5 ms·

Hi hackernews! I'm the author of this site/chrome extension/app. I'm happy to answer any questions you might have/field any comments

chrisweekly 7y ago
Thanks for sharing. I'd suggest adding a bit of descriptive prose / "about" / readme / FAQ on the linked page. Also, its layout is suboptimal on mobile safari.
- JohnFen 7y ago
  > I'd suggest adding a bit of descriptive prose / "about" / readme / FAQ on the linked page. I think this would be essential. I've been clicking around on it, and it's not entirely clear to me how to work it. I may be an idiot, but I'd really love some instructions. EDIT: I just now managed to see the "wait I'm lost" link toward the bottom. It took some doing (that's part of the page that gets clipped). I'm now following the walkthrough -- perhaps that will clarify things for me. Edit edit: OK, I think I have a basic understanding of what's up. It's overly complex for my needs, though -- I think I prefer the normal comment threads.
  - ventedfins 7y ago
    > I'd suggest adding a bit of descriptive prose / "about" / readme / FAQ on the linked page. I'm on it! https://github.com/mcnuttandrew/forum-explorer/issues/67 https://github.com/mcnuttandrew/forum-explorer/issues/67 > Edit edit: OK, I think I have a basic understanding of what's up. It's overly complex for my needs, though -- I think I prefer the normal comment threads. that's super reasonable! this is an experimental interface, some things are bound to work for some people and not for others
- ventedfins 7y ago
  Unfortunately this work isn't really targeted at mobile devices. It seems to work reasonably well on tablet size device (IMO), but I wasn't really sure how to address phones. I think there was some work in the earlier 00's that tried to use treemaps as a way to explore social graphs on phones that had styluses but I haven't really heard of stuff since then
iandanforth 7y ago
I like being able to browse answers by the OP. Using your tool I found the OP name in the Top Poster's section and clicked that name. I then wanted to see the context for a specific comment so I clicked on it. Great that worked! Then I wanted to go back to where I was in the list of comments by the OP. I clicked the back button ... that didn't work. Ideally either the back button would work (each state has an equivalent URL) or the UI provides a way to return to the last state. Thanks for the interesting tool!
theoh 7y ago
When I started reading Usenet in the 90s, trn (threaded read news) was the state of the art in news readers. It might be worth mining the trn user interface for ideas. The author tried to write a major new version (4) in the late 90s, but from what I could see of the development process (being on a mailing list), the codebase became unmanageable and there were lots of bugs that proved impossible to catch. Usenet was on its last legs by that stage anyway. So that's a cautionary tale: make sure the specification and basic architecture remains clear and clean. (I'm not sure how many of the bugs back then were related to managing ncurses and other fiddly issues that won't arise in the architecture of a web app.)
- u801e 7y ago
  In terms of the interface, what did trn have over other newsreaders that were capable of displaying threads?
  - theoh 7y ago
    It had a mode for selecting threads to read (based on seeing the subject line). Having selected which threads in a particular newsgroup to read, the user would then switch into reading mode. Threads that the user didn't want to read could be "junked". This could work in the context of HN as a way of sorting posts into interesting and not interesting on a per-user basis. Rather than just navigating a set of threads, trn gave the user tools to productively keep up with discussions they were interested in, and not have to worry about other discussions at all (after dismissing those discussions once). Here's a basic explanation of the interface: https://www.einval.com/~steve/software/trn-faq.html https://www.einval.com/~steve/software/trn-faq.html
mthoms 7y ago
Very cool. I've got to admit though, I'm a little jaded towards "Chrome only" extensions. Is there a reason you couldn't build this in Firefox? As web developers, we've really got to stop this practice lest the web become further fragmented. Anyways, I don't want to come down on you specifically - I realize this is probably just an MVP. You did a great job.
- ventedfins 7y ago
  Thanks! I totally agree, I was just trying to minimize the number of things I was designing for while I was building it. That said, Firefox addon is in my todo! https://github.com/mcnuttandrew/forum-explorer/issues/45 https://github.com/mcnuttandrew/forum-explorer/issues/45
- jodrellblank 7y ago
  Is there a reason you can't build this in FireFox? How does "someone built a Chrome extension" justify you asking them to explain themselves for why they didn't build it the way you want?
  - mthoms 7y ago
    Questioning the choice of browser platform is a perfectly valid question (for obvious reasons that I shouldn't need to get into on HN). OP seems to agree with the sentiment, so I'm not sure why you're bothered.
    - jodrellblank 7y ago
      Asking about the choice of browser platform out of curiosity, might be a perfectly valid question. Questioning the choice (that is, implying it's wrong), asking for whether the reason is "good" as a value judgement, stating outright that "we have to do better", is not perfectly valid. It's rude.
      - mthoms 7y ago
        Fair point(s) when taken out of context. But considering (a) I tempered that implied criticism with glowing praise for their work and (b) clarified that I wasn't targeted the criticism at them personally, it seems to me you're looking a little too hard for something to be offended about. I'm passionate about protecting the open web because I believe a modern and free democratic society literally depends on it. And yes, I know that sounds quite dramatic, but I believe it wholeheartedly.
sm4rk0 7y ago
This site is crashing my Firefox Klar (ie. Focus) with: https://gist.github.com/sm4rk0/bc35eafbd516047b73d9dec2e2663baf https://gist.github.com/sm4rk0/bc35eafbd516047b73d9dec2e2663...
- ventedfins 7y ago
  Huh, i had not heard of that browser! cool i will investigate
  - sm4rk0 7y ago
    https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.mozilla.klar/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.mozilla.klar/ It's using System WebView. In my case Bromite https://www.bromite.org/fdroid https://www.bromite.org/fdroid
Kinnard 7y ago
Have you checked out arc? http://arclanguage.org/ http://arclanguage.org/ Hackernews is written in arc. I also think its interesting the the comment structure is a tree, just like an S-expression: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-expression https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-expression
- ventedfins 7y ago
  I haven't! That's super cool!!
eps 7y ago
Viewing site on iPad, it just shows a stack of "LOADING" messages on the left, "Some interesting examples" on the right and that's it. Nothing happens.
- scott_s 7y ago
  Go to the comments for a story.
oh_sigh 7y ago
Off topic but your home page(https://www.mcnutt.in/ https://www.mcnutt.in/) has a typo in bold: LANGUGAGES instead of LANGUAGES.
- ventedfins 7y ago
  :8 someone else actually went to the trouble of filing me a PR https://github.com/mcnuttandrew/mcnuttandrew.github.io/pull/3 https://github.com/mcnuttandrew/mcnuttandrew.github.io/pull/... I really wish my tooling for spell checking while writing jsx-y code was better, i feel like this happens a lot
  - macleginn 7y ago
    There is another typo in the first tip: s/seperate/separate
s188 7y ago
I'm definitely going to give this a try over the next few weeks. I like that its live. I like that I can mouse over an end point and pull up and entire thread (an interesting use case). I reckon this could become my 'go to' HN comment reader. I've been a long time lurker but created an account simply because of this. Great work!

