4 ms·

The main question for me is comments. I don't want to use something like Disqus, and to require something like Discourse would cancel the whole point of having

The main question for me is comments. I don't want to use something like Disqus, and to require something like Discourse would cancel the whole point of having a static site generator that I can host on Github Pages or Gitlab pages. Ideally, what I would like to do is to have an hackernews post automatically generated for each post, and to redirect people to the HN post if they want to comment, but I am not sure that HN allow this kind of use ?

freshyill 10y ago
That would be absolutely awful. Imagine if every site did that. Would this be a site you would want to visit? Maybe what you want to do is have a link that sends you to the HN submission page with the fields pre-populated. That wouldn't be so bad.
- majewsky 10y ago
  And then, when your site sees a HN post for the article, have it replace the submission link by a link to the discussion.
- danneu 10y ago
  The comments on my technical blog were always so friendly and encouraging. People telling me how my tutorial helped them or answering each others questions. Redirecting them to the HN pit of cynicism and leave-no-stone-left-unturnedism sounds awful. :)
talideon 10y ago
There are ways to implement that kind of thing in a relatively straightforward manner. It does, however, require some kind of non-static element in the site if you want comments embedded in the site or page. Most SSGs have some kind of plugin system (both Pelican and Lektor certainly do) that would allow you do something like what you want with the HN integration you're considering. Alternatively, you could use something like Isso (https://github.com/posativ/isso https://github.com/posativ/isso), Kaiju (https://github.com/spf13/kaiju https://github.com/spf13/kaiju), or Hashover (https://github.com/jacobwb/hashover https://github.com/jacobwb/hashover). I don't use any of these, so I can't really tell you how good they are, but they're options, and far from the only options.
martin-adams 10y ago
>> Ideally, what I would like to do is to have an hackernews post automatically generated for each post, and to redirect people to the HN post if they want to comment, but I am not sure that HN allow this kind of use ? I would say it wouldn't be allowed as you would end up submitting to HN just 'because' and without direct regard as to whether that post contributes the community. Not all posts are HN related.
- yannovitch 10y ago
  >> it wouldn't be allowed as you would end up submitting to HN just 'because' and without direct regard as to whether that post contributes the community Yes, "Not all posts are HN related", but some of my websites always are HN related. I don't have one general website for all purposes, I have almost "one website per purpose". One for cloud/infrastructure/k8s&docker/... posts, one for programming posts, one for business posts, ... All of those are quite likely to be "interesting enough" for the HN community. Of course, for my personnal stuff, for my french stuff, for my music & video & photo stuff, and all the other stuff, I wouldn't even think one second of using HN as comment system.
edraferi 10y ago
Might be better to use Reddit. You could create a subreddit explicitly to serve as your comment section. This achieves the goal of outsourcing your comments to an established site without raising concerns of astroturfing.
- yannovitch 10y ago
  No, the whole point of being linked to HN would be to have feedback from the community. If you prefer, if I was to use Reddit, I would rather like to be able to submit automatically all the posts of my "programming oriented website" to /r/programming , not /r/yannkempf.
  - Anasufovic 10y ago
    I'm sure plenty of people blogging do that already even if by hand, I'd be weary of this approach.
foxhop 10y ago
Check out the service I'm working on: http://www.remarkbox.com http://www.remarkbox.com One of the design goals is to _not_ be disqus.
- michaelmior 10y ago
  "_not_ be disqus" is a very vague goal. What problems with Disqus are trying to solve?
  - foxhop 10y ago
    I don't want: to serve advertisements, to force people to link to their identity, to cause friction to an already engaged user (no signups form / no captcha), to feel like a bolted on service / widget (I want to feel like part of the site), cluttered ui with to many options. Hard to put into words the things I don't want Remarkbox to be.
    - zackbloom 10y ago
      Disqus started with a similar goal, but they had to make changes to make money. What will give you a different path?
      - foxhop 10y ago
        Charge site owners for the value added. Stay small but still turn a profit. No investor money so not forced to grow and sell out user base (no ads). Only add useful features to keep user experience decent.
xsteadfastx 10y ago
i used isso (https://posativ.org/isso/ https://posativ.org/isso/) for some static websites. its like a self-hosted disqus.
thex10 10y ago
Would putting together a comment form with something like https://staticman.net https://staticman.net suit you better?
BerislavLopac 10y ago
I always thought it would be cool to have a comments service based on Hacker News. :-)

freshyill 10y ago

That would be absolutely awful. Imagine if every site did that. Would this be a site you would want to visit? Maybe what you want to do is have a link that sends you to the HN submission page with the fields pre-populated. That wouldn't be so bad.

