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How hard would it be for HN to filter posts like this? There are only so many permutations of "Why is this here? / What does this have to do with HN?" possible.

How hard would it be for HN to filter posts like this? There are only so many permutations of "Why is this here? / What does this have to do with HN?" possible...

gnosis 14y ago
To my knowledge, HN hasn't added any new features in years. I think the people who run this site are pretty happy with it the way it is and don't want to change it, despite many suggestions for improvements. So I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for them to do anything about it.
- pg 14y ago
  Actually I added one about an hour ago. This is an interesting suggestion but it would not be on our top 100 things to fix.
  - k-mcgrady 14y ago
    As accounts cannot be deleted (and I understand why), I would love to see the ability to change my username to something less identifiable to me.
  - gnosis 14y ago
    Very glad to hear that improvements to HN are still being made. I stand corrected.
  - unimpressive 14y ago
    >Actually I added one about an hour ago. What was it? I'm genuinely curious.
    - pyre 14y ago
      Most likely related to behind the scenes algorithms (e.g. combating spam, ranking the front page, etc).
    - pg 14y ago
      Better detection and banning of abusive crawlers.
  - v0cab 14y ago
    Could you please delete my account?
- pyre 14y ago
  You just have to be around for some of them. Sometimes pg has done things to the UI of the site, then there is a large thread of community commentary, then it's kept, modified, or removed. If the feature shows up, and then goes away over the course of a day or two, you might miss that anything happened.
  - loumf 14y ago
    In the past pg has mentioned adding a feature to the running instance via a connected REPL, not the real source. If it proves its usefulness it goes in the source -- if not, the next restart removes it.
DanBC 14y ago
There are very many add ons and extensions and things available for HN. There's bound to be a thread filtering add on for whatever browser you're using.

How hard would it be for HN to filter posts like this? There are only so many permutations of "Why is this here? / What does this have to do with HN?" possible...

gnosis 14y ago

To my knowledge, HN hasn't added any new features in years. I think the people who run this site are pretty happy with it the way it is and don't want to change it, despite many suggestions for improvements. So I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for them to do anything about it.

pg 14y ago
Actually I added one about an hour ago. This is an interesting suggestion but it would not be on our top 100 things to fix.
- k-mcgrady 14y ago
  As accounts cannot be deleted (and I understand why), I would love to see the ability to change my username to something less identifiable to me.
- gnosis 14y ago
  Very glad to hear that improvements to HN are still being made. I stand corrected.
- unimpressive 14y ago
  >Actually I added one about an hour ago. What was it? I'm genuinely curious.
  - pyre 14y ago
    Most likely related to behind the scenes algorithms (e.g. combating spam, ranking the front page, etc).
  - pg 14y ago
    Better detection and banning of abusive crawlers.
- v0cab 14y ago
  Could you please delete my account?
pyre 14y ago
You just have to be around for some of them. Sometimes pg has done things to the UI of the site, then there is a large thread of community commentary, then it's kept, modified, or removed. If the feature shows up, and then goes away over the course of a day or two, you might miss that anything happened.
- loumf 14y ago
  In the past pg has mentioned adding a feature to the running instance via a connected REPL, not the real source. If it proves its usefulness it goes in the source -- if not, the next restart removes it.

DanBC 14y ago

There are very many add ons and extensions and things available for HN. There's bound to be a thread filtering add on for whatever browser you're using.