It says "stub for offtopicness" but, skimming them, literally all comments are on-topic. Not all substantial ('very nice app', 'whats the tech stack?') but a lot of other comments are a normal amount of substantial and also in there... I don't get it, but note that you can expand that subthread
Sorry about this. I've moved most of the comments in the stub back to the main thread.
We've recently had some threads about new product announcements in which the thread quickly fills up with "booster" comments from new accounts or old/dormant accounts that come back to life just to post these comments. The "stub" is a way to hide those comments without penalizing/hiding the main thread and the product it's about.
We were getting some emails and comments suggesting that this was happening here too, so I started trying to address it by moving some comments into the stub, intending to spend more time figuring out which ones were authentic and which ones seemed inorganic, but was slow to get back to it.
I think in this case, most or even all of the comments are actually organic or authentic; people just really love a good chess app!
Thank you for clarifying! No worries about the delay of course, we all have more things to do. Do I understand correctly that a 'booster comment' is about steering the conversation / making the product look well-liked to those who open the thread, and not that it boosts the submission up in some way? (If you can say that in light of people gaming it)
I'm also wondering if it's an automatic classification. Wouldn't expect that on HN, but the posts in there are so random that it almost must be.
As for that specific comment, to be fair, I could actually understand: promoting your own product in someone else's thread without really saying anything at all about the submission (topic) that was posted could be seen as off-topic. I don't really mind it (I don't think I voted on it), but I could see a human also classify it that way
Can you please explain what it means? I have been using HN for years and only seeing this for the first time. Seems like some mod action but searching on google didn't return anything.
A bit off topic, but since you mentioned doing your best thinking in the bathroom, two things you should try are (a) no caffeine, and (b) no soy. These should dramatically cut down on the number of times you have to go and how long it takes.
Note that the discussion continues in the collapsed comment by tomhow: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44499848
It says "stub for offtopicness" but, skimming them, literally all comments are on-topic. Not all substantial ('very nice app', 'whats the tech stack?') but a lot of other comments are a normal amount of substantial and also in there... I don't get it, but note that you can expand that subthread
Sorry about this. I've moved most of the comments in the stub back to the main thread.
We've recently had some threads about new product announcements in which the thread quickly fills up with "booster" comments from new accounts or old/dormant accounts that come back to life just to post these comments. The "stub" is a way to hide those comments without penalizing/hiding the main thread and the product it's about.
We were getting some emails and comments suggesting that this was happening here too, so I started trying to address it by moving some comments into the stub, intending to spend more time figuring out which ones were authentic and which ones seemed inorganic, but was slow to get back to it.
I think in this case, most or even all of the comments are actually organic or authentic; people just really love a good chess app!
Sorry for the confusion!
Thank you for clarifying! No worries about the delay of course, we all have more things to do. Do I understand correctly that a 'booster comment' is about steering the conversation / making the product look well-liked to those who open the thread, and not that it boosts the submission up in some way? (If you can say that in light of people gaming it)
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If my comment was marked in this sweep, does that mean my account is marked as suspicious/booster?
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I posted this
``` Hi ,Congrats on the launch. I built a free iOS app also which has chess puzzles.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/knighty-chess-puzzles/id674524...
Would appreciate feedback. ```
Not sure if that's why it was moved to `stub for off topicness`. I wonder if it is some kind of categorisation logic based on text.
I'm also wondering if it's an automatic classification. Wouldn't expect that on HN, but the posts in there are so random that it almost must be.
As for that specific comment, to be fair, I could actually understand: promoting your own product in someone else's thread without really saying anything at all about the submission (topic) that was posted could be seen as off-topic. I don't really mind it (I don't think I voted on it), but I could see a human also classify it that way
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Why would you in 2025 only build for iOS?
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Can you please explain what it means? I have been using HN for years and only seeing this for the first time. Seems like some mod action but searching on google didn't return anything.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44504071
I’ve seen dang do something similar before to clean up a thread of off topic comments.
Yes, very strange and I was wondering why my comment which is on topic was added here…
There are other comments which are clearly on-topic, e.g. direct feedback about the app, which have been relegated to this weird sub-thread.
If this is a new feature, I’m not a fan of it. We have downvotes for off-topicness.
In my experience, nothing beats the puzzle quality of ChessTempo. Curious how this compares to that.
Hi ,Congrats on the launch.
I built a free iOS app also which has chess puzzles.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/knighty-chess-puzzles/id674524...
Would appreciate feedback.
Nice app, I dig the logo.
Thanks man. I would also suggest creating a leaderboard with XP for gamification
Hey , i would also suggest posting in r/chess
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This alternative: https://github.com/brianch/offline-chess-puzzles is linked from lichess puzzle page.
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A bit off topic, but since you mentioned doing your best thinking in the bathroom, two things you should try are (a) no caffeine, and (b) no soy. These should dramatically cut down on the number of times you have to go and how long it takes.
I love my time there but thanks for your suggestion.