The "Unknown or expired link" chestnut. Why can't "More" link to ..page=2? | Hacker News Reader

The "Unknown or expired link" chestnut. Why can't "More" link to ..page=2?

8 pointsjohnmw16 comments

I'm sorry, I know this is Hacker News. But isn't part of hacking actually solving problems (aka removing "schlep blindness"?)

I've put up with the "Unknown or expired link" message for years.

I'm curious - why can't the "More" link just link to news.ycombinator.com/news?page=2 which gives me number #31-60 of the top trending links?

I might miss a post or two in the page transition, but if the post is any good I will see it eventually.

Just curious.

edit: toned the message down a little - it was previously more ranty (which was supposed to be humorous, but some folk might not get that).

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There's an explanation for what you see (the fnid values), here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4899745

As to why pg can't use normal pagination instead of user-specific state, I dunno, why not just use Ruby or Python (or PHP!) for the site instead of Arc? Short answer is, I suppose, because he can, and he's likely more interested in satisfying intellectual curiosity than designing a normal pagination system. jm2c.

> As to why pg can't use normal pagination instead of user-specific state, I dunno ...

I can think of one reason:

* A user loads the front page.

* By the time the user clicks "More" at the bottom, page 1, and all subsequent pages, have been updated with new content.

* So the server can't provide the old page 2 to a user who just saw the old page 1, for the reason that neither of the original pages even exists any more.

* To avoid confusing the reader, instead of providing an out-of-sync page 2, the server instead shows a "expired link" message.

I bet that the percentage of people who go to the second page is in the single digits. Personally, I'd happily trade off a little confusion for a simpler, more scalable piece of software. That said, it looks like the HN software is scaling well enough, so more power to the man.

Single digits, eh? Wanna put some hard cash on that bet? ;)

Thanks for the reply, I've replied to this answer (above/below/Unknown or Expired Link).

"I suppose, because he can, and he's likely more interested in satisfying intellectual curiosity than designing a normal pagination system."

I suspect that PG's approach is something more than peccadillo. The HN software appears to afford a great deal of power for managing the community, and managing the community is much more important than worrying over expired links. I'll add that I've never seen someone quit HN over expired links, but several over community behavior.

Seeing as YC applications require HN accounts, it is unlikely that YC takes HN's functions lightly.

There is no excuse for having broken pagination, table-based layout and GIF images on a modern site, especially when you are targeting tech users. Those are obvious bugs, not features, that should be fixed right away even if it means introducing more code complexity and some refactoring.

> Why can't the "More" link just link to news.ycombinator.com/news?page=2 which gives me number #31-60 of the top trending links?

1. HN deals with your interaction by assigning a session index to your initial contact.

2. This index allows HN to keep track of which page of which section you're visiting, so if you click "More" the HN sever knows what do to -- it has a stored context for your request.

3. The HN server has limited resources, so if an index goes unused for more than a few minutes, the server reclaims the index for reuse.

4. If you wait too long before making a server request like clicking "More", it's possible that your index will have been reclaimed and assigned to another user. If this happens, you see the "expired link" message.

5. After your index has expired and been reclaimed, the HN server has no way to interpret your command to proceed -- proceed to where?

6. Also, if you wait long enough, the front page (and all subsidiary pages) will have changed contents, so the pages you're viewing are no longer current, consequently the server can't deliver "page 2" for the simple reason that that version of the page no longer exists.

Thanks for the reply, although I think you are missing my point.

I understand how it works technically, but I think this illustrates a classic debate between developer and user/customer.

As a developer I can see the functional beauty.

As a user, I think it sucks and I don't give a damn about "session indexes". As a user I just want to see the next page of cool links. I think most people here are 'users'. So why not just have a stateless solution? (aka just linking to ..page=2 as suggested?)

> I think you are missing my point.

The reverse. :)

> So why not just have a stateless solution? (aka just linking to ..page=2 as suggested?)

You seem to have missed the point that, if you wait long enough to advance to page 2, the page that logically follows from the page you're viewing no longer exists (along with the page you're viewing). In other words, assuming that the HN content changes between your initial view and clicking "More", the new page 2 may contain what page 1 contained, and people will complain that they're looking at the same items on page 2 that they viewed on page 1 just five minutes ago.

I do understand that.

[I'm putting my "User" hat on here.]

Lets look at two "user cases" here:

1. I'm on page 2 and I want to look at page 3. I click "More", and I get page 3 but with a few greyed out links I have already seen.

2. I'm on page 2 and I want to look at page 3. I click "More", and I get "Unknown or Expired Link". I firkdanggurbleblast and manually delete the fnid out of the URL and hit enter which takes me back to the first page, then I click on the second page, and then click on the third page, which also contain greyed out links.

Which of the above user cases do you think is preferable?

As I said previously, I'm really just trying to illustrate the difference between technical beauty and what users perceive as beauty.

You have the same issue on most other link aggregators, but other sites don't throw an error message just because a user presses "more".

It is incredibly frustrating to be penalised for going away from the site for a few minutes to read a long, insightful article. The links to deep articles are why I read HN.

At the very least, the expired link page should provide a button to reload the page. The reloaded page will contain articles I've already seen, but it beats having to start on page 1 again, after manually editing the URL, and clicking "more" until I find my place again.

Ideally I'd like the site to try to load the index link, and if it's timed out, fallback seamlessly to loading the page by number.

I think its ok. Users wont complain. give them a message that the link has expired just like it is done now. But along with that, serve them the default / latest page=2 .

WHy are we debating on 'or' of the option. Expired message or latest page. None of them alone gives satisfactory use experience. Have them both, tell them link has expired and serve them default.

Good solution.

Probably for the same reason PG disables user registration when HN has been in the news.. keeping non-hackers out or something like that.

There are browser extensions that fix that. Installing one of them is probably more practical than trying to get PG to change his mind.

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