Ask HN: Does anybody use the HN hide button?

29 pointscodingbuddy3y ago45 comments

I often click it by accident and was curious to know if anybody uses the HN hide button to hide posts. If so, why?

45 comments

I wish there was a profile setting to hide the hide button.

I never use it and on mobile hit it on accident at least once or more every few weeks. It is confusing and annoying when a story inexplicably disappears.

This discussion has been informative, I hadn't known some of the use-cases for the feature.

mdrzn3y ago

Same, also with the "favorite" button. I only click it by mistake.

dang3y ago

I regret adding it, because I don't think it pays for the complexity it adds. But I haven't had have the nerve to cut it. If people are clicking it mostly by accident, that could be the excuse I need.

Also I told pg one time that I wanted to get rid of it and he said "oh don't do that!" I think he used it exactly once.

mFixman3y ago

The hide button is useful for me.

I read the HN front page several times a day, and hide posts that are obvious ragebait, low quality submissions, or things that negatively affect my mood due to personal reasons.

By hiding posts I can make sure that the next page load is a bit better than the default one.

SOLAR_FIELDS3y ago

I use it because on the HN mobile site, it’s fairly easy to fat finger it. I’ve never used it legitimately. So chalk up at least one person who clicks it by accident.

I will note that is almost always why I downvote anything as well - the mobile UX encourages accidental clicks like that.

messe3y ago

Make that two. I’ve never hit it deliberately, but constantly fat finger it.

I’ve a greasemonkey user script to hide it on desktop, but on mobile safari I’m all out of luck.

1 more reply

walterbell3y ago

Both the hide and flag buttons have non-trivial consequences, for which thread titles do not provide sufficient context. If they could be limited to the story page, their usage would gain context from comments, and suffer less accidental clicks on mobile.

It's also distracting to have 60 link targets occupying tactile and optical real estate on the front page, when they are rarely pressed. Limiting hide/flag to the story page would reduce front page link targets by one-third.

gcatalfamo3y ago

Or maybe just give the opportunity to _undo_ it by re-clicking it shortly after if misclicked instead of hiding it in the void.

1 more reply

rg1113y ago

Then please remove it.

I have hit the hide button twice, and by mistake.

When I tried to use this for cleaning up my feed, same links appeared towards the end as different entried. Happened thrice or so. I don't use it since then.

IMO, you also need to get rid of the flag button on the homepage. I have also fat-fingered it ~3 times. One of them, I was able to unflag it from my browser history.

Flag should only be availavle on the story page, IMO, and not the home page.

krapp3y ago

Instead of removing it, you should encourage more people to use it, since it seems feature-blindness is a bit of a problem wrt the design here. Removing it just means the people who were using it will just resort to abusing flagging and complaining about content not being "HN worthy."

Granted, people do that all the time, anyway, but the hide button is at least an outlet for some.

dang3y ago

I suppose we could remove it temporarily to see what happens...

khaledh3y ago

Please keep it. It's useful for many people as I can tell from this thread.

While I have your attention (hopefully), there's a bug where if I use the hide link on any page other than the first page, the stories that pop up at the bottom to replace the one I just hid are from the first page stories, not from the page I'm on. I think it's a pagination bug.

BeefWellington3y ago

I use the hide button infrequently but I do use it. Maybe making it an opt-in profile setting is a reasonable solution, since most of the responses are negative it seems?

richardjam733y ago

I think it needs to be improved. I sometimes hit it when I don't mean to on mobile. Otherwise I use it all the time to hide topics that don't interest me.

yellow_lead3y ago

The compromise might be a confirm dialog. Since this button is right next to comments, people often hit it on mobile. Flag could maybe use one as well

maneesh3y ago

If it could be moved, or require confirmation (or an undo option), that would be awesome. I keep accidentally hitting it, and it makes me sad.

cwillu3y ago

I use it (deliberately) all the time.

khaledh3y ago

I use it all the time. I hide stories that don't interest me, which makes it easier to scan through the list later to see what I missed.

worldsavior3y ago

But you're anyway passing through the list, only afterwards you hide those that don't interest you.

gulabjamuns3y ago

Same here. Please keep the button.

porcoda3y ago

I often see posts that I know are going to be full of comments that will just irritate me, so hiding the post is the easiest way to not accidentally wander into a sea of comments that I’d rather not see.

climb_stealth3y ago

Yes, every now and then to hide topics that I find depressing. Usually the ones that deal with loss of habitat and other human-inflicted issues affecting animals. Or around mistreatment of children.

aorth3y ago

I use it all the time. For me, it's the only way I can signal that I don't think this post belongs on HN. For example, a submission about reintroducing bison on tallgrass prairies.

