HN Avatars
Dev tools
browser userscript
SHOW HN2022
How HN took it
96 positive, 154 neutral or asking, 6 mixed, 14 critical, out of 270 comments about the project. Thread score +0.33.
Design: 22 for, 3 againstIdea: 21 for, 2 againstExecution: 7 for, 5 againstPrivacy: 2 for, 3 againstPerformance: 1 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
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
What HN said
What people liked
Clever code golf
From 1 comment
Very, very nice from a code golf perspective though.
kizer on HN
Objections
Running pasted code in the console is a security risk
From 3 comments
An unkown person asks you to inject code in your browser. Sorry folks, but this should be a red flag for all of you. I guess you all know enough about obfuscation to know that…
unglaublich on HNI wonder how easily you could have slipped in an obfuscated cookie stealer
daenz on HNgentle reminder not to paste internet code into your browser console
nwsm on HN
Avatars add visual clutter and change HN's old-school tone
From 2 comments
I just find pfps visually distracting and enjoy HNs stance as one of the few remaining sites keeping an old school look. I feel like it would affect the tone of the site and…
hwers on HNI'm gonna go ahead and vote no on this.
hwers on HN
Some generated avatars are nearly invisible
From 2 comments
These are very cute, but I'm mildly annoyed that mine is basically invisible
lexicality on HNAnd I think yours is an upside-down helicopter!
gaetgu on HN
Requests
Make it a browser extension or userscript
From 3 comments
It should be fairly straightforward to turn this into a browser addon, give users a choice and offload the people behind HN.
Cthulhu_ on HNOr even easier to make a userscript: https://openuserjs.org/
danuker on HNI made a chrome extension of this! So it won't disappear when you refresh the page: https://github.com/ekofi/hn_avatar_ext/
zicxor on HN
Apply to the logged-in username too
From 2 comments
It would be neat if the code also applied to the username in the top right so I didn't have to make a spammy comment to see what it gives me. ;)
a_t48 on HNOr change document.querySelectorAll('.hnuser') at the beginning to document.querySelectorAll('.hnuser, #me') so it will also show up beside your name when logged in at the top.
hawski on HN
Add image-rendering pixelated for crisp edges
From 2 comments
Looks way better if you add style="image-rendering: pixelated;" to the canvas. Crisp edges on every display.
lekevicius on HNFor better rendering on high-DPI screens and (more subjectively) screens of people that have zoomed in because HN’s text sizes are unreasonably small, add…
chrismorgan on HN
Questions
How to load it permanently in the browser
From 1 comment
Wow this is really great! Noob question, but let's say I wanted to permanently load this JS in my browser? How would I achieve that? Grease monkey? Extension? Thanks :)
SCUSKU on HN
How does the bit-shifting produce the pixels
From 2 comments
This is really cool! I've coded in JS for years, and I don't understand how these bit-shifting operations become pixel avatars, or what the magic numbers represent and why they…
Pr0ject217 on HNHow does this work?
Graffur on HN
Alternatives named
Userscripts via Greasemonkey or Tampermonkey
From 2 comments
Or even easier to make a userscript: https://openuserjs.org/
danuker on HNI like it! Btw. if you have browser extension installed, that add custom scripts to websites, like greasemonkey or tampermonkey - you can have those nice avatars all the time.…
hutzlibu on HN
Refined Hacker News extension
From 1 comment
I have opened a merge request on Refined Hacker News (https://github.com/plibither8/refined-hacker-news) which is a pretty great HN extension for Firefox and other browsers.…
jvzr on HN
HN Special
From 1 comment
Could we just add it to HN Special? https://github.com/gabrielecirulli/hn-special
samelawrence on HN