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Going to plug my project Fraidycat here. Feels like it satisfies many of these. http://fraidyc.at/ http://fraidyc.at/ It compiles RSS feeds and YouTube, Twitte

Going to plug my project Fraidycat here. Feels like it satisfies many of these. http://fraidyc.at/ http://fraidyc.at/ It compiles RSS feeds and YouTube, Twitter, etc into a dashboard-like view rather than a crowded timeline. No notifications, no algorithm. Just a tool for a human. Easy to “move into the periphery”. Very calm, even when I’m following 100s of people.

tomcooks 7y ago
EST! EST!! EST!!! The explanatory video alone is a gem, the fact that this extension is open source is a juicy bonus, the coziness factor is sky-high. From a person that doesn't install any extension ever: great concept, amazing execution, installed right meow. PS: How much money would you need to program a CLI version of this that I could host, and run forever and ever, on a tiny VPS?
- Normal_gaussian 7y ago
  Are you asking for a CLI interface that you access via SSH, or simply something you can execute and access the web interface for?
  - kickscondor 7y ago
    Perhaps I should break out the central library so people can add whatever other interfaces on top of it.
- kashyapc 7y ago
  What is "EST"? I know it's not the timezone. Given the frantic exclamation marks, probably it is "Everyone Stands Together" (had to look up: "EST + Urban Dictionary").
  - jdminhbg 7y ago
    I assume this is the reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Est!_Est!!_Est!!!_di_Montefiascone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Est!_Est!!_Est!!!_di_Montefias... > The unusual name of the wine region dates back to a 12th-century tale of a German bishop traveling to the Vatican for a meeting with the pope. The bishop sent a prelate ahead of him to survey the villages along the route for the best wines. The 'wine scout' had instructions to write 'Est' (Latin for 'There is') on the door or on the wall of the inns he visited when he was particularly impressed with the quality of the wine they served so the bishop following on his trail would have known in advance where to make a stop. At a Montefiascone inn, the prelate was reportedly so overwhelmed with the local wine that he wrote Est! Est!! Est!!! on the door.
    - kashyapc 7y ago
      Ah, thank you for correcting (and also for quoting the relevant bit). That's one hell of an obscure reference. :-) To complete the digression (from the same Wiki): ... the wine often receives mixed opinions with wine experts ... describing in The World Atlas of Wine 'Est! Est!! Est!!!' ... as "usually the dullest white wine with the strangest name in the world."
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
m_fayer 7y ago
That video introducing this project, oh my. Your delivery and what you're saying are just such a pleasure. Totally convinced me to take this for a spin.
- lapnitnelav 7y ago
  Yeah, that's high quality stuff. Unlike many projects were it's about the what the tool does, this one clearly nails down the why and it's done in such a brilliant way I couldn't stop watching it and be amazed. Outstanding execution there.
SiempreViernes 7y ago
Sounded nice, but I couldn't add a twitter account I wanted to follow because of unspecified network issues, so I'll return to it whenever I come across it again.
- kickscondor 7y ago
  It might be that you have 'strict tracking' on in Firefox? That's the only issue I know of currently that can cause this.
  - SiempreViernes 7y ago
    So all the permission it asks for aren't enough?
    - kickscondor 7y ago
      Yes, strict tracking will still block extensions. I hate the way permissions work with Fraidycat - I shouldn't need access to your website data to do this, for instance - I just need the ability to access URLs without using your credentials. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a permission for that. (Admittedly, I doubt they had something like Fraidycat in mind when designing the web extension API.)
bla3 7y ago
Looks cool, maybe do a real "show hn" post for it?
- kickscondor 7y ago
  I've thought about that - but have been hesitant until I'm sure it's to a level of quality that I can live with. (The project is only about a month old.)
  - dang 7y ago
    Please email us (hn@ycombinator.com) when you're ready, because I'm pretty sure the HN community will find a ton to discuss about this.
    - kickscondor 7y ago
      Ok - I very much appreciate this!
sails 7y ago
Just migrated from Feedly to take it for a spin, thank you for building this.
- kickscondor 7y ago
  Really? Wow. Did you import OPMLs from Feedly? I hope it went ok...
  - sails 7y ago
    Yes, just did an audit, it worked 90%, it seems some categories didn't get imported and just ended up in "Home", but it seems they all came across. It might be something to do with the categories from Feedly with multi-word titles. Will follow up if I figure it out!
    - kickscondor 7y ago
      Ok, great - yes, I imagine multi-word titles are the issue. Thanks for giving this a go!
wayne_skylar 7y ago
This is excellent! I was thinking of making something like this myself (before I knew it already existed) for the exact same reasons.
