I think its much more convenient to access from a mobile app. My reddit usage grew massively when the reddit mobile came upto on par with other third party apps over last couple of years.
I see this as a feature. I check the “threads” like periodically to see if there is anything to reply to, but once it falls off the first page, it’s pretty much over (unless it’s something very specific I wanted to keep an eye on, which is rare).
This prevents a lot of the long back and forths, or getting pulled into an old conversation, that would often happen on other platforms with notifications.
It makes a reply more of an intentional act. With notifications it feels more like a task that needs to be completed.
If we look at something like Reddit, back when I used that, if I had a really popular comment I would feel the need to go though every notification, read it, and respond if it was warranted. This could end up being a lot of work. It was also an issue, because Reddit’s notification page was broken (last I used it), so the unread list would break when trying to go to a second page. So to catch them all, one had to note down the number of replies, then count, going page by page, until the comment count viewed matched the noted notification count. This was quite a pain.
Here on HN, if I have a popular comment, I can see that it generated a lot of discussion and tend to scroll through it and read/skim it like I would most other comments, especially once they start nesting further.
The net result of the HN model feels like less stress, as notifications imply some form of obligation. Why would I be getting a notification if it wasn’t important?
If they created a simple webview app and framed the website would you use that or the website in your browser? I am just curious to what the OP classes as "convience and accessibility".
I find this an interesting topic. Since many users have requested my websites have an app, but I'm loathed to go through all the hoops of the app stores.
You can just add the site to your home screen on Android / iOS - that addresses the convenience point IMHO.
I’m also not sure how an HN app (buried among the trillions of other in the respective app store) would necessarily be any more "discoverable" than the site itself.
Finally I found you! Thank you for making Hacki - it's perfect. The most recent updates enhance the quality quite a bit. Do you have a patreon where I can donate?
The main problem with why mobile apps aren't very convenient is that even on Octal, in heated debates on HN it becomes extremely difficult to read nested comment threads. Personally, I lack focus when a parent comment generates a comment tree with deep nesting on the web, let alone on mobile clients.
What's really missing is a userscript like on imageboards where under each comment there's a link showing who replied to it, with auto expansion preview of in depth reply hierarchy. But honestly, it's not that hard to do now. Just give the task to Codex or Claude Code.
For those seeking ways to track replies to their messages, HNRSS[0] exists.
I don't even visit HN, I just pull the filtered RSS feed, and engage where I feel I'm interested or can provide value.
I'm halfway glad HN doesn't have a mobile app. You're not incentivized to maintain karma here like reddit does. HN's unsaid rules make it harder to gain karma and seem to improve the quality overall compared to /r/programming. Have you noticed you can't downvote yet?
