5 ms·

Show HN: Get emailed whenever your brand is mentioned on Hacker News or Reddit

27 points by codeplea 10y ago

codeplea 10y ago
I made this as a tool that I found useful, and I decided that it wouldn't be much more work to turn it into a free service and share. I'll probably open-source it if there's any interest. It's new, so any feedback is greatly appreciated! Thanks for looking.
- cane211 10y ago
  I've been looking for something like this for a long time. It seems to work well, and I like how simple it is. Thanks!
- winkv 10y ago
  i think you should consider making a profitable product out of it instead of open sourcing it(i know we are good samritans :) ). It can be used as marketing tool. Brands will subscribe to your service and will be informed when their brand name appears on site. This can than be used for damage control if it involves bad press or marketing for e.g answering questions giving discount etc. if someone shows interest.
ezekg 10y ago
I've been looking for something like this. Does it send you a daily summary, or an email for each mention?
- codeplea 10y ago
  It sends an email for each mention. It usually happens within a couple minutes after the post. The idea is that you could actually head over and join the conversation, if needed.
steelcm 10y ago
I've tried to write something similar, but I found that I was hitting the upper comment limitation of reddits API (ie. If there are more than 10k comments on a subreddit within an hour). How did you get around this problem?
- codeplea 10y ago
  I'm not monitoring the really popular subreddits. Let's face it, no one is going to mention me in /r/Pics, so I don't bother monitoring it. You can see exactly what is monitored here: https://f5bot.com/what https://f5bot.com/what I'm focusing on mostly programmer related subreddits for now, but I'll add subreddits as people ask. I had a couple people ask yesterday for me to add specific subreddits, and I did.
thysultan 10y ago
Trying to add keywords `react` / `python` and others fail with... > That keyword is too common. Please enter a more uncommon keyword or phrase. So some product names could fall under the `common` namespace.
- codeplea 10y ago
  This is a free service that I built in a couple hours, so I put in some limits for now. I didn't want someone to put in a word like 'react' and then get flooded with unwanted emails ('react' is a common English word, most of the results wouldn't even be relevant). I think I'll raise the limits eventually, but I want to add a few more features first, such as one-click-unsubscribe, before I start allowing people to get 1000 alerts a day. In the meantime, feel free to add more specific phrases. For example, you could add 'react js' or 'with react' or 'in react' to get some relevant results.
overcast 10y ago
In case anyone is looking for something much more complex, quick google search came up with https://mention.com https://mention.com - pricey, but looks pretty polished.
- codeplea 10y ago
  I saw this before I built F5Bot. They want $29/mo for 2 alerts. I thought that was crazy, so I wrote F5Bot. The F5Bot prototype only took me about 2 hours to write, and I tested it personally for a month with good success. Then I realized I could pretty easily add user accounts and share it, so I did.
  - dethswatch 10y ago
    how're you handling the reddit rate limiting?
    - codeplea 10y ago
      I only monitor parts of Reddit. See https://f5bot.com/what https://f5bot.com/what
  - overcast 10y ago
    Yes definitely crazy pricey, you're paying for that interface for sure. Kudos to you for doing your own thing! :)
    - bbcbasic 10y ago
      Not too crazy given the value it provides. Must we all work for free?
polygot 10y ago
What's the advantages using this service rather than using a custom Google search alert on a particular domain? https://www.google.com/alerts https://www.google.com/alerts
- codeplea 10y ago
  F5Bot will be much, much faster. The idea is that you'd get an email when the discussion starts, and then you could go and join in. Also, Google alerts doesn't get 100% coverage of the sites, AFAIK.
stephenr 10y ago
Given that you're running it for free, any chance you'd open source it, so we can a) run our own, without costing you money and b) contribute?
zepolen 10y ago
Heh, I've been working on something similar too, but sending notifications to slack - https://littlebirdie.io/ https://littlebirdie.io/ it's sort of in beta phase at the moment, but you're free to check it out.
- codeplea 10y ago
  Hi. Any idea how your Show HN [1] post got way more upvotes in an hour than mine did in a day? Is Slack really that much more popular than email now? Anyway, looks like you have a great product! [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13706772 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13706772
sk24iam 10y ago
I've seen this app: https://www.trackreddit.com/ https://www.trackreddit.com/ Is the difference that your app covers Hacker News as well? FYI, the verification email is not a link.
- codeplea 10y ago
  The difference between F5Bot and trackreddit, is that F5Bot is free and it covers HN + Lobsters too. I have plans to add a couple other sites soon as well. I also like to think that F5Bot has an easier interface. Trackreddit does have a few additional features. The verification email doesn't use HTML. Does it not show up as clickable in your email client?