majewsky 10y ago
And then, when your site sees a HN post for the article, have it replace the submission link by a link to the discussion.
danneu 10y ago
The comments on my technical blog were always so friendly and encouraging. People telling me how my tutorial helped them or answering each others questions. Redirecting them to the HN pit of cynicism and leave-no-stone-left-unturnedism sounds awful. :)

talideon 10y ago

There are ways to implement that kind of thing in a relatively straightforward manner. It does, however, require some kind of non-static element in the site if you want comments embedded in the site or page. Most SSGs have some kind of plugin system (both Pelican and Lektor certainly do) that would allow you do something like what you want with the HN integration you're considering. Alternatively, you could use something like Isso (https://github.com/posativ/isso https://github.com/posativ/isso), Kaiju (https://github.com/spf13/kaiju https://github.com/spf13/kaiju), or Hashover (https://github.com/jacobwb/hashover https://github.com/jacobwb/hashover). I don't use any of these, so I can't really tell you how good they are, but they're options, and far from the only options.

martin-adams 10y ago

>> Ideally, what I would like to do is to have an hackernews post automatically generated for each post, and to redirect people to the HN post if they want to comment, but I am not sure that HN allow this kind of use ? I would say it wouldn't be allowed as you would end up submitting to HN just 'because' and without direct regard as to whether that post contributes the community. Not all posts are HN related.

yannovitch 10y ago
>> it wouldn't be allowed as you would end up submitting to HN just 'because' and without direct regard as to whether that post contributes the community Yes, "Not all posts are HN related", but some of my websites always are HN related. I don't have one general website for all purposes, I have almost "one website per purpose". One for cloud/infrastructure/k8s&docker/... posts, one for programming posts, one for business posts, ... All of those are quite likely to be "interesting enough" for the HN community. Of course, for my personnal stuff, for my french stuff, for my music & video & photo stuff, and all the other stuff, I wouldn't even think one second of using HN as comment system.

edraferi 10y ago

Might be better to use Reddit. You could create a subreddit explicitly to serve as your comment section. This achieves the goal of outsourcing your comments to an established site without raising concerns of astroturfing.

yannovitch 10y ago
No, the whole point of being linked to HN would be to have feedback from the community. If you prefer, if I was to use Reddit, I would rather like to be able to submit automatically all the posts of my "programming oriented website" to /r/programming , not /r/yannkempf.
- Anasufovic 10y ago
  I'm sure plenty of people blogging do that already even if by hand, I'd be weary of this approach.

foxhop 10y ago

Check out the service I'm working on: http://www.remarkbox.com http://www.remarkbox.com One of the design goals is to _not_ be disqus.

michaelmior 10y ago
"_not_ be disqus" is a very vague goal. What problems with Disqus are trying to solve?
- foxhop 10y ago
  I don't want: to serve advertisements, to force people to link to their identity, to cause friction to an already engaged user (no signups form / no captcha), to feel like a bolted on service / widget (I want to feel like part of the site), cluttered ui with to many options. Hard to put into words the things I don't want Remarkbox to be.
  - zackbloom 10y ago
    Disqus started with a similar goal, but they had to make changes to make money. What will give you a different path?
    - foxhop 10y ago
      Charge site owners for the value added. Stay small but still turn a profit. No investor money so not forced to grow and sell out user base (no ads). Only add useful features to keep user experience decent.

xsteadfastx 10y ago

i used isso (https://posativ.org/isso/ https://posativ.org/isso/) for some static websites. its like a self-hosted disqus.

thex10 10y ago

Would putting together a comment form with something like https://staticman.net https://staticman.net suit you better?

BerislavLopac 10y ago

I always thought it would be cool to have a comments service based on Hacker News. :-)