Ask HN: How to check who the black bar is honoring?

65 points - 11/15/2024


I noticed the black bar is up today and I don't see any death posts. Is there an easy way to see who this is honoring? It would be nice to have a feature that on hover said who it was or something of the like.

  • mtmail

    11/15/2024

    I agree, that would be a good feature.

    Thomas E. Kurtz has died https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42141761

    • metadat

      11/15/2024

      I checked a few pages of https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2024-11-14

      And didn't see anything stand out.

      It would be a nice feature. If you feel strongly, email dang: hn@ycombinator.com

      p.s. thanks @mtmail for sharing the submission for this case.

      • andrewl

        11/15/2024

        I believe it is for Thomas Kurtz, one of the two people who created the BASIC language.

        https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42141761

          • whamlastxmas

            last Saturday at 8:20 PM

            My very first programming language was Liberty BASIC from a “for dummies” book. He’s had such a big influence on so many developers. Rip in peace

        • DaOne256

          11/15/2024

          I had the same Problem. Had to check all the headlines until I found it one page back.

          I would also like this feature.

            • brudgers

              last Saturday at 12:38 AM

              I could be wrong (and probably am) but I think the black bar stays up for 24 hours.

              So it is not surprising if the article moved to the second page when the person does not have instant name recognition.

              Like a lot of things on HN, despite being enough effort that someone might complain, going to the second page is not a terrible inconvenience for the minimally curious.

                • Aeolun

                  last Saturday at 1:30 AM

                  The article was up all day yesterday, but the bar only appeared today.

                    • brudgers

                      last Saturday at 4:51 AM

                      To me that makes some sense because the news had to break first…

          • robgibbons

            last Saturday at 6:00 AM

            A simple title attribute would be an easy addition.

              • johnisgood

                last Saturday at 2:43 PM

                Exactly, this is what I was expecting upon hovering over it.

            • jerrygenser

              last Saturday at 4:45 AM

              I didn't know either. I searched has died and limited the search to 24 hours and figured it that way.

              • ChrisArchitect

                last Saturday at 1:12 AM

                About the black bar unchanging:

                https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39064497

                • runjake

                  last Monday at 10:09 PM

                  I typically run this search:

                  https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=pastWeek&page=0&prefix=fal...

                  • vdvsvwvwvwvwv

                    last Saturday at 12:28 AM

                    Or pin the thread to top 5 articles while the bar is in effect.

                    • stefanos82

                      last Monday at 12:01 AM

                      We have already suggested this below my original comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35305018

                      Still waiting... :(

                      • kingkongjaffa

                        last Saturday at 10:34 AM

                        I just did this search to figure it out:

                        https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=pastWeek&page=0&prefix=fal...

                        • mekoka

                          last Saturday at 12:57 AM

                          Once in a while I try to click on the black band, hoping that my long awaited feature has been implemented. That it will point to a page that lists the memorials.

                          • aspenmayer

                            last Saturday at 9:23 AM

                            This is a great idea. A log of moderator actions on HN generally would be a good idea, imo.

                              • UniverseHacker

                                last Saturday at 7:44 PM

                                I think that would be exploited by bad actors- they could e.g. figure out what time of day mods are inactive to best circumvent rules, and know when things were removed in order to re-add them immediately.

                                  • aspenmayer

                                    last Saturday at 7:49 PM

                                    I would posit that bad actors already know these all of these things in the status quo absence of desired transparency, with none of the upside or insights that transparency would bring.

                                • johnisgood

                                  last Saturday at 2:44 PM

                                  That would be great for transparency indeed, the question is whether or not they want to be transparent.

                                  The feature requests mentioned are pretty easy to implement.

                              • grumple

                                11/15/2024

                                This is usually added when there's been a significant death relevant to the HN crowd. However, I don't see a related post, so it's possible that it's a mistake this time.

                                • laksmanv

                                  last Saturday at 12:23 AM

                                  Agree, did the same.

                                  • last Saturday at 2:57 AM

                                    • joshagilend

                                      last Sunday at 3:03 AM

                                      :)

                                      • gabbssqayy

                                        last Saturday at 12:03 AM

                                        Not a bug lol, I see it too!

                                        • aaron695

                                          last Saturday at 2:28 AM

                                          [dead]