27 points by codeplea 10y ago

I made this as a tool that I found useful, and I decided that it wouldn't be much more work to turn it into a free service and share. I'll probably open-source it if there's any interest. It's new, so any feedback is greatly appreciated! Thanks for looking.

cane211 10y ago
I've been looking for something like this for a long time. It seems to work well, and I like how simple it is. Thanks!
winkv 10y ago
i think you should consider making a profitable product out of it instead of open sourcing it(i know we are good samritans :) ). It can be used as marketing tool. Brands will subscribe to your service and will be informed when their brand name appears on site. This can than be used for damage control if it involves bad press or marketing for e.g answering questions giving discount etc. if someone shows interest.

ezekg 10y ago

I've been looking for something like this. Does it send you a daily summary, or an email for each mention?

codeplea 10y ago
It sends an email for each mention. It usually happens within a couple minutes after the post. The idea is that you could actually head over and join the conversation, if needed.

steelcm 10y ago

I've tried to write something similar, but I found that I was hitting the upper comment limitation of reddits API (ie. If there are more than 10k comments on a subreddit within an hour). How did you get around this problem?

codeplea 10y ago
I'm not monitoring the really popular subreddits. Let's face it, no one is going to mention me in /r/Pics, so I don't bother monitoring it. You can see exactly what is monitored here: https://f5bot.com/what https://f5bot.com/what I'm focusing on mostly programmer related subreddits for now, but I'll add subreddits as people ask. I had a couple people ask yesterday for me to add specific subreddits, and I did.

thysultan 10y ago

Trying to add keywords `react` / `python` and others fail with... > That keyword is too common. Please enter a more uncommon keyword or phrase. So some product names could fall under the `common` namespace.

codeplea 10y ago
This is a free service that I built in a couple hours, so I put in some limits for now. I didn't want someone to put in a word like 'react' and then get flooded with unwanted emails ('react' is a common English word, most of the results wouldn't even be relevant). I think I'll raise the limits eventually, but I want to add a few more features first, such as one-click-unsubscribe, before I start allowing people to get 1000 alerts a day. In the meantime, feel free to add more specific phrases. For example, you could add 'react js' or 'with react' or 'in react' to get some relevant results.

overcast 10y ago

In case anyone is looking for something much more complex, quick google search came up with https://mention.com https://mention.com - pricey, but looks pretty polished.

codeplea 10y ago
I saw this before I built F5Bot. They want $29/mo for 2 alerts. I thought that was crazy, so I wrote F5Bot. The F5Bot prototype only took me about 2 hours to write, and I tested it personally for a month with good success. Then I realized I could pretty easily add user accounts and share it, so I did.
- dethswatch 10y ago
  how're you handling the reddit rate limiting?
  - codeplea 10y ago
    I only monitor parts of Reddit. See https://f5bot.com/what https://f5bot.com/what
- overcast 10y ago
  Yes definitely crazy pricey, you're paying for that interface for sure. Kudos to you for doing your own thing! :)
  - bbcbasic 10y ago
    Not too crazy given the value it provides. Must we all work for free?

polygot 10y ago

What's the advantages using this service rather than using a custom Google search alert on a particular domain? https://www.google.com/alerts https://www.google.com/alerts

codeplea 10y ago
F5Bot will be much, much faster. The idea is that you'd get an email when the discussion starts, and then you could go and join in. Also, Google alerts doesn't get 100% coverage of the sites, AFAIK.

stephenr 10y ago

Given that you're running it for free, any chance you'd open source it, so we can a) run our own, without costing you money and b) contribute?

zepolen 10y ago

Heh, I've been working on something similar too, but sending notifications to slack - https://littlebirdie.io/ https://littlebirdie.io/ it's sort of in beta phase at the moment, but you're free to check it out.

codeplea 10y ago
Hi. Any idea how your Show HN [1] post got way more upvotes in an hour than mine did in a day? Is Slack really that much more popular than email now? Anyway, looks like you have a great product! [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13706772 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13706772

sk24iam 10y ago

I've seen this app: https://www.trackreddit.com/ https://www.trackreddit.com/ Is the difference that your app covers Hacker News as well? FYI, the verification email is not a link.

codeplea 10y ago
The difference between F5Bot and trackreddit, is that F5Bot is free and it covers HN + Lobsters too. I have plans to add a couple other sites soon as well. I also like to think that F5Bot has an easier interface. Trackreddit does have a few additional features. The verification email doesn't use HTML. Does it not show up as clickable in your email client?