I'm going through chaaaangeeees 🎶

Hi guys, I'm sox ^^ It's been just over two weeks since we released live comments, and the reception has been overwhelmingly positive: thank you!

As you may have noticed over the past couple of days, the work on live comments hasn't actually stopped.

Here's what's new and what's coming next:

Autoshow

"Who wants a button?"

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/69a78136-65cb-4513-a537-649929e0f8aa

In the past few days, we pre-released Autoshow.

New comments now pop in automatically, while trying to keep your scroll position steady. It's already super cool, but not perfect yet. Your feedback here will be really precious, our goal is to make it pixel-perfect and comfortable to use, not a source of rage.

Navigator

okay, now we need a button

We also need a way to keep track of these comments that just sneak in automatically.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/10f94e7d-d275-482a-92e8-62af9c893f07 early navigator design, not final

The peculiarity of the navigator is that it's not tied just to live comments. It has the higher purpose of tracking every unread comment. Whether you're getting live comments outside your view or returning to a post with lots of new comments scattered across it, the navigator will help you catch up on all of them.

Favicons

Lost in a sea of tabs? We'll tell you exactly which ones have new comments.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/fe482789-de0f-49f8-90ad-ecdae33f1089

Just like the navigator, the favicon appears whenever there are unread comments. And if you're like me and often find yourself drowning in 50+ tabs sessions, this can be really useful to know where you received new comments.

We expect to release Navigator and Favicon by the end of the week.

You

Yes, you: to get something right is to listen to every feedback. Don't be afraid to voice your opinions, I'm writing this because I'm usually afraid myself! We'll listen to every kind of feedback: the goal is to make commenting better, not worse.

For example, @optimism recently told us they'd like the option to pause live comments so they can write and read without distractions. You might see it pop up soon™.

As always, the best place to propose stuff is our GitHub Issues page. But we listen here on SN, too.

These new changes are the foundation of a more lively Stacker News. And we have many more ideas that we hope we get to show you in the near future.

Thank you!

-- sox ^^

currently in development. features, designs and release dates are not final.

180 sats \ 1 reply \ @Undisciplined 4h

Personally, I preferred the initial blue dots to the live loading.

There was something really aesthetically pleasing about clicking on those new comment notifications.

This is great work!

60 sats \ 0 replies \ @sox OP 3h

I get it, it was really satisfying. I think that the real problem was with really active posts, that would accumulate lots of blue dots and leave the user overwhelmed, prompting a page reload.

I'll keep this in mind, in the meantime I hope that the navigator will live up to the same jolt of satisfaction.

Thanks! ^^

69 sats \ 2 replies \ @WeAreAllSatoshi 2h

What do you mean by “pre-released?”

50 sats \ 1 reply \ @sox OP 2h

Autoshow essentially tries to defeat the viewport laws to load new comments without moving the page.

It’s a relatively new thing here so we expect to tune it as feedback comes in to make it even better.

I called it “pre-released”, even if it’s formally released, because of that and also because we wanted to show you how live comments will look like before going all-in.

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @WeAreAllSatoshi 2h

Thank you, that makes sense. I think it was just the term that threw me - I thought maybe only certain users had access to it or something

100 sats \ 0 replies \ @hasherstacker 1h

Awesome work, @sox. This is shaping up really well! 🎉

The new Autoshow feature, comments appearing live without disturbing your position, is already super smooth. The Navigator concept is equally exciting; being able to quickly jump to unread comments will be a huge fit for on long threads. And the favicon notifications? Game-changer for tab addicts, who lose track of where new activity is happening.

I also love how you're inviting feedback. That level of user-first thinking, I think is exactly why SN continues to improve.

Thanks for all the energy you're putting into enhancing the commenting experience. Enjoying and loving the momentum! Keep up with the good work.

Autoshow

Navigator

Favicons

You

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