Hacker News Reader

Comment by edent | Hacker News Reader

How can I focus on a threaded conversation if I can't visually see the difference between the participants? Quickly looking at an avatar is easier than reading an email address.

Having even basic HTML formatting helps lay out a post - which makes it easier to concentrate on it. But that was something eschewed by most Usenet clients and posters.

Similarly, inline images are great for illustrating a point. I don't have to lose focus by clicking on a link and going to another tab to see what's being discussed.

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> How can I focus on a threaded conversation if I can't visually see the difference between the participants? Quickly looking at an avatar is easier than reading an email address.

You post this on a threaded discussion forum without avatars, one you've frequented for a decade

Yes - and I find it rather tedious. Why do you think that every other major SN has avatar images? It's because most users find it a better experience.

I also have my own CSS for HN which makes it much more pleasant (for me) and I I've started using https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30668137

You could have your Usenet client to the same thing. Generate some sort of image out of the email address.

The nice thing about Usenet: It's an open stadard and clients could show avatars.

For one simple generic blobs generated based on the sender's address, using some service like gravatar or X-Face header.

On hacker news I mostly never look at the usernames. It is all just hive mind. Unless someone is claiming to have won a famous math contest or something. Or if I am really mad at a post, I might look for additional context in their posting history.

Usenet had avatars: XFaces

https://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/XfacesSupport

I remember them being used by some Usenet posters in the 1990s.

> How can I focus on a threaded conversation if I can't visually see the difference between the participants? Quickly looking at an avatar is easier than reading an email address.

The from column in the thread pane view in my client[1] makes it easy to see the difference between participants, and also gives an indexed view of the entire thread. You don't get that with Hacker News or Reddit.

[1] https://i.imgur.com/i226q2c.png

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