Sorry for the delay - just seeing this now (ironically?)
HN threads are closed to new comments after 2 weeks, mostly as a way of preserving history. A forum discussion is most meaningful as a snapshot in time.
It would be weird if people could go back later to ancient threads and add comments based on information that wasn't available at the time. Actually, you can go back and look at very early threads, before this restriction was put in place, and it was already weird. Imagine what the original Dropbox Show HN would look like by now if we didn't restrict this.
All that said, I think you guys are on to something interesting with thoughts about how the software could provide better access to the history, beyond just posting links to past discussions.
Sorry for the delay - just seeing this now (ironically?)
HN threads are closed to new comments after 2 weeks, mostly as a way of preserving history. A forum discussion is most meaningful as a snapshot in time.
It would be weird if people could go back later to ancient threads and add comments based on information that wasn't available at the time. Actually, you can go back and look at very early threads, before this restriction was put in place, and it was already weird. Imagine what the original Dropbox Show HN would look like by now if we didn't restrict this.
All that said, I think you guys are on to something interesting with thoughts about how the software could provide better access to the history, beyond just posting links to past discussions.
Because the people who made the comments won't know that someone replied since HN doesn't have a notification system.
Not a Hacker News feature, and probably not new to many here, but some might find it useful: http://www.hnreplies.com
That was new to me, thanks!
That doesn't seem like a reason to disallow necro-replies? The primary reason people write replies isn't communication with the parent commenter.
True but at the same time if you refute a claim someone made in the comments, it seems only fair to give them a chance to reply.
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