Try making the comments fully collapsable, pulling into the DOM dynamically without firing up a whole new page, like reddit does.
Also, my gut feeling is that the default should be no inline comments at all, i.e. you have to select something to pull in any new comments, via the above scheme.
This would preserve what is after all one of the best features of the HN interface -- the ability to compare a great many of incoming topics side-by-side -- while still allow for a slicker way to drill down into the comments section, without having to do a full page reset.
Also, my gut feeling is that the default should be no inline comments at all, i.e. you have to select something to pull in any new comments, via the above scheme.
This would preserve what is after all one of the best features of the HN interface -- the ability to compare a great many of incoming topics side-by-side -- while still allow for a slicker way to drill down into the comments section, without having to do a full page reset.