I know there was a lot of buzz about getting an official Show HN section which eventually was implemented. So I thought I'd throw this out there and see if there was support for the idea.
There are enough nagging notifications in my day as it is. When I want to see whether I have any active conversations, I click on "threads."
HN has one of the best comment sections on the web, in my opinion, because it's focused on thoughtful discussions that add to the main article as opposed to long Reddit-style conversations that bob and weave and become almost a separate entity of their own.
I think a notification feature in HN would encourage a more Reddit-style comment section, and take away from the slightly more laconic, thoughtful, and ultimately valuable comments that appear here now. The great and valuable comments would still appear, but they'd stand a chance of being immersed in a larger sea of back-and-forth noise, making them less prominent.
Rapid scanning of long pages of text -- particularly if it involves scanning past comments I have already seen -- is probably the worst aspect of how I currently use the internet, and I am trying to eliminate as much of it as I can because I don't like and don't trust the way it makes me feel.
There are other ways of discouraging long chains of replies between two comment writers: the HN server software already sometimes omits the "reply" link on some comments until some "cooling off" period has expired, and the duration of the "cooling off" interval could be lengthened.
>There are enough nagging notifications in my day as it is.
I use http://hnnotify.com/, which sends me an email whenever someone replies to one of my comments. If every one of those emails produced a "notification" (something that tried to get my attention right at the moment the email hit my computer or my phone), then, yeah, that would be a mis-use of my brain and would negate any value I get from hnnotify.
Too many buttons, features and widgets and I'll enjoy this place a lot less. I'm sure many feel this way.
I believe this feature would be a great addition to HN itself, however, as nobody has the time to manually track multiple threads for responses. The best solution IMO would be a notifications badge with unread count in the topbar which toggles a page or dropdown with quicklinks to the replies. It could go right next to the "threads" link even. It removes the need to watch that page.
Been using it for years.
new | threads (12) | comments | show | ask | jobs | submit
I think what the other person suggested "threads (12)" might make it sufficient. If there was a growing number next to "threads" I would have clicked it years ago.
As awesome as HN is, there's never a reason* that you need to immediately come back and respond unless you're getting your flamewar on...
* Or if you're wearing your PR hat and there's a story about your company, but we really don't want to make things easy for those people unless we want to see the forums overrun.
I think it can be done very minimally, like someone suggested, just adding a number next to the threads link "threads (12)". I feel like the website isn't bothering you too much in that case.
My biggest counter argument to no-notifications is this post. I made it, and completely forgot about it until today. I would have loved to see all these comments and reply back closer to real time.
That's a weak counterargument. I'm sure you would have liked the comments, but you have to make the case that the conversation we all enjoyed would have been better with the participation of someone who forgot his own question :)
An API suitable for consumption by an extension or mobile app would be your MVP, no need to actually add it directly to the website UI just yet.
I ask because lately I'm experiencing an increasing proportion of the latter. Apparently pg has endorsed these on the grounds that they are the pure logical inverse of no-reply upvotes. Although I disagree, that's the official stance, and if it is to continue to be the reality here, I think any new notification feature ought to include those, too.
Because that way, if a comment is being downvoted, then I'd know sooner. I'd have the option of adding clarification -- just like if someone took the time to reply with an actual comment and I were to get notified.
I'd rather have a better CSS when I am surfing with my smartphone, the text is too small and I have to scroll horizontally to read each line.
I like that I'm not tempted to compulsively refresh HN to see if I have new notifications like with every other thing that says (#) in the tab title, this means a LOT to me. I only have so much will power to go around.
What I'd like to see first is a responsive design so I don't have to zoom 1000% to upvote.
What I'd really like to see from HN is a responsive website.
Facebook/reddit are a constant stream of notifications that makes it difficult to concentrate on anything.
Its worked just fine this way for 10 years. Is it actually broken now and worth fixing, and further, why devote the energy when it continues to work fine? And really, the last thing HN needs are giant tangent comment trees. These rarely remain professional and on-topic.
From what people have posted, I would argue that the "threads" link is a failed attempt at something nearing notifications. I literally never clicked it until today after years of using HN. At some point, someone thought it was a good idea to implement the tracking of all the conversations you participate in. Why not try to make it more useful? I think the suggestion for "threads (12)" is great. You can't possibly think that makes things too complex?