[zaarn]

You should generally not assume a text is readable because it uses x-wide columns.

At 25 character columns it will also look rather awful on desktop or widescreen monitors.

Borrowing from email etiquette I find using > arrows to be most indicative of quotes, although HN sometimes eats newlines for breakfast.

[jordigh]

But if short lines are readable on one screen, surely short lines are also readable on another screen, right? It's not like eyes depend on the width of the screen, just on the width of the line.

[zaarn]

Using short lines on a screen too wide leads to wasted screen space, usually people dislike that, it interrupts the reading flow.

Same for too wide lines.

The ideal length of a line is somewhere between 50 and 70 characters.

Readable != Good Writing

This is not an issue if you don't use codeblocks, the browser is then free to reflow the text as necessary. If you use codeblocks the browser cannot reflow (by default) and you make the entire UX worse.

[styfle]

Where can I find the formatting syntax for Hacker News? Clearly it's not markdown :P

[couchand]

https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc

[zaarn]

I think just using markdown gets the point across sufficiently.

The HN format captures the most important parts of MD; italics, code and ALL CAPS.