Collapsible comments for Hacker News

http://niyaz.pk/2010/11/collapsible-comments-for-hacker-news/

by niyazpk • 16 years ago

86 22 16 years ago

niyazpk• 16 years ago

This fixes a few issues with the script by Alexander Kirk [1], like collapsed child comments expanding when the parent is expanded. In addition to these this script will work in the threads page of hacker news. Also this bookmarklet will load faster than the script by Alexander since there is no call to any external JS file from my server. The only file you have to load is the latest jQuery from the jQuery website and chances are good that the file is already present in your browser cache. (The downside is that you will not be able to get the latest version when I update the code).

[1] http://alexander.kirk.at/2010/02/16/collapsible-threads-for-...

akirk• 16 years ago

Thanks for picking this up. I have been bugging pg quite a few times to integrate it, but so far he hasn't had time (or interest in doing so). I hope the recurring posts on Hacker News will up this in his list of priorities :)

Just one remark about the external script: My server is configured to serve the JS file with far future expires header. Once your browser has that file, it won't even ask my server for it, so that shouldn't be a performance hit (actually your script also loads an external script, jQuery, but from a location that does not set the far future expires headers, you should use the ajax.googleapis.com server)

eof• 16 years ago

Works beautifully, I'll be using this. Thanks

yatsyk• 16 years ago

added to "browser extensions" section at http://hnresources.com/apps/

duck• 16 years ago

Thanks for adding Hacker Newsletter to your listing... I hadn't noticed that until now.

bryanlarsen• 16 years ago

I find that the hckrnews extension: http://hckrnews.com/about.html works well for me for doing this.

StavrosK• 16 years ago

Damn, my comment is collapsed in the screenshot. There go my 15 minutes of fame...

grinich3• 16 years ago

Is this something people would like added to the HN iPhone app I built? I've considered it and built a demos, but I'm not sure it's needed.

http://michaelgrinich.com/hackernews/

jordanlev2• 16 years ago

You're still alive? ;) Please please please can you add the following to the app:

* make it work with iOS 4 multitasking (so leaving the app and coming back doesn't cause it to restart and you lose your place)

* Add an option to email a page (in addition to the existing "readability" and "open in safari" options). An instapaper option would also be nice but I don't want to get greedy :)

As it is now, if you want to read something later, you have to open it in safari, then email it to yourself or add it to instapaper, then return to the app, where you've lost your place because of the aforementioned lack of multitasking.

Thanks for the otherwise-wonderful app, though -- I use it all the time.

grinich3• 16 years ago

thanks for the feedback, and glad to hear people are still using the app. :-)

I'll get this update shipped soon. If you have any other suggestions or bugs, please email me.

jordanlev2• 16 years ago

PS - IMHO, I don't think collapsible comments are needed in your app -- hacker news threads rarely get to the size/nested-ness of reddit threads.

roadnottaken• 16 years ago

This is nice. I, for one, would like to see this enabled by default. It's minimally intrusive and has simple, obvious utility.

zephjc• 16 years ago

pg, care to incorporate this in to HN? (maybe as an opt-in option)

electromagnetic• 16 years ago

As long as it doesn't lead down the path of auto-buried comments, then I'm all for it.

I hated Reddit and Digg for burying unpopular comments, especially when they're the start of a discussion. I remember getting 8 buried comments in a string and the discussion still going, it made the whole thing asinine. Unpopular comments still deserve being readable without extra action otherwise we lose huge swathes of what makes HN great - like insightful and thoroughly thought responses.

kgermino• 16 years ago

I added it to the feature request page.

For people who don't know there's a link at the bottom of the pages labeled "Feature Requests". I''m on a phone but I'll add a direct link when I get to a pc. [Edit: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=363] The page doesn't seem to be completely dead but I'm not sure how much love/attention it gets.

bl4k• 16 years ago

it is incorporated into HN, as an opt-in option (see the script above)

elblanco• 16 years ago

I personally don't like this. On reddit for example, I find I have to spend an inordinate amount of time uncollapsing comments and threads to see if there's something interesting to see. Most of the time there isn't, but if it wasn't collapsed I could quickly scan and see that. One of the things I really really like about HN is that comments are not collapsed.

AgentConundrum2• 16 years ago

Thanks for this. Collapsible comments are one of the two biggest things I miss from reddit when on HN (the other being some form of notification that someone has replied to you).

nirmal• 16 years ago

To be notified when someone replies to me I use Notifo (http://notifo.com/) and put my Notifo username in my HN profile. I don't think you need a mobile device to use Notifo, you can install a desktop app that provides notifications when you get a reply. http://notifo.com/desktop

zck• 16 years ago

You can set email notifications up, so you don't need a mobile device or a desktop application.

Collapsible comments for Hacker News

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