zlacker

It’s funny how I spend so much time on HN, yet couldn’t point out a single username (that I don’t know IRL) besides dang.

This is one reason I feel an odd disconnect (anonymity?) with HN that isn’t felt on other social platforms I’ve been a part of. Those often have avatars or some other visual form of recognition that helps put a “face” to a name.

I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing, but I definitely think it’s intentional.

>>jader2+(OP)
Reddit was originally designed this way, and HN sort of accidentally copied it. Back then, we always said, "content is first". We wanted people to get upvotes for their content, not for who they were.

I prefer it that way.

>>jader2+(OP)
As an old lag there is a fairly large number of names which I recognise on sight, quite a few of them from the old days of /r/programming and even the main reddit. I'd have trouble listing many of them completely unprompted though.

>>jader2+(OP)
Another thing is that lacking the freedom to delete our own comments here, I assume many people treat their account as only a throwaway identity.

>>jedber+o
Funny to see a reply from one of the ~10 usernames I recognize on here.

>>jader2+(OP)
I've had these same opinions for years. It is an under appreciated social network of some of the top minds and quality comments.

I've been collecting a long list of ideas on what you're describing. Thanks to AI encouraging me to really dive in and use it, I've been quietly working on something for what you're describing.

First step is to improve the HN UX a tiny bit and flesh out a framework for how to code it. Next will add some interesting social features I've been brewing on. Why can't I easily follow someone?

Open source. GPLv3. It isn't perfect, but this is not AI vibe slop, and there are lots of tests from day one. I want to make this sustainable over a long period of time and become genuinely useful to a community that I've gotten a lot out of.

Note, the chrome store is really slow at getting releases out (or I'm too fast), best to install from github releases. It is also buggy and I'm fixing and improving things as fast as I can.

https://orangejuiceextension.github.io/

>>bsimps+o6
Haha right back at ya buddy.

>>latchk+C6
Inline reply is great (wrote my own extension pre-for that, even!), but what's wrong with the built in favorites feature?

>>add-su+c2
i revoked my HN credentials on my phone because i was arguing too much and otherwise not getting enough sleep.

When you have to get up and walk across a house to tell someone they're wrong on the internet, I try to make sure i won't have to delete it. I am contrite about a few of my off-the-cuff comments.

>>jader2+(OP)
It's good if you ask me. I never check even the user names when replying, just the comment.

The only user name I can remember is dang, because of the occasional moderation or housekeeping posts.

>>fragme+Bq
It is the builtin favorites. AI generated some bad text... I've already updated it locally but haven't pushed yet.

I'm starting with a basis of existing features (fully re-implemented) from dead extensions and will build my own tweaks from that.

>>jader2+(OP)
It’s part of why I’ve tried to move my Internet time to smaller forums in recent years. It turns out it’s still possible to have that feeling of community that old forums had, but only if the users you encounter aren’t constantly changing. Forums with personalisation like avatars definitely seem to help a bit, but e.g. new reddit still feels impersonal with avatars and tildes manages personal with a very similar layout to HN, so I think size is the biggest factor

>>jedber+o
This is how I find out that reddit is older than Hacker News. Mind blown!

>>jader2+(OP)
You're kind of describing old school forums. Man I miss those.

>>jader2+(OP)
There are a handful of people I recognize, most because they’re people I knew from outside HN (and one because he has the same last name as someone I went to high school with and lives local to me and I always wonder if they’re related but I’ve never asked). But yes, the de-emphasis on user names is, I think, a good thing since it ends up being interacting with content rather than personality.

>>oneeye+On1
Wait until you find out about Slashdot.

>>rayine+AU1
If you tell me that slashdot is also younger than reddit, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with myself. I swear it was around in the early 00s, if not before.

>>oneeye+zX1
Haha, no. Slashdot was from 1997. Reddit was 2005.

>>jedber+o
Reddit was originally designed to share links. Then to steal images and memes from other sites. Then to steal short videos from mainly TikToc and Instagram creators (now we're here). It's still a content-first site at its finest. It's just that 'content' itself has changed.

>>rayine+l12
/. user 6030 checking in.

The irony is, I had an account earlier but forgot the credentials. By 1996 or so I'd devised a standardised system for creating different but memorable-to-me passwords.

Then again, it blows some folks' minds that I've had and been paying for my primary email (on cix.co.uk) since 1991. My email address is older than the world wide web.

>>jader2+(OP)
> It’s funny how I spend so much time on HN, yet couldn’t point out a single username besides dang.

That’s very true. These days, when I come across especially thoughtful comments, I’ll sometimes click through to the user’s profile afterward. I think it’s better to judge a comment on its own merits than to let implicit bias creep in based on things like “CEO,” fame, a high-karma account, and so on.

>>fragme+Bq
Perfect name! https://github.com/fragmede/nitpick