Ask HN: Why is there a black bar added on top?

[t3ra]

Why has the black bar been added on top of the title bar ? http://i.imgur.com/O8FU6km.png

[krzrak]

To all people saying "We should add some link to the news because I don't know who Andy Grove was". C'mon, this is the community of people who don't need to have everything delivered on the silver plate - either you know, or you spend a while and find out by yourself. That's something we do every day.

[dkersten]

I saw the black bar and thought "huh, who died?". I then briefly scanned the front page, saw that someone called Andy Grove had died. It took two seconds to do a Google search and I had my answer.

Its really not very difficult (or time consuming) to find out who it is.

[Someone1234]

Except it COULD have been a black bar for Brussels.

In fact I've just arbitrarily decided that it is, because there is no official word either way. If I go off and do research into what happened today Brussels makes just as much or as little sense as Andy Grove. Both are on the front page.

Anyone who disagrees needs to show me why it is an Andy Grove bar instead of a Brussels bar? And, yes, I am intentionally being obstinate to make a point.

[robgibbons]

It might make sense to add an "alt" attribute with a name to the bar, or perhaps a small link in memorial.

[sdegutis]

Or, alternatively, we could just get off HN and get some work done.

What's that you say? But I'm writing this on HN? Oh right, er, uh..

/me takes his own advice and closes HN.

[ronjouch]

@hn, since it's not the first time this question pops up, for increased "discoverability", what about making the black bar a <a> that links to the associated news? This, or pushing it even forwards, adding text?

[raldi]

I think that would take away a lot more than it adds. There's something poignant about a simple, unadorned 5px #000000 line. The lack of text or a link sends the message, "This person was significant enough that HN readers already know who it was, and why their life was so important."

It's like flying a flag at half-mast; you don't attach a sign with the person's name.

[huuu]

  <td bgcolor="#000000" title="Andy Grove (1936 – 2016)">

[chm]

What about writing something like "Andy Grove, 1936-2016" in an HTML comment? Then a simple inspect element should clarify why the black bar is there.

Edit: The tooltip mentioned above is an even better idea.

[ebbv]

It's not that hard to figure out. Anything to add an explanation detracts from the gesture.

[jpgvm]

It's displayed as a sign of respect following the passing of important tech luminaries.

In this case Andy Grove - one of the fathers of Silicon Valley.

May he rest in peace.

[stratfordfellow]

Is it possible that in the future, the element alt text could contain some short explanation or information? For example, "Andy Grove, Semiconductor Industry pioneer passes away at 79."

[fiatpandas]

I wasn't sure if it was for Brussels or Andy Grove.

[an4rchy]

I had the same question yesterday (saw it previously and thought it was a styling issue or maintenance mode etc). It would be nice to have a tooltip on hover to tell people what it's about. Good way to pay tribute.

[DanBC]

It's a bit surprising that so many people just don't search when they see something they don't understand.

EDIT: just putting [black bar] into the search box tells you why the black bar is there. Sorting by date tells you who died.

[t3ra]

If u see a black bar for the first time.. Bug/bad edit seems to be the first reaction than searching for information.

[hodwik]

I think most of us just assumed it was a bad design change. I don't normally search every time a website makes a bad design decision, just in case it has secret and very obscure meaning.

[danielsamuels]

What search box are you talking about?

[sdiq]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11333402

[t3ra]

Oh ....

[soapdog]

I thought this was about the brussels attack...

[hodwik]

It's especially meaningless for those of us who use Hacker Vision.

http://i.imgur.com/c81G9a6.png

[drivingmenuts]

I didn't even notice the black bar until I read this post. Maybe something a little more distinctive would be useful, maybe.

[orbitur]

Probably related to the same change that brought the black bar, but the Chrome extension I use to add collapsible comment threads is now broken.

Can we please get native collapsible threads here?

edit: Also I just attempted to use an emoji for the first time here, and it was stripped. ????

edit2: I thought it was a simple design update, had no idea it was a tribute. RIP Andy Grove.

[vegancap]

I was equally as confused recently, until someone (quite bluntly...) pointed it out to me on Twitter.

[raverbashing]

Well, it would be simple to read the page looking at entries containing 'passed away', 'died', 'killed', etc

(It's usually one of the first as well)

[allworknoplay]

Even so, the connection isn't in any way made clear. Your assumption that if people saw that Andy Grove died they would immediately identify the black bar as a sign of mourning is kind of, I dunno, culturally normative?

[lochlainn]

There was also a terror attack this morning that has relevant articles on the front page.

Perhaps adding a tooltip would be a subtle way to provide more info.

[_RPM]

This gets asked every time the black bar happens.

[willthefirst]

.mourning { border-top: 5px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); }

[tsguo3]

Princeton's colors are black and orange.

[mbrutsch]

When someone dies that they believe worthy, they do the black bar thing.