Comment by smacktoward
10 years ago
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.
I agree. And even if green does signify "good", I don't think that's a bad thing here. I'd rather be drawn towards fresh sources first. Those items are likely to require more oversight, and voting (and potentially flagging) as well.
Red is more auspicious than green in China, though green is also generally favourably viewed. Except for hats.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_in_Chinese_culture#Green
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.
I found green usernames to be useful for voting -- I'll upvote anything by a green user that's a reasonable post a normal functioning human would make, and if it's something to downvote, you can check their posting history and often there's stuff worth upvoting to cancel out the downvote.