HN is what we want it to be. We all make it. Personally I want to see stories about technology, software, startups, etc.

IIsi50MHz3y ago

I got a tiny-tiny mood boost fromethe title of that bison-double-biodiversity-of-tallgrass-prairies entry, but didn't read the post. Merely filed the thought away as "possibly-true, positive trivia, but too lazy too check".

walterbell3y ago

> signal that I don't think this post belongs on HN

Is that signal aggregated somewhere?

pvg3y ago

It shouldn't be (and I'm pretty sure it isn't) since it's not what the feature is for. There's flagging and complaining to the mods (via email) for the 'signal'.

toomuchtodo3y ago

Yes, I use it on links I’ve read, or to hide topics I’m not interested in. Makes skimming the front page faster.

Please don’t take it away dang!

SaberTail3y ago

Only by accident. I figure if I'm seeing a story so much that I'm sick of it, I'm using HN too much.

rolph3y ago

if you have read posts, or find they are not topical to your interest in a thread, hide them and it will help avoid confusion, or posting misfires.

it also speeds up ocular search results.

Mountain_Skies3y ago

The information density is high enough with the HN design that having content I'm not interested in displaying isn't much of a burden. On a site like slashdot where each story takes up a large chunk of screen space and hangs around, a hide feature is of more value.

diordiderot3y ago

I use it all the time, especially in longer threads. Mostly on mobile.

Edit: confused this with thread collapsing... Never used the hide button

CosmicShadow3y ago

When you keep refreshing the home page and are sick of half the articles that you don't care about, hide it!

sleepytimetea3y ago

Yes I use it all the time ! Since the feed is not really customizable, it is my only way to hide things I don't care about. I know it is not a downvote but mentally it makes me feel better to hide all Twitter and NYT links - I hit the hide button almost instinctively now.

milesvp3y ago

I use it when I find a thread in a much larger thread veers to a tangent I won’t find much signal in. I find I use it a lot more on mobile too, though it’s a hard button to hit.

I appreciate removing complexity, but it’d make using the site much more noisy for me if dang were to remove it.

messe3y ago

> though it’s a hard button to hit.

I have the opposite problem. I hit it accidentally all the time.

m_ke3y ago

I coded up a snippet to make the hide button not load a new link after one is hidden. This way I can hide everything that I don’t care and only see 2-3 threads when I come back to HN, saving me a ton of time not having to scan the whole page for new stuff.

corobo3y ago

Often! Only really for stories I'm not really interested in that seem to be sticking to the homepage for a while, but yeah I hide an article or three every week or so

I wouldn't riot or anything if it was removed, but it's a little handy sometimes

pantojax453y ago

I accidentally hit hide or flag all the time on mobile. I wish there was an easy way to view all your flagged posts (just like hidden ones), because for both I invariably try to undo it so I can see the post again.

ahartmetz3y ago

I sometimes use it to hide infuriating but hard to resist stuff like the latest "safe space" rules at $university. Not often enough, at least I usually manage to avoid commenting.

poly_morphis3y ago

The only time I use it is by accident. I've just learned that you can un-hide a post by going to your profile and clicking on 'hidden', then selecting un-hide on the post.

RGamma3y ago

Yes, recently for the crypto, SBF and Musk stories because, oh god, there are so many of them. Otherwise pretty much not.

verdverm3y ago

I hide the yc jobverts

RonaldOlzheim3y ago

Where is that button?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

45 comments

metadat3y ago

I wish there was a profile setting to hide the hide button.

I never use it and on mobile hit it on accident at least once or more every few weeks. It is confusing and annoying when a story inexplicably disappears.

This discussion has been informative, I hadn't known some of the use-cases for the feature.

mdrzn3y ago

Same, also with the "favorite" button. I only click it by mistake.

dang3y ago

Also I told pg one time that I wanted to get rid of it and he said "oh don't do that!" I think he used it exactly once.

mFixman3y ago

The hide button is useful for me.

I read the HN front page several times a day, and hide posts that are obvious ragebait, low quality submissions, or things that negatively affect my mood due to personal reasons.

By hiding posts I can make sure that the next page load is a bit better than the default one.

SOLAR_FIELDS3y ago

I use it because on the HN mobile site, it’s fairly easy to fat finger it. I’ve never used it legitimately. So chalk up at least one person who clicks it by accident.

I will note that is almost always why I downvote anything as well - the mobile UX encourages accidental clicks like that.

messe3y ago

Make that two. I’ve never hit it deliberately, but constantly fat finger it.

I’ve a greasemonkey user script to hide it on desktop, but on mobile safari I’m all out of luck.