chrisweekly 7y ago

Thanks for sharing. I'd suggest adding a bit of descriptive prose / "about" / readme / FAQ on the linked page. Also, its layout is suboptimal on mobile safari.

JohnFen 7y ago
> I'd suggest adding a bit of descriptive prose / "about" / readme / FAQ on the linked page. I think this would be essential. I've been clicking around on it, and it's not entirely clear to me how to work it. I may be an idiot, but I'd really love some instructions. EDIT: I just now managed to see the "wait I'm lost" link toward the bottom. It took some doing (that's part of the page that gets clipped). I'm now following the walkthrough -- perhaps that will clarify things for me. Edit edit: OK, I think I have a basic understanding of what's up. It's overly complex for my needs, though -- I think I prefer the normal comment threads.
- ventedfins 7y ago
  > I'd suggest adding a bit of descriptive prose / "about" / readme / FAQ on the linked page. I'm on it! https://github.com/mcnuttandrew/forum-explorer/issues/67 https://github.com/mcnuttandrew/forum-explorer/issues/67 > Edit edit: OK, I think I have a basic understanding of what's up. It's overly complex for my needs, though -- I think I prefer the normal comment threads. that's super reasonable! this is an experimental interface, some things are bound to work for some people and not for others
ventedfins 7y ago
Unfortunately this work isn't really targeted at mobile devices. It seems to work reasonably well on tablet size device (IMO), but I wasn't really sure how to address phones. I think there was some work in the earlier 00's that tried to use treemaps as a way to explore social graphs on phones that had styluses but I haven't really heard of stuff since then

iandanforth 7y ago

I like being able to browse answers by the OP. Using your tool I found the OP name in the Top Poster's section and clicked that name. I then wanted to see the context for a specific comment so I clicked on it. Great that worked! Then I wanted to go back to where I was in the list of comments by the OP. I clicked the back button ... that didn't work. Ideally either the back button would work (each state has an equivalent URL) or the UI provides a way to return to the last state. Thanks for the interesting tool!

