7 ms·

Show HN: Txtpen – web highlights and in-text comments

65 points by grandjury 9y ago

fiatjaf 9y ago
Why should I switch from Hypothesis to this? Genuine question. I liked the landing page.
- grandjury 9y ago
  Thanks for checking it out. 1. Full publisher control. Publishers can moderate and pin highlights on their sites. However, all annotations can be retrieved via RESTful API as per W3C standards. Hypothes.is doesn't support moderation in their current iteration. 2. txtpen picks the best highlights to value add the reader. Otherwise annotation is nothing more than digital graffiti. Hypothes.is display any and all annotations on page. Also, we strive to be the best web annotation platform period. The load speed is 150ms compared to 2 seconds of hypothesis. It does not slow your page down.
  - fiatjaf 9y ago
    Oh, wait. Sorry. I was asking from the viewpoint of someone that wants to write comments for himself on any random webpage. Hypothesis has a Chrome Extension that allows me to annotate any webpage and find my annotations later, even if the webpage hasn't added Hypothesis to the site. I believe that's not in the scope of txtpen, right?
    - grandjury 9y ago
      Thanks for the feedback. Highlighting is supported on any page. I will add this use case to the homepage. Here is the link to the txtpen Chrome extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/txtpen-web-pen/cgmgoplajbhiglefllnjknlcjnabimhk https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/txtpen-web-pen/cgm...
grandjury 9y ago
Hello, txtpen is launched today. I started this sideproject because I really like in-text commenting on Medium. It is the best way to add value for readers. An example blog page that has txtpen enabled: http://blog.antoniofrighetto.com/ipc http://blog.antoniofrighetto.com/ipc If you have any suggestions or feedback please contact me. ricky@txtpen.com
- city41 9y ago
  Can one only see comments on that blog if they are logged into txtpen?
  - grandjury 9y ago
    Of course not. There aren't any or the moderator hasn't approved any. Personal highlights are visible only if you login
    - Leftium 9y ago
      I cannot see any comments, either. I tried installing the chrome extension. edit: Ah, I guess you can comment, but there may not be any comments on that page, yet.
- weq 9y ago
  I had this idea before medium implemented it - glad to see someone getting off there ass and implementing it in a plugable way. My original idea went further and was aimed at the media industry, fake news etc. The comment was actually someone who disagreed with the content and wanted to "re-write" the content for a particle point. There comment would then be invlined in the article if u wanted to have that "view". Then you could trust certain people (upvote) and automatically read future content with these peoples POV inlined where the original content was. i def feel like a feature where as u scroll, comments are automatically revealed on a side-panel is a good idea. i dont like the fact i need to mouse-over commnets to read them.
- seds 9y ago
  Ricky, You are sending email + password in plain text through URL. https://txtpen.com/login?f=true&username=<username>&password=<mypassword> https://txtpen.com/login?f=true&username=<username>&password... Please change this.
derimagia 9y ago
Doesn't seem to work when you highlight backwards?
- grandjury 9y ago
  This friction raises the bar of highlighting, forces the user to read the text again and makes sure that highlight is intentional.
  - fiatjaf 9y ago
    This is great. I don't know if I'm more amazed at the level of nitpicking in the previous comment or that this is intentional and actually a good idea.
bryanrasmussen 9y ago
How do you handle the problem of versioning or changing content with annotations of that content? For example if someone has annotated a piece of text that is changed in the site what is the procedure for dealing with that scenario?
- grandjury 9y ago
  Good question. txtpen uses fuzzy string matching among other anchoring mechanisms. Assuming the change is below a certain threshold, txtpen displays a diff(addition, deletion) of the underlying text.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
mholt 9y ago
This looks great. I'm impressed at the attention to detail in _functionality_ and _experience_ in addition to design.
asrp 9y ago
How come there are so many posts of this within a short period? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14058502 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14058502 (2 days ago) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14074622 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14074622 (2 days ago)
bachstelze 9y ago
the installation for 'any other site' is broken... any clues?
sladix 9y ago
Internal error on Google login :(
- grandjury 9y ago
  Python unicode handling. Should be fixed. Thanks!
type0 9y ago
How is this different from hypothes.is?