1 more reply

walterbell3y ago

gcatalfamo3y ago

Or maybe just give the opportunity to _undo_ it by re-clicking it shortly after if misclicked instead of hiding it in the void.

1 more reply

rg1113y ago

Then please remove it.

I have hit the hide button twice, and by mistake.

When I tried to use this for cleaning up my feed, same links appeared towards the end as different entried. Happened thrice or so. I don't use it since then.

IMO, you also need to get rid of the flag button on the homepage. I have also fat-fingered it ~3 times. One of them, I was able to unflag it from my browser history.

Flag should only be availavle on the story page, IMO, and not the home page.

krapp3y ago

Granted, people do that all the time, anyway, but the hide button is at least an outlet for some.

dang3y ago

I suppose we could remove it temporarily to see what happens...

khaledh3y ago

Please keep it. It's useful for many people as I can tell from this thread.

BeefWellington3y ago

I use the hide button infrequently but I do use it. Maybe making it an opt-in profile setting is a reasonable solution, since most of the responses are negative it seems?

richardjam733y ago

I think it needs to be improved. I sometimes hit it when I don't mean to on mobile. Otherwise I use it all the time to hide topics that don't interest me.

yellow_lead3y ago

The compromise might be a confirm dialog. Since this button is right next to comments, people often hit it on mobile. Flag could maybe use one as well

maneesh3y ago

If it could be moved, or require confirmation (or an undo option), that would be awesome. I keep accidentally hitting it, and it makes me sad.

cwillu3y ago

I use it (deliberately) all the time.

khaledh3y ago

I use it all the time. I hide stories that don't interest me, which makes it easier to scan through the list later to see what I missed.

worldsavior3y ago

But you're anyway passing through the list, only afterwards you hide those that don't interest you.

gulabjamuns3y ago

Same here. Please keep the button.

porcoda3y ago

climb_stealth3y ago

Yes, every now and then to hide topics that I find depressing. Usually the ones that deal with loss of habitat and other human-inflicted issues affecting animals. Or around mistreatment of children.

aorth3y ago

I use it all the time. For me, it's the only way I can signal that I don't think this post belongs on HN. For example, a submission about reintroducing bison on tallgrass prairies.

HN is what we want it to be. We all make it. Personally I want to see stories about technology, software, startups, etc.

IIsi50MHz3y ago

walterbell3y ago

> signal that I don't think this post belongs on HN

Is that signal aggregated somewhere?

pvg3y ago

It shouldn't be (and I'm pretty sure it isn't) since it's not what the feature is for. There's flagging and complaining to the mods (via email) for the 'signal'.

toomuchtodo3y ago

Yes, I use it on links I’ve read, or to hide topics I’m not interested in. Makes skimming the front page faster.

Please don’t take it away dang!

SaberTail3y ago

Only by accident. I figure if I'm seeing a story so much that I'm sick of it, I'm using HN too much.

rolph3y ago

if you have read posts, or find they are not topical to your interest in a thread, hide them and it will help avoid confusion, or posting misfires.

it also speeds up ocular search results.

Mountain_Skies3y ago

diordiderot3y ago

I use it all the time, especially in longer threads. Mostly on mobile.

Edit: confused this with thread collapsing... Never used the hide button

CosmicShadow3y ago

When you keep refreshing the home page and are sick of half the articles that you don't care about, hide it!

sleepytimetea3y ago

milesvp3y ago

I use it when I find a thread in a much larger thread veers to a tangent I won’t find much signal in. I find I use it a lot more on mobile too, though it’s a hard button to hit.

I appreciate removing complexity, but it’d make using the site much more noisy for me if dang were to remove it.

messe3y ago

> though it’s a hard button to hit.

I have the opposite problem. I hit it accidentally all the time.

m_ke3y ago

corobo3y ago

Often! Only really for stories I'm not really interested in that seem to be sticking to the homepage for a while, but yeah I hide an article or three every week or so

I wouldn't riot or anything if it was removed, but it's a little handy sometimes

pantojax453y ago

ahartmetz3y ago

I sometimes use it to hide infuriating but hard to resist stuff like the latest "safe space" rules at $university. Not often enough, at least I usually manage to avoid commenting.

poly_morphis3y ago

The only time I use it is by accident. I've just learned that you can un-hide a post by going to your profile and clicking on 'hidden', then selecting un-hide on the post.

RGamma3y ago

Yes, recently for the crypto, SBF and Musk stories because, oh god, there are so many of them. Otherwise pretty much not.

verdverm3y ago

I hide the yc jobverts

RonaldOlzheim3y ago

Where is that button?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse