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Using flamegraphs to read big HN threads

Shown by trungdq88 on Jan 10, 2021. Click the card to turn it over.

248points

59comments

#155of 2,533 in 2021

Top 7%of 2021 by points

How HN took it

MixedNo clear lean

8 positive, 5 neutral or asking, 3 mixed, 5 critical, out of 21 comments about the project. Thread score +0.13.

Design: 3 for, 3 againstIdea: 4 for, 1 againstExecution: 1 for, 1 against

Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.

positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker

Makes big threads easier to scan
From 3 comments
- This is pretty cool, it is easier to scan around comments and threads more quickly. Reddit could use this.
  dave_sullivan on HN
- OMG, This is all I wanted. Thank you so much for building this. I think it will make easy to read long HN threads. I'm interested to learn more on the tech stack behind this…
  abinaya_rl on HN
- This is fantastic. You know you’ve come up with a good visualisation when it feels so instantly familiar. I’m trying to think of how you can convert some ancillary information…
  rablackburn on HN
Familiar and intuitive visualization
From 1 comment
- This is fantastic. You know you’ve come up with a good visualisation when it feels so instantly familiar. I’m trying to think of how you can convert some ancillary information…
  rablackburn on HN

Navigation is awkward and unclear
From 3 comments
- Nifty, but I found the navigation to be a little odd at first. I didn't immediately realise the bottom row is always the OP, and so tried to hit my back button to travel back…
  NamTaf on HN
- A tree view with terrible UX.
  injidup on HN
- Really neat idea, a little awkward to navigate in this v1 prototype. I'm imagining replacing the vertical scrollbar with a 90 degree rotation of the flamegraph. Call it a…
  alanbernstein on HN
Thin bars make it hard to read small threads
From 2 comments
- Loaded for first time on my pixel 3. Loaded fine I guess, but too small to glean anything :( I then zoomed in and nothing happened, then I was zoomed way too far in, and the page…
  devinrhode2 on HN
- Thanks :) I choose to use the username because in big threads, most of the bars are very thin. There isn't much room to show anything anyway...
  trungdq88 on HN
Emphasizes deep threads over breadth
From 1 comment
- I'm not sure if it helps much. It emphasizes deep threads. Do we care for deep threads? Well, not really. Usually we want to see threads with a lot of votes and a lot of replies…
  krick on HN

Hover tooltips showing full comment and click to zoom context
From 1 comment
- I almost love it; clicking on a comment zooms in the graph, which loses context and is not what I usually want. But I think if you just made it so that hover loaded the complete…
  dilap on HN
Browser extension version
From 1 comment
- Beautiful work!! I would use this every day as a browser extension for HN/reddit. the vertical minimap would probably be the ideal implementation. Fly-to navigation for narrowing…
  bohrious on HN
Collapse children while keeping top-level comments visible
From 3 comments
- I'm not sure if it helps much. It emphasizes deep threads. Do we care for deep threads? Well, not really. Usually we want to see threads with a lot of votes and a lot of replies…
  krick on HN
- > ability to collapse all of the children w/o collapsing the parent-post itself, and showing multiple top-level posts Very much agree, for big threads here and on reddit I…
  BelenusMordred on HN
- Yes. I would like a mode for HN and Reddit where only top-level comment are visible and threads must be expanded explicitly, with the same true recursively. If I'm not interested…
  jp57 on HN

How is the data collected and built
From 2 comments
- LOVE THIS. So cool. How'd you build it?
  snow_mac on HN
- OMG, This is all I wanted. Thank you so much for building this. I think it will make easy to read long HN threads. I'm interested to learn more on the tech stack behind this…
  abinaya_rl on HN
Is the left-to-right order by votes
From 1 comment
- Nifty, but I found the navigation to be a little odd at first. I didn't immediately realise the bottom row is always the OP, and so tried to hit my back button to travel back…
  NamTaf on HN

Forum Explorer
From 1 comment
- Andrew McNutt's Forum Explorer also visualizes forum discussions and supports HN [1] (it was discussed on HN last year [2]). [1]: https://www.mcnutt.in/forum-explorer/ [2]:…
  jamessb on HN
Kialo
From 1 comment
- This is really great, can be a first step towards making a site for more structured way to debate. Kind of similar to kialo…
  chr1 on HN
Hacker News Enhancement Suite
From 1 comment
- I personally find the Hacker News Extension Suite [1] to be incredibly useful.…
  5986043handy on HN