Ask HN: How do you keep up with replies to your posts/comments?

6 pointsalcazar6d ago12 comments

I've been posting stories and commenting on HN for a while now, and it's frustrating that I never know when someone replies to me.

It looks like there's no built in notification system. No emails, no alerts on the site, no replies page or anything.

So how do you all handle it? Do most people just leave tabs open and refresh them? Or bookmark your own comments and check manually every so often?

We recently found hnreplies.com which works great for replies to comments (it does email and RSS). But it doesn't cover replies to your actual posts. Is there a service that does both? Or do people use something else?

Would be good to hear how you do it. Thanks!

12 comments

vunderba6d ago

Like many HN users I've got a little bespoke app on my VPS that polls the HackerNews API and looks for responses to any of my comments/posts and then raises a toast notification on my laptop and phone.

Honestly, any reasonably modern LLM could probably crank one out for you in 10 minutes.

https://github.com/HackerNews/API

mmarian6d ago

I built https://hackernewsalerts.com for that. Think I have about 100 users. It's open source, see links on the site.

alcazarOP5d ago

Thanks! I’ve signed up to try it in parallel with hnreplies.com. I like that this one supports post comments as well.

FYI, the online tool to test without signing up (https://hackernewsalerts.com/view-comments-replies/) didn’t work for my username.

EDIT: Perhaps that was an apt warning. After signup I received 20 updates for comments that weren't mine. Possibly leaking the usernames of other subscribers to the service.

rolph6d ago

comments you have made:

https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=alcazar

postings you have submitted:

https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=alcazar

alcazarOP6d ago

So you just refresh those pages and notice when someone adds a new comment? That sounds crazy. There must be a better way.

krapp6d ago

Hacker News is designed under the assumption that the quality of a discussion decreases and the likelihood of arguments/flamewars increases over time, and as the ratio of comments to upvotes increases.

If you aren't willing to to put in the effort of checking for responses to your comments, chances are you have nothing of value to contribute. That it takes more effort to do so over time is a feature, not a bug.

Just do what most people here do and cease to care about any conversation once if falls off your threads page.

1 more reply

sph6d ago

I click the ‘threads’ button in the top bar. 15 years on here, trust me, that’s all you need.

saltyoldman6d ago

I have on my personal to-do list to build a firefox extension for it.

alcazarOP6d ago

I would use it.

If you build it, reply to this comment and hnreplies might tell me about it...

eimrine6d ago

You do not need to know about the replies, but if some topic is important for you - remember you only have 2 weeks of active commenting.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

Ask HN: How do you keep up with replies to your posts/comments?

6 pointsalcazar6d ago12 comments

I've been posting stories and commenting on HN for a while now, and it's frustrating that I never know when someone replies to me.

It looks like there's no built in notification system. No emails, no alerts on the site, no replies page or anything.

So how do you all handle it? Do most people just leave tabs open and refresh them? Or bookmark your own comments and check manually every so often?

Would be good to hear how you do it. Thanks!

12 comments

vunderba6d ago

Honestly, any reasonably modern LLM could probably crank one out for you in 10 minutes.

https://github.com/HackerNews/API

mmarian6d ago

I built https://hackernewsalerts.com for that. Think I have about 100 users. It's open source, see links on the site.

alcazarOP5d ago

Thanks! I’ve signed up to try it in parallel with hnreplies.com. I like that this one supports post comments as well.

FYI, the online tool to test without signing up (https://hackernewsalerts.com/view-comments-replies/) didn’t work for my username.

EDIT: Perhaps that was an apt warning. After signup I received 20 updates for comments that weren't mine. Possibly leaking the usernames of other subscribers to the service.

rolph6d ago

comments you have made:

https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=alcazar

postings you have submitted:

https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=alcazar

alcazarOP6d ago

So you just refresh those pages and notice when someone adds a new comment? That sounds crazy. There must be a better way.

krapp6d ago

Just do what most people here do and cease to care about any conversation once if falls off your threads page.

1 more reply

sph6d ago

I click the ‘threads’ button in the top bar. 15 years on here, trust me, that’s all you need.

saltyoldman6d ago

I have on my personal to-do list to build a firefox extension for it.

alcazarOP6d ago

I would use it.

If you build it, reply to this comment and hnreplies might tell me about it...

eimrine6d ago

You do not need to know about the replies, but if some topic is important for you - remember you only have 2 weeks of active commenting.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse