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

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.

65 points | by alstonite 236 days ago

19 comments

  • mtmail 236 days ago
    I agree, that would be a good feature.

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

  • metadat 236 days ago
    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 236 days ago
    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 235 days ago
      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 236 days ago
    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 236 days ago
      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 236 days ago
        The article was up all day yesterday, but the bar only appeared today.
        [-]
        • brudgers 235 days ago
          To me that makes some sense because the news had to break first…
  • robgibbons 235 days ago
    A simple title attribute would be an easy addition.
    [-]
    • johnisgood 235 days ago
      Exactly, this is what I was expecting upon hovering over it.
  • jerrygenser 235 days ago
    I didn't know either. I searched has died and limited the search to 24 hours and figured it that way.
  • ChrisArchitect 236 days ago
    About the black bar unchanging:

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

  • vdvsvwvwvwvwv 236 days ago
    Or pin the thread to top 5 articles while the bar is in effect.
  • runjake 233 days ago
    I typically run this search:

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

  • kingkongjaffa 235 days ago
    I just did this search to figure it out:

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

  • stefanos82 234 days ago
    We have already suggested this below my original comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35305018

    Still waiting... :(

  • mekoka 236 days ago
    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 235 days ago
    This is a great idea. A log of moderator actions on HN generally would be a good idea, imo.
    [-]
    • UniverseHacker 235 days ago
      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 235 days ago
        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 235 days ago
      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 236 days ago
    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 236 days ago
    Agree, did the same.
  • joshagilend 235 days ago
    :)
  • gabbssqayy 236 days ago
    Not a bug lol, I see it too!
  • aaron695 236 days ago
    [dead]