[Stratoscope]

Perhaps that beacon would be more efficient, but I think you may be waiting a long time for it.

In the meantime, I do suggest trying hnreplies as sloppycee suggested. Unless you comment here a lot, it's not that many emails - and it has the advantage that you don't have to keep watching or reloading HN to see if you got any replies to a comment.

Considering how fast stories drop off the home page, hnreplies gives me a chance to reply to a comment while people may still be looking at the thread.

So give it a try - you can always unsubscribe if it's not for you.

[alcover]

I hear you but to me, the beacon would better allow for effortless long-lived conversations. Whereas mail alerts demand more work : a filter/folder lest hnreplies will drown among unrelated mails + switching to browser on link.

Reddit does it perfectly. You see alert and get ALL unread replies and pop them with a simple body click.