[smt88]

> it's not entirely obvious that this is how to do it

I totally agree that this is an example of insane, hidden functionality. How could anyone know that "click timestamp" = "view details"? Makes no sense.

However, seemingly every site/app has adopted this, from Twitter to Facebook to several PM services.

[rocqua]

It's the only real 'title' of a comment beyond the user name, and the user name is already a link.

[smt88]

OK, so on HN, it's clickable. But "gray text without underline" isn't always clickable on HN. This is true of other sites: it isn't even clear that the timestamp is clickable at all, let alone what'll happen if you do click it.

Why not acknowledge that this is a problem and just add a little "Permalink" link, which some sites used to have? Or at least a permalink icon?

Surely the combined design talent of Google, Facebook, and Twitter can solve this problem better.

[maxerickson]

I think hidden is not quite the right word. It's a link, likely displayed in a hypertext browser.

A hypertext system that doesn't treat links as slightly opaque, explaining them in detail wherever they appear, sounds unpleasant to me.

I guess you could probably modify most such systems to have a flashing popup on every link that said "There is more information available if you click on the text here!!!!".