Comment by minimaxir
10 years ago
Very good improvements!
However, the green-URL-for-noob-domains may be problematic. The green is used to give an indication for potentially low-quality content, but public startup/project launches would all fall under the noob-domain heading.
> The green is used to give an indication for potentially low-quality content.
I wouldn't say that at all! It's just interesting to know what's new.
We've been displaying new sites in green to moderators for a while now. When a high-quality story comes from a brand new (to HN) site, that's interesting. The converse, too: it's interesting when you can see that an obscure site isn't new to HN (because it's not green). Often someone posted it like 6 years ago and it got no upvotes; or sometimes there was actually a major thread. Now you can click on the domain to find out. HN has a rich history that's fun to explore.
Edit: I'll give you, though, that green sites and green usernames have higher variance. The good ones are really good (think of the author of a story showing up in the thread to discuss it), while the bad ones are more likely to be spam. I think it's fine to call attention to it in either case.
I'll argue against the green domains on slightly different grounds: the color is being applied as a sort of caution or warning sign, and from a UX perspective green is about the worst possible color for that sort of thing. Green is positive; green means "go," not "caution" or "warning" or "stop."
When I first saw the green domains I thought HN was trying to tell me that these domains were particularly good, as in sources that have yielded a lot of high-karma stories in the past or something. It never occurred to me that it could mean they were new or iffy until I read this thread.
I'd suggest using yellow instead, as (in the US, anyway) yellow has a strong association with caution and warning signs, without the strong "do not proceed" vibe of red.
(And the same logic would probably apply to colors on usernames, come to think of it. Green should be for usernames that HN wants to call out as MVPs for some reason. New accounts could be yellow, to indicate that they don't have a track record yet.)
As an HN user, I've never thought of it as a warning sign. And "green" can of course mean "new" as well as "go".
The color choice is moot, though, because green usernames have been around for so long that we're not likely to change them.
If people really don't like the green sites, we're happy to plunge them back under the moderator-only covers. But maybe let's try them for a while? In practice I think they're pretty cool.
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It's actually supposed to be a pun -- while "green" often refers to the color, it also can mean "young or unripe" (fruit) or "inexperienced, naive, or gullible" (person), such as in the phrase, "a green recruit fresh from college".
I think it's meant more for regulars -- a gentle reminder to be nice in the comments because green users might not be as familiar with the norms -- but I can see how the color choice might be confusing for new users.
I would argue against green usernames as well. I think it appears to be a stronger signal of quality than it is (like karma, which if it works should be enough.) Hacker News needs fewer such filters, or at the very least more intelligent ones. If noob accounts act out, downvote and correct them, and if they continue, someone will ban them.
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I realise this gets complicated, but showing some level of stats for domains could also be interesting. Possibly:
● Submissions
● FP/Submissions ratio
● Most recent submission
● Submissions/interval (day, month, year).
● Ratings and comments scores -- what sites typically get high discussion and/or high comments?
Might want to trial some of this internally. But I'm sure the data itself would be fascinating.
I've been assuming that green usernames indicated some kind of super user. That's because the green usernames stands out so much compared to all other usernames.