being able to get to a URL. This isn't the first time this has happened, as I frequently browse from my phone on my way to work and during breaks.

I understand there's good reason for keeping URLs non-clickable (though at the moment I can't remember why -- way too late for my brain), but what about making it a user option?

Please, pg...

http://www.google.com

...can you make that clickable?

28 comments

[ 14.9 ms ] story [ 79.5 ms ] thread
KirinDave
All I want for christmas is an official git repo of arc.
d0mine
Here's the feature request thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=363
dcurtis
Posting to that thread feels like tossing an idea into a black hole.
wheels
Which is different from posting a news story only in feeling. How many of the feature request news items have you seen actually get implemented?
fallentimes
Dcurtis was actually the one who suggested the Christmas colors.
IsaacSchlueter
pg, if you're out there, please don't do this.

If you could post clickable URLs inside a self-post, then it upsets the balance of HN as a link-and-comments site. Then, suddenly, it's link-and-main-comment-and-other-comments site.

In fact, imo, even the "Ask HN" feature is a bit of overkill. If you want to post paragraphs with links in them, use Wordpress or Tumblr or Blogger or whatever, and submit a link to it.

It would turn this site into a delicious honeypot for spammers, and the yc crew would spend all their time fighting spam.

Furthermore, feature requests belong in the feature request thread, not on the main HN page.

drusenko
wouldn't adding a nofollow tag to all links nullify the spam gain?
gojomo
'nofollow' has murky meaning and many visitors and crawlers are going to visit the link anyway. So no, it only mitigates the spam gain slightly, given certain assumptions about how Google might treat the link.
palish
In fact, imo, even the "Ask HN" feature is a bit of overkill. If you want to post paragraphs with links in them, use Wordpress or Tumblr or Blogger or whatever, and submit a link to it.

Ah -- no. I've submitted several posts without writing a blog post about them. It feels natural to do so, like I'm conversing with you rather than sending you a letter. It sucks that self posts are automatically weighted "heavier" than normal submissions, so it's harder for them to gain traction and they fall off the page sooner. It feels rather unfair. I'd hate for the feature to go away completely.

IsaacSchlueter
I'm sure you're not alone, which is probably why the feature exists :)
Raphael
There isn't really an "Ask HN" feature. Is there? I just assumed it was a popular prefix for threads.
IsaacSchlueter
I was referring to the practice of writing a bit of text rather than providing a link.
nickb
pg actually explains why he disabled it in FAQ:

How do I make a link in a question?

You can't. (This is to prevent people from using this method as a way of submitting a link, but with their comments in a privileged position at the top of the page. If you want to submit a link with comments, just submit it, then add a regular comment.)

ntoshev
Consider implementing it only for the iPhone browser.
sammcd
Darn, thought this would be a fun post where we said what we wanted for Christmas. But instead, got whining.
edw519
Here's an idea:

The next time you have the urge to say "what I want", add "to give" at the end.

As for me, what I want is to give thanks to pg and all the yc crew for everything they've done for this community. Keep up the great work!

gojomo
No need to appeal to a higher power like Santa or PG. You can do this yourself:

Use a bookmarklet, such as the 'linkify' bookmarklet on this page: http://www.7is7.com/software/bookmarklets/

(You can transfer complicated bookmarklets like that one by adding to desktop Safari, and using the bookmarklets sync option under the 'Info' tab in the ITunes>Devices>iPhone area. Beware, the first sync may clobber previous iPhone bookmarks with those from the desktop.)

curiousgeorge
I'd like to find out a more effective way of online marketing so that I can reach more people like the ones already paying me, and use the revenue to hire people to reduce my own workload and push the business is new directions.
mnemonik
If you use firefox you can always just install the linkification addon. I haven't had any qualms since I have been using it. It even linkifies to IRC.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/190

jonknee
The reason he wants it to be clickable is because he browses on his iPhone so FF is not an option. Copy/paste doesn't work either at the moment, which does make it quite frustrating.
mattmaroon 

  all i want is for this text to stop breaking the page formatting.
Raphael
Oh, that's what keeps doing it. It really annoys me when every tenth page is 14% wider than my window.
alexkay
I hate when this happens %)
gojomo
A partial workaround that could be deployed immediately is on the feature-request thread here:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=235923

The ideal behavior, where PRE blocks are clipped (with scrollbars) at exactly each reader's own viewport width, seems to require a DIV-based rather than a TABLE-based layout.

frisco
When I read the title I thought it was meant "the hacker news community wants to buy you a christmas present for being awesome," not "ok its christmas spend it coding a new feature for us". That wasn't a good switch you pulled there :(
vaksel
or people can just submit the url as the first comment, and get double the karma