Show HN: Hacker Smacker – spot great (and terrible) HN commenters at a glance
Hacker Smacker, a browser extension, brings Slashdot-inspired 'friend/foe' functionality to Hacker News, allowing users to curate their comment feed and discover new voices through 'friend-of-a-friend' connections. This "Show HN" project sparked debate on its potential to foster tribalism or enhance productive discourse, highlighting HN's ongoing conversation about community moderation and user experience.
The Lowdown
Hacker Smacker is a browser extension designed to enhance the Hacker News reading experience by allowing users to categorize commenters as 'friends' or 'foes'. By displaying three small orbs next to each commenter's name, users can quickly identify and prioritize contributions from those they trust or wish to avoid.
- The core feature includes a 'friend-of-a-friend' (FoaF) system; if you friend a Hacker Smacker user, you'll also see their friends and foes highlighted, effectively leveraging trusted connections to surface quality content.
- Its primary goal is to reduce scrolling time and help users efficiently locate valuable comments within long threads.
- Inspired by the classic Slashdot friend/foe system, it brings a familiar social filtering mechanic to HN.
- Technically, the project originated as a learning exercise to understand FoaF relationships using Redis sets, CoffeeScript, and Node.js, subsequently influencing the social layer of NewsBlur.
- Though initially developed in 2011, it recently received a robust authentication system and is now available across Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari.
- The extension is open-source, with its code hosted on GitHub.
Ultimately, Hacker Smacker offers a personalized lens through which to view Hacker News discussions, built on a blend of nostalgic social features and modern web technologies to streamline content discovery.
The Gossip
Adversarial Angles & Labeling Debates
A significant portion of the discussion centered on the 'friend/foe' terminology itself. Critics argued that these labels inherently encourage an adversarial stance and could lead to increased tribalism and polarization on the platform. They suggested alternative, less loaded terms like 'engage/ignore' to promote healthier discourse by focusing on engagement preferences rather than personal antagonism. While the developer clarified the term's origin from Slashdot, the community reflected on the broader implications of such labeling for online interaction.
Comparative Commenting & Alternative Extensions
Many users pointed out the existence of similar tools and discussions on Hacker News. Several comments highlighted another extension, 'ShutUp,' which was submitted to HN just two weeks prior, offering comparable user-highlighting capabilities. While some recommended the alternative, others appreciated Hacker Smacker's unique 'friend-of-a-friend' functionality, distinguishing it from simpler local-only highlighting solutions.
Technical Inquiries & Feature Forecasts
Commenters delved into the technical and speculative aspects of Hacker Smacker. Ideas included exploring the possibility of running PageRank algorithms over the established trust graph to identify influential nodes. Questions were raised about the second-order effects on HN's existing karma system and how the 'friend-of-a-friend' feature might create 'karmic supernodes.' There were also practical inquiries, such as reporting issues with tapping interaction bubbles on mobile browsers.