65 points by grandjury 9y ago

fiatjaf 9y ago

Why should I switch from Hypothesis to this? Genuine question. I liked the landing page.

grandjury 9y ago
Thanks for checking it out. 1. Full publisher control. Publishers can moderate and pin highlights on their sites. However, all annotations can be retrieved via RESTful API as per W3C standards. Hypothes.is doesn't support moderation in their current iteration. 2. txtpen picks the best highlights to value add the reader. Otherwise annotation is nothing more than digital graffiti. Hypothes.is display any and all annotations on page. Also, we strive to be the best web annotation platform period. The load speed is 150ms compared to 2 seconds of hypothesis. It does not slow your page down.
- fiatjaf 9y ago
  Oh, wait. Sorry. I was asking from the viewpoint of someone that wants to write comments for himself on any random webpage. Hypothesis has a Chrome Extension that allows me to annotate any webpage and find my annotations later, even if the webpage hasn't added Hypothesis to the site. I believe that's not in the scope of txtpen, right?
  - grandjury 9y ago
    Thanks for the feedback. Highlighting is supported on any page. I will add this use case to the homepage. Here is the link to the txtpen Chrome extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/txtpen-web-pen/cgmgoplajbhiglefllnjknlcjnabimhk https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/txtpen-web-pen/cgm...

grandjury 9y ago

Hello, txtpen is launched today. I started this sideproject because I really like in-text commenting on Medium. It is the best way to add value for readers. An example blog page that has txtpen enabled: http://blog.antoniofrighetto.com/ipc http://blog.antoniofrighetto.com/ipc If you have any suggestions or feedback please contact me. ricky@txtpen.com

city41 9y ago
Can one only see comments on that blog if they are logged into txtpen?
- grandjury 9y ago
  Of course not. There aren't any or the moderator hasn't approved any. Personal highlights are visible only if you login
  - Leftium 9y ago
    I cannot see any comments, either. I tried installing the chrome extension. edit: Ah, I guess you can comment, but there may not be any comments on that page, yet.
weq 9y ago
I had this idea before medium implemented it - glad to see someone getting off there ass and implementing it in a plugable way. My original idea went further and was aimed at the media industry, fake news etc. The comment was actually someone who disagreed with the content and wanted to "re-write" the content for a particle point. There comment would then be invlined in the article if u wanted to have that "view". Then you could trust certain people (upvote) and automatically read future content with these peoples POV inlined where the original content was. i def feel like a feature where as u scroll, comments are automatically revealed on a side-panel is a good idea. i dont like the fact i need to mouse-over commnets to read them.
seds 9y ago
Ricky, You are sending email + password in plain text through URL. https://txtpen.com/login?f=true&username=<username>&password=<mypassword> https://txtpen.com/login?f=true&username=<username>&password... Please change this.

derimagia 9y ago

Doesn't seem to work when you highlight backwards?

grandjury 9y ago
This friction raises the bar of highlighting, forces the user to read the text again and makes sure that highlight is intentional.
- fiatjaf 9y ago
  This is great. I don't know if I'm more amazed at the level of nitpicking in the previous comment or that this is intentional and actually a good idea.

bryanrasmussen 9y ago

How do you handle the problem of versioning or changing content with annotations of that content? For example if someone has annotated a piece of text that is changed in the site what is the procedure for dealing with that scenario?

grandjury 9y ago
Good question. txtpen uses fuzzy string matching among other anchoring mechanisms. Assuming the change is below a certain threshold, txtpen displays a diff(addition, deletion) of the underlying text.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

mholt 9y ago

This looks great. I'm impressed at the attention to detail in _functionality_ and _experience_ in addition to design.

asrp 9y ago

How come there are so many posts of this within a short period? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14058502 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14058502 (2 days ago) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14074622 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14074622 (2 days ago)

bachstelze 9y ago

the installation for 'any other site' is broken... any clues?

sladix 9y ago

Internal error on Google login :(

grandjury 9y ago
Python unicode handling. Should be fixed. Thanks!

type0 9y ago

How is this different from hypothes.is?