Request HN: Can We have a Private Messaging Feature in HN?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2106736

by pathik • 16 years ago

29 23 16 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

I was wondering why we don't have it already. It's very difficult to contact other HN members directly. We could have a karma limit to avoid spamming.

nussbi• 16 years ago

agree +1

antileet• 16 years ago

I have noticed most people have their email addresses publicly displayed (in some human readable form), or have web pages with ways to contact them. In that note, I have been contacted via HN before and have met some people as well. Considering the ultimate purpose of a Private Messaging feature is to allow communication between two willing parties - the existing infrastructure is already there.

Moreover, more influential people who very strictly value their time and privacy (Matt Cutts for instance) might not be comfortable having an open avenue by which anyone can contact them.

More importantly, if you have someone's full name, there's a reasonably high chance you can find a proper way to contact them - provided you are determined enough to do it.

ct• 16 years ago

But that's not a private messaging system. I get enough spam as it is and don't feel like playing games with obfuscating my e-mail when there's a better solution.

And if you don't want private msgs, just turn on a flag to disallow it.

sliverstorm• 16 years ago

Let's not forget that, at least in my opinion, part of what makes HN great is it follows the old Unix tradition: it does one thing well.

I have always liked HN because it is simple, no-frills, totally focused on one thing.

ZeroComplete• 16 years ago

Agreed.

I got the hell away from Digg because of its push towards being "social." While messaging isn't that big of a feature I feel that if people here want to find/contact each other they will.

We're all pretty smart individuals if we want to contact/find someone we will be able to if they want to be contacted/found.

bearwithclaws• 16 years ago

Use Hackernewsers.com. It's what I've been using to contact other HNers (who doesn't list their contact email in the profile) to request for their permission to publish their comments in Hacker Monthly.

sown2• 16 years ago

I really don't want people mailing me on HN.

vpdn• 16 years ago

Why not? (just curious)

sown2• 16 years ago

I don't think anyone ever will contact me; i don't have anything important to say or to be asked.

Besides, there's email if I wanted it to be so.

Mz• 16 years ago

I suspect that in many cases, if it's tough to contact them directly, that's exactly how they want it to be.

apoo• 16 years ago

Totally Agree, The one thing that I really like about HN is that its simple.

jparicka• 16 years ago

agree

oscardelben• 16 years ago

In your case, you could start by putting your email address in your profile in the about section, that's why we've been contacting each other so far.

rbanffy• 16 years ago

Feature set selection is simple: just ask the question "What would Digg do?"

Then do the exact opposite.

Would Digg add direct messages?

gst• 16 years ago

I really hate those private messaging features available on most websites. If I want to be contacted on a given website I include my mail address (or a pointer to my mail address) in my profile. What's the advantage of duplicating the features already available in email?

ck2• 16 years ago

Just give people the option to publicly display their email in profile, otherwise no contact desired.

I'd like to see tags on stories (restrict to membership of certain timelength and karma) with their own RSS feeds. But I know that's unlikely to happen.

_b8r0• 16 years ago

Given that some like it and some don't, it might not be that great an idea. Besides, you can always reply to someone's comment and ask for a way to get in touch with them.

sp332• 16 years ago

I think this is a good time for a reminder:

The email address in your profile is not visible to other HN users. If you want people to see your address, put it in your "about" box.

patio11• 16 years ago

I use discovery of my email address as FizzBuzz: totally trivial and if you can't do it, further discussion will not likely result in a positive outcome for either party.

mindcrime• 16 years ago

I think it would be very handy. Not everybody realizes that the email you put in your profile isn't publicly visible; so they don't bother putting additional contact info in their "about" section.

Yes, it's true that "if you want to talk to somebody badly enough, you can probably hunt down their email address" but why add friction to the process? Ok, I get the folks who uses it as a filter "if you're too lazy, or not smart enough, and can't find my email, I don't want to talk to you." Fine, but I doubt most people feel that way. And that just argues for making the feature optional (that is, let users set a "receive PMs (Yes/No)" flag in their profile.

Iuguy makes an interesting point though:

Besides, you can always reply to someone's comment and ask for a way to get in touch with them.

The problem with that, as I see it, is that such a message is usually going to be (relative to the rest of the conversation) off-topic noise that nobody else cares about.

pg• 16 years ago

We're considering a scheme for this now as a matter of fact.

pathik• 16 years ago

Thanks.

@Others, If I really want to contact someone on HN, I can definitely find their email ID. But email takes it out of the HN context and makes it much more formal.

And we could always have a PM disabling option.

Request HN: Can We have a Private Messaging Feature in HN?

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