theoh 7y ago

When I started reading Usenet in the 90s, trn (threaded read news) was the state of the art in news readers. It might be worth mining the trn user interface for ideas. The author tried to write a major new version (4) in the late 90s, but from what I could see of the development process (being on a mailing list), the codebase became unmanageable and there were lots of bugs that proved impossible to catch. Usenet was on its last legs by that stage anyway. So that's a cautionary tale: make sure the specification and basic architecture remains clear and clean. (I'm not sure how many of the bugs back then were related to managing ncurses and other fiddly issues that won't arise in the architecture of a web app.)

u801e 7y ago
In terms of the interface, what did trn have over other newsreaders that were capable of displaying threads?
- theoh 7y ago
  It had a mode for selecting threads to read (based on seeing the subject line). Having selected which threads in a particular newsgroup to read, the user would then switch into reading mode. Threads that the user didn't want to read could be "junked". This could work in the context of HN as a way of sorting posts into interesting and not interesting on a per-user basis. Rather than just navigating a set of threads, trn gave the user tools to productively keep up with discussions they were interested in, and not have to worry about other discussions at all (after dismissing those discussions once). Here's a basic explanation of the interface: https://www.einval.com/~steve/software/trn-faq.html https://www.einval.com/~steve/software/trn-faq.html

mthoms 7y ago

Very cool. I've got to admit though, I'm a little jaded towards "Chrome only" extensions. Is there a reason you couldn't build this in Firefox? As web developers, we've really got to stop this practice lest the web become further fragmented. Anyways, I don't want to come down on you specifically - I realize this is probably just an MVP. You did a great job.

ventedfins 7y ago
Thanks! I totally agree, I was just trying to minimize the number of things I was designing for while I was building it. That said, Firefox addon is in my todo! https://github.com/mcnuttandrew/forum-explorer/issues/45 https://github.com/mcnuttandrew/forum-explorer/issues/45
jodrellblank 7y ago
Is there a reason you can't build this in FireFox? How does "someone built a Chrome extension" justify you asking them to explain themselves for why they didn't build it the way you want?
- mthoms 7y ago
  Questioning the choice of browser platform is a perfectly valid question (for obvious reasons that I shouldn't need to get into on HN). OP seems to agree with the sentiment, so I'm not sure why you're bothered.
  - jodrellblank 7y ago
    Asking about the choice of browser platform out of curiosity, might be a perfectly valid question. Questioning the choice (that is, implying it's wrong), asking for whether the reason is "good" as a value judgement, stating outright that "we have to do better", is not perfectly valid. It's rude.
    - mthoms 7y ago
      Fair point(s) when taken out of context. But considering (a) I tempered that implied criticism with glowing praise for their work and (b) clarified that I wasn't targeted the criticism at them personally, it seems to me you're looking a little too hard for something to be offended about. I'm passionate about protecting the open web because I believe a modern and free democratic society literally depends on it. And yes, I know that sounds quite dramatic, but I believe it wholeheartedly.

sm4rk0 7y ago

This site is crashing my Firefox Klar (ie. Focus) with: https://gist.github.com/sm4rk0/bc35eafbd516047b73d9dec2e2663baf https://gist.github.com/sm4rk0/bc35eafbd516047b73d9dec2e2663...

ventedfins 7y ago
Huh, i had not heard of that browser! cool i will investigate
- sm4rk0 7y ago
  https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.mozilla.klar/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.mozilla.klar/ It's using System WebView. In my case Bromite https://www.bromite.org/fdroid https://www.bromite.org/fdroid

Kinnard 7y ago

Have you checked out arc? http://arclanguage.org/ http://arclanguage.org/ Hackernews is written in arc. I also think its interesting the the comment structure is a tree, just like an S-expression: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-expression https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-expression

ventedfins 7y ago
I haven't! That's super cool!!

eps 7y ago

Viewing site on iPad, it just shows a stack of "LOADING" messages on the left, "Some interesting examples" on the right and that's it. Nothing happens.

scott_s 7y ago
Go to the comments for a story.

oh_sigh 7y ago

Off topic but your home page(https://www.mcnutt.in/ https://www.mcnutt.in/) has a typo in bold: LANGUGAGES instead of LANGUAGES.

ventedfins 7y ago
:8 someone else actually went to the trouble of filing me a PR https://github.com/mcnuttandrew/mcnuttandrew.github.io/pull/3 https://github.com/mcnuttandrew/mcnuttandrew.github.io/pull/... I really wish my tooling for spell checking while writing jsx-y code was better, i feel like this happens a lot
- macleginn 7y ago
  There is another typo in the first tip: s/seperate/separate

s188 7y ago

I'm definitely going to give this a try over the next few weeks. I like that its live. I like that I can mouse over an end point and pull up and entire thread (an interesting use case). I reckon this could become my 'go to' HN comment reader. I've been a long time lurker but created an account simply because of this. Great work!