Ask HN: Can we have a 'bookmark' function for HN submissions and comments? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Can we have a 'bookmark' function for HN submissions and comments?

9 pointsanilgulecha10 comments

I have to either comment or mail myself the link for any HN submission I want to revisit later. Can we get a simple 'star' functionality which allows me to mark items of interest for later?

View on HN

Upvotes = stars, links to upvoted comments/submissions are on your profile page:

https://news.ycombinator.com/upvoted?id=anilgulecha

https://news.ycombinator.com/upvoted?id=anilgulecha&comments...

Did not know this! Thanks.. this works :)

    > I have to either comment or mail myself
    > the link for any HN submission I want
    > to revisit later.

As others have commented, that turns out not to be the case. You can click the up-arrow, and then if you visit your profile page and like on the "upvoted stories" link you'll find it there.

So in effect, HN has got a bookmark feature, the (possibly unwanted) side-effect being that you have to upvote the story.

I like to believe the upvote is the possible side-effect of bookmarking a story.

Sometimes a title, and perhaps first paragraph, look inviting, but you just don't have time right now, so you want to bookmark it and read it later.

So you upvote it, come back later, use the "bookmark" that you put to find it, read it, and discover that it is, in fact, complete rubbish.

It's happened to me more than once, and I find it annoying.

But the most common use-case is that I upvote because I think it's a Good Thing(tm) to have on HN. In that case I really don't care that it's remembered.

For me, bookmarking is a very occasionally useful side-effect of the upvote.

You can 'favorite' stories in the newest release of HN, comments can be bookmarked by rightclicking on the date and then clicking 'bookmark this link' (in FF).

I do the same all the time... even got a bookmarks folder just for this. would be easier if it was built in :)

I disagree. I'd never use this feature, and it's extremely well-covered territory at the browser/device level (e.g. the Pocket app).

I believe HN should be re-designed to be more readable/accessible, but I'm staunchly against adding features that can be implemented elsewhere (browser, separate app, RSS reader, etc.). We're supposed to be hackers, after all -- we can roll our own features.

Couldn't you make the same argument for email and any messaging app?

Yes, and I will.

Email protocols and servers don't support many of the extra features that people use. Those things are added as extra layers by the client, like Gmail or Outlook. Email doesn't inherently have stars, to-dos, calendar invites, etc.

I'm advocating for the same thing on HN. If you want features, add them to your client (browser, app that consumes the HN API, etc.)

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