Meta: Stop using the black bar | Hacker News Reader

Meta: Stop using the black bar

17 pointspeter_c16 comments

There needs to be a discussion about the black bar. Several people including myself commented about it in the Bob Taylor thread [1] but were flagged. Even some very measured comments were flagged and hidden, so I believe there is a need for a venue to have an open discussion about this.

I believe the black bar was, at a time, a nice touch. However in recent times it seems on the nose to have someone behind the curtains deciding who does and doesn't get a black bar. I personally think it is exclusionary and inappropriate and should completely stop. It's obviously a contentious subject so I would like to put the idea out there for discussion.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14118290

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Wrote up a simple Userscript to so this!

    // ==UserScript==
    // @name         Remove HN Tribute Bar
    // @namespace    http://tampermonkey.net/
    // @version      0.1
    // @description  I don't like someone else deciding whom I should pay tribute to
    // @author       m@dMAx108
    // @match        http://tampermonkey.net/index.php?version=4.2.7&ext=dhdg&updated=true
    // @includes     https://news.ycombinator.com/*
    // @grant        none
    // ==/UserScript==
    
    (function() {
        'use strict';
    
        var possibleBlackBar = document.getElementById("hnmain").getElementsByTagName("tbody")[0].getElementsByTagName("td")[0];
        if(possibleBlackBar.bgColor === "#000000") {possibleBlackBar.parentElement.remove();}
    })();

Let's get back to work! :)

I had no idea that's what the black bar was for. It's a nice tribute, but barring any sort of explanation, it's kind of... odd? Somebody died, so we're going to have a thin black line at the top of the page? As a UI feature it doesn't bother me, but it's just so disjointed in its meaning.

(Also, I just took a look at the hacker news HTML... Table layouts? Spacer gifs? Center tag? Holy crap, this page is from the 90s. It's composed like an HTML email for Outlook Express '98)

> but barring any sort of explanation, it's kind of... odd?

Indeed. A simple 'alt' tag, with a click to the relevant thread, would be a lot more useful than just showing a black bar.

> It's composed like an HTML email for Outlook Express

And yet it's perfectly functional for users (many even prefer its interface to that of many major news sites). Interesting conundrum, eh?

This campaigning, at this time, is in such poor taste.

Really, it is nothing more than a "nice touch" in honour of someone who was a uniquely important figure in the history of computing, and who, in Dang's judgement, deserves recognition by this community. How about doing some reading to understand just why this person is considered (by people in the know like Dang) to be such a standout contributor? I did, and I learned some really interesting things.

I participated in a discussion about this topic 1-2 years ago, after which the person who instigated that squabble admitted misjudgement and apologised:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10971758

As I said at the time: seriously, civil behaviour around a bereavement is just not that hard.

I have nothing further to add on the matter other than this: for God's sake, please let it go.

Please don't spoil what should be special moments of reflection with petty campaigning.

Please.

I don't think the black bar is in poor taste and should be removed. I think that it's a nice touch - you might even say important - to pay respect to the memory of academics that are sadly now no longer with us.

Again, to be clear, I disagree with removing it.

HN is tended and maintained much more closely than I think many people realize, certainly more than I thought myself when I wandered over here a couple years ago. Reading through https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13857086 recently (along with reading the link, for context) was extremely insightful and enlightening, and I highly, highly recommend everyone read everything dang said in that thread (those are the most relevant comments) if you use HN and haven't been here for years - it clarified a lot for me about how moderation works and the site's attitude, which I must say I find extremely reasonable.

I think reading the above may help to allay fears, suspicions and paranoia about the seemingly distant choices being made with the black bar, and bring into focus the humanity of the moderation here.

Death is a human occurrence, and the moderation on this site is also done by humans too. It's just a matter of paying respect. I like it.

With this being said, I do have a couple of ideas about the current implementation (which don't invalidate the views presented above).

- I think it would be useful to mark the actual story itself in some way. A black underline under the title would be simple and effective. This would both provide a visual connection between the black bar at the top (which I think is good to keep) and also provide a memorial attached to the item itself. This would of course require a bit of a site-structure change (to add in an atom to store in the underline status) but I think it would be worth it.

- It may, for what it's worth, be worth considering for the black bar to be noted in the FAQ along with a concisely-worded delineation about when it is used.

- As was noted at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14119596, it would be a very good idea to make the black bar clickable!

I think the bikeshed should be blue, but I will agree to disagree.

Those who want to continue to discuss the bikeshed should feel free to continue to do so.

Those who disagree with allowing discussion, should also feel free to discuss that, too.

It's amazing, being free.

Really who cares. It's HNs site so they should do it but it's hard to see why this warrants any thought.

Perhaps it would be appropriate to add a link to the bar so that when it was clicked on, one would be taken to the relevant obituary article.

Now that is a genuinely good idea.

And it could show a tooltip of the post title it redirects to!

Agreed. I was already trying to click on it. Eventually found this topic via the search.

The thing is, which may suck for you and be okay with for others, is that it isn't really your or my decision. HN is a community built and sustained by YC, and those who moderate and control can do as they please.

It is a completely arbitrary decision made by the mods. None of us pay a dime to be here, therefore we really don't have any say.

Sure but should our lack of control preclude discussion?

In a word, for this case, yes.

Save the heroical thought exercise for something a little more meaningful than how/when a tech site honours those who pass.

I forbid it.

Why can't you take a hint from the overwhelming down-voting and flagging? Nobody cares you don't like the black bar. I like the black bar. This isn't your site. Go make your own site with the amazing innovation of not having a black bar for dead people. It would be well worth your time. Heck, you could even spend an hour making a script or browser extension, so that you and the other obsessive killjoys can have the HN sans black bar that you've always dreamed of!

It's some css on a website (not yours). Hide it with a userscript if it bothers you that much.

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