Collapsible comments for Hacker News | Hacker News Reader

Collapsible comments for Hacker News

niyaz.pk

78 pointsniyazpk36 comments

Once someone has added this to their bookmark toolbar and started to use it, they are likely to forget where they got it from. And when they want to know where they got it from, they are likely to look for clues in the source code of the bookmarklet.

So, I humbly suggest that you add to the bookmarklet some "googleable" string such as "Author: niyazpk". When I googled on "niyazpk" just now, your Github was the fourth hit.

If you like this, check also out mine: http://alexander.kirk.at/2011/12/06/new-feature-for-hn-colla... It's been round for a while :)

My bookmarklet has also been included in this very nice browser extension: http://hckrnews.com/about.html

When I try to install the chrome extension for newly added comments, chrome says "it's only available through web store"?

But you can still drag and drop it on the Chrome extensions page or use the load button.

In Chrome, you can follow these steps to add the extension:

1. Download the extension file from the website and save it to your computer.

2. Click the wrench icon on the browser toolbar. Select Tools > Extensions.

3. Locate the extension file on your computer and drag the file onto the Extensions page.

4. Review the list of permissions in the dialog that appears. If you would like to proceed, click Install.

--http://support.google.com/chrome_webstore/bin/answer.py?hl=e...

Huh, I never even realized that Chrome had removed the ability to install extensions from third party websites. I'll get that up on the chrome web store when I get some time.

fwiw, I published the extension on the chrome web store:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mnlaodleonmmfkdhfo...

This new one is better. I used yours for a while some time ago and it's extremely annoying that the collapsed comment is not aligned to the rest of the comments at the same depth. Gives you a weird feeling that you collapsed the parent and the next one is its child. When you randomly collapse comments the result may be a mess where you're not exactly sure who answered to who.

Also, your collapse/uncollapse button is placed on the right instead of left so its X position may vary, making it a bit more difficult to collapse comments in a series.

Good effort though.

Well, a bug report would have been nice then :)

Of course this one could have some advantages, I was just pointing out my bookmarklet that also provides that "collapse whole thread" feature.

That Chrome extension also has a neat "new postings" feature.

The "collapse whole thread" feature is very cool (and useful).

I don't use Chrome.

I really like this. I also have the Hacker News Enhancement Suite [1] and think it is almost as good as the Reddit one.

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[1] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/bappiabcodbpphnojd...

Appreciate the link. Just installed the extension and loving it. :) Collapsible comment threads and a whole lot more!

This is fantastic! Thanks for the link.

It makes me happy to see the concepts from RES ported to HN. Thanks for sharing the link; I think this will legitimately help me to speed through the front page more quickly in the mornings.

This is very useful. Thanks for sharing link

I'm not going to click a bookmarklet every time I read comments, definitely should be an extension or a user script.

Secondly the collapse button would be much better on the left side.

What do you think about http://news.ycommentator.com ? It does some HN-enhancement (shows top comments on the front page), but using a server to do all the processing instead of a client script.

I built it a few months ago. If there was any interest, I could expand it to include collapsible comments.

One suggestion, can you move the collapsible-minus to be left of username? Like on reddit?

It is actually on the correct side. The screenshot a bit old. My bad.

One usability change: put the collapse link on the left side of article title (ala reddit), this makes it quicker to find the widget since it will always be in the same place.

Very useful! Instead of "optically scanning" all the first level comments I can collapse each comment after reading.

If you're Chrome user by any chance, you can try also my simple extension:

NavigComments @ Hacker News

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/aelihpmbbbpmljkdco...

Supports hiding comments marked as read.

Works only with http://, I have to add https:// one day, but I always forget it... Also some other things should be improved, then I could update NavigComments @ LWN too.

Or always available as a user script:

https://arantius.com/misc/greasemonkey/hacker-news-comment-c...

Also collapses by default threads below depth two.

I have been using this to provide collapsing comments for some time: https://github.com/andrewheins/HN-Comment-Hider

The last couple of extensions / bookmarklets that did this, did not work in Opera (at the moment that I tried them, at least). But this one does, kudos for that! I'm using it, thanks! :)

My userscript for Greasemonkey users: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/138037

Fabulous! just started using it now, great job.

I love approaches like this, as opposed to just moaning feature X doesn't exist, implement it!

Why isn't this implemented on HN natively?

Asked pg to integrate my script but he wouldn't do so, even though he would have just had to copy the Javascript over (I had adapted the code for him).

So I guess, pg just doesn't think it's useful.

I have always assumed this feature was consciously omitted from HN in order to encourage more thoughtful conversation. Since I can't skip conversations, I read them and sometimes hold my tongue rather than commenting with the first thing that comes to mind.

Sounds like a good idea at first, but I feel that not having collapsible comments is detrimental to the discussion, and in particular it counteracts the advantages of tree threaded discussion versus linear discussion (as seen on many messageboards and blog comments).

Why? Because the advantage of tree-based threads is that you can split off and have a relatively off-topic conversation without jacking the whole discussion. However, if such a discussion develops just below the top-voted comment, and it gets larger, it will dominate the whole discussion because people (naturally) won't always read the full page of the discussion.

This gets doubly problematic because of the tendency is that a "large, slightly off-topic discussion near the top comment" is very often about the same chewed-to-death topics that are just two camps firing off their default arguments at eachother (Apple vs general purpose computing, anything libertarian, intellectual property vs piracy, etc etc, you have seen them all). Which may be worthwhile discussions to have, nor would I want to prevent anyone from having them, but very often I want to read the discussion about the particular topic in this particular article, or at least how it differs from other articles triggering such responses, and not the general arguments by the two camps, which I already know (and most people have made up their minds about, anyway).

This is pretty useful, man! Just started using it too.

I'm thinking of making a Chrome Extensions from this bookmarklet.

Thanks a lot, it's amazing. Should be a chrome extension fast, btw.

This is great! Thank you!

Implement here ASAP!!!

Thanks.

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