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Show HN: Gnod – Global Network of Discovery

29 points by no_gravity 9y ago

brian_herman 9y ago
Your website is confusing.
- no_gravity 9y ago
  I see. It is basically a collection of discovery tools using machine learning and experimental visualizations. The front page is an experiment on its own. Meant to be somewhat self referential. You have to discover what it offers by playing with it.
  - tnone 9y ago
    This is called mystery meat navigation and it's always, always a terrible idea.
- reitanqild 9y ago
  More specifically, in Firefox on Android it shows some kind of multi-colored star with no descriptions.
  - no_gravity 9y ago
    That's correct. When you click the rays of the star, descriptions of the different Gnod sections should appear though.
    - reitanqild 9y ago
      I did. I must admit though that clicking 8 or something rays without having a single clue where they'll take me got old really really fast IMO. I'm no UX-er but I think this is what is described as mystery meat navigation.
    - geoah 9y ago
      Clicked the center a couple of times, tried scrolling and went for the comments to see what this was about. Cba going back.
jitl 9y ago
Visited, could not discover any content or interactions on my iPhone. What's supposed to be happening? Edit: on second reload, I can now touch the different spikes to open website sections. Cool little animation :-)
luke3butler 9y ago
The music discovery gave me some new bands that don't have a lot of listeners. Thanks! I'll be back for more.
neom 9y ago
I dunno how old this is but I feel like I've been using it to discover music since I was 15 or something? Years ago I discovered Camera obscura via Belle and Sebastian and fastball and I've been listening to them ever since.. I also thought it was called the Global Network of Dreams. It's a pretty awsome tool.
- no_gravity 9y ago
  Yup, your feeling is correct. When I wrote my first self-learning discovery tool, it was the one that asks the visitor for 3 bands and then suggests other bands based on what it learned so far. And for some reason I called it "Global Network Of Dreams" at that time. Glad it worked for you!
  - neom 9y ago
    You are cool. Thanks fo being cool.
kej 9y ago
In desktop Firefox (on Windows 10), the text on the map doesn't spread out, so you end up with a bunch of names written on top of each other. Checked it in Chrome and it seems like a cool idea.
- no_gravity 9y ago
  Really? I can't reproduce it. For a specific map? Which version? Do you have any add-ons active?
  - kej 9y ago
    It's at least the movie and literature maps, with Firefox 54.0.1 (32-bit) on Windows 10 (64-bit). I am on a Windows Insider Preview build (16241.1001), so that could be it. Still broken with all add-ons disabled. Working fine in Firefox 54.0.1 on my Debian laptop.
    - no_gravity 9y ago
      Is it giving you an error in the console? "names written on top of each other" sounds like the script is executed partly and then stopped.
      - kej 9y ago
        The console reports: Error in parsing value for ‘left’. Declaration dropped. Error in parsing value for ‘top’. Declaration dropped. A little debugging shows that a NaN is getting into the item properties and then propagating through the calculations until it gets to the style.left= line where it fails, preventing the item from moving. Resizing the window will make everything start working.
        no_gravity 9y ago
        I see. I have some ideas what it could be. But since no Win10+FF combination I tried shows this behaviour, it's hard to debug. If you like, shoot me an email. Maybe we find a bug in the Win10 preview or Firefox.
dashboard 9y ago
Cool project. Can you share more on how you created the site?
- no_gravity 9y ago
  It's completely written from scratch. On top of a typical LAMP stack.
goodroot 9y ago
It's like a modern Zombocom.
macavity23 9y ago
I like it. The initial UI is confusing, but also intriguing. The author reco it gave (David Liss) was good. If you have 3 people working on this, presumably you have an actual product on the way, care to share more?

29 points by no_gravity 9y ago

brian_herman 9y ago

Your website is confusing.

no_gravity 9y ago
I see. It is basically a collection of discovery tools using machine learning and experimental visualizations. The front page is an experiment on its own. Meant to be somewhat self referential. You have to discover what it offers by playing with it.
- tnone 9y ago
  This is called mystery meat navigation and it's always, always a terrible idea.
reitanqild 9y ago
More specifically, in Firefox on Android it shows some kind of multi-colored star with no descriptions.
- no_gravity 9y ago
  That's correct. When you click the rays of the star, descriptions of the different Gnod sections should appear though.
  - reitanqild 9y ago
    I did. I must admit though that clicking 8 or something rays without having a single clue where they'll take me got old really really fast IMO. I'm no UX-er but I think this is what is described as mystery meat navigation.
  - geoah 9y ago
    Clicked the center a couple of times, tried scrolling and went for the comments to see what this was about. Cba going back.

jitl 9y ago

Visited, could not discover any content or interactions on my iPhone. What's supposed to be happening? Edit: on second reload, I can now touch the different spikes to open website sections. Cool little animation :-)

luke3butler 9y ago

The music discovery gave me some new bands that don't have a lot of listeners. Thanks! I'll be back for more.

neom 9y ago

I dunno how old this is but I feel like I've been using it to discover music since I was 15 or something? Years ago I discovered Camera obscura via Belle and Sebastian and fastball and I've been listening to them ever since.. I also thought it was called the Global Network of Dreams. It's a pretty awsome tool.

no_gravity 9y ago
Yup, your feeling is correct. When I wrote my first self-learning discovery tool, it was the one that asks the visitor for 3 bands and then suggests other bands based on what it learned so far. And for some reason I called it "Global Network Of Dreams" at that time. Glad it worked for you!
- neom 9y ago
  You are cool. Thanks fo being cool.

kej 9y ago

In desktop Firefox (on Windows 10), the text on the map doesn't spread out, so you end up with a bunch of names written on top of each other. Checked it in Chrome and it seems like a cool idea.

no_gravity 9y ago
Really? I can't reproduce it. For a specific map? Which version? Do you have any add-ons active?
- kej 9y ago
  It's at least the movie and literature maps, with Firefox 54.0.1 (32-bit) on Windows 10 (64-bit). I am on a Windows Insider Preview build (16241.1001), so that could be it. Still broken with all add-ons disabled. Working fine in Firefox 54.0.1 on my Debian laptop.
  - no_gravity 9y ago
    Is it giving you an error in the console? "names written on top of each other" sounds like the script is executed partly and then stopped.
    - kej 9y ago
      The console reports: Error in parsing value for ‘left’. Declaration dropped. Error in parsing value for ‘top’. Declaration dropped. A little debugging shows that a NaN is getting into the item properties and then propagating through the calculations until it gets to the style.left= line where it fails, preventing the item from moving. Resizing the window will make everything start working.
      - no_gravity 9y ago
        I see. I have some ideas what it could be. But since no Win10+FF combination I tried shows this behaviour, it's hard to debug. If you like, shoot me an email. Maybe we find a bug in the Win10 preview or Firefox.

dashboard 9y ago

Cool project. Can you share more on how you created the site?

no_gravity 9y ago
It's completely written from scratch. On top of a typical LAMP stack.

goodroot 9y ago

It's like a modern Zombocom.

macavity23 9y ago

I like it. The initial UI is confusing, but also intriguing. The author reco it gave (David Liss) was good. If you have 3 people working on this, presumably you have an actual product on the way, care to share more?