- kickscondor 7y ago
  Krikey - I'd be interested to know how close it is to your vision. Thank you for saying so.
rojobuffalo 7y ago
Cool idea and nice video explaining the project! As it's described it seems like I would be able to create one record for a real person and add multiple links if they have more than one URL I want to follow. But it looks like I have to create one "follow" per URL. What are your thoughts about grouping "follows" that belong to the same person? Should the top-level model in the user interface be real people that you want to keep up with or URLs that you want to keep up with?
- kickscondor 7y ago
  Totally agree. And I do have an issue for this: https://github.com/kickscondor/fraidycat/issues/21 https://github.com/kickscondor/fraidycat/issues/21 Just trying to sort out how to make it work, make it look.
legionof7 7y ago
Whatttttt how did I not know about this? This is great! I'd definitely subscribe to a Patreon or something to support this project.
dnozz 7y ago
Cool looking project.. I like..
mstade 7y ago
Oh wow, this looks just like something I’ve been meaning to build for a while now, but couldn’t find the time. Definitely taking this for a spin. Your intro video is great btw, and I also love your own site, the style is just pure love![0][1] [0]: for anyone interested in looking its at https://www.kickscondor.com/ https://www.kickscondor.com/ [1]: I am not in any way shape or form affiliated with the author, just very impressed!
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
TooSmugToFail 7y ago
Nice, I love it. Love the vibe of that intro video. Tangential question about the video: what's the name of thar movie with Nicolas Cage at 4:17? Thanks!
- kickscondor 7y ago
  National Treasure 2 :) enjoy
Minenash 7y ago
I saw all the comments about how good the intro video was, and I thought "how could a 'service' intro video be that good" Damn that was amazing though, definitely will try out.
- budabudimir 7y ago
  Exactly, never thought I'd say this, but true.
mplanchard 7y ago
I just wanted to add my voice to the growing chorus of people saying that the explanatory video is amazing. I shared it with several friends. I love how earnest and straightforward it is, how it’s focused and honest and NOT super slick and bland like every trendy thing in the world right now. I feel the same about the UI. It’s cozy. I will be installing this next time I’m at a computer. I agree with others that I would gladly pay for this, support it on patreon, etc, especially to help pay for the web hosting to make this into e.g. a website I could use on my phone. Thanks for making this!
- kickscondor 7y ago
  The two of us who work on this project do not feel deserving of this effusive praise. But it is very encouraging to hear. We will try to live up to this!
ComodoHacker 7y ago
>There is no news feed. Rather than showing you a massive inbox of new posts to sort through, you see a list of recently active individuals. No one can noisily take over this page, since every follow has a summary that takes up a mere two lines. Pretty much what Telegram does. Yet people are finding their ways to abuse this approach and "noisily take over" your attention.
friendlybus 7y ago
My older brother developed a more sophisticated version of this idea a decade ago and never released it to the public. You're showing successfully that the old internet 'dashboard' idea still hasn't died yet and I think it's valuable still. The internet's content should be controlled by the individual, not the feeds a big reddit,hn or facebook gives you. Simple good tools like what you provided should be a good step in cultivating an internet garden that can integrate into people's lives in a more orderly fashion.
- kickscondor 7y ago
  Would love to talk to your brother or hear more about this tool. Fraidycat is definitely quite simple on the surface - which might be an advantage, but I am also curious what 'sophistications' could be brought in.
  - friendlybus 7y ago
    Mostly on the design side that fit a high quality mid 2000s perspective. The next step for content aggregation is tiered ranking of qualitative properties of each news piece. I have a few ideas on what might provide that but it is not a fully formed thought yet.
    - kickscondor 7y ago
      Yeah, I'm pushing back hard on algorithms and ranking here. Not sure if that's what you mean. I like that it is a dumb tool that isn't doing any concealed magic. It's absolutely apparent how it ranks things. It's then up to the human to explore and curate and shape from there. However, I do see a place for search. I would love to add search terms like 'Nicholas Cage' and any time his name comes up (or perhaps even a related topic) I can track that.
geolgau 7y ago
What am I doing wrong? I installed the Firefox add-on, addded some RSS feeds then closed the tab. When I opened it again, I got an empty faidycat feed, as if I added nothing.
- kickscondor 7y ago
  You're in regular Firefox? Are you logged in? If you can work with me here: https://github.com/kickscondor/fraidycat/issues https://github.com/kickscondor/fraidycat/issues I would really appreciate it!
dlhavema 7y ago
I miss the old google home widget board thing. I know google hosted it but it felt very much like a simple dashboard and customizable.
jborichevskiy 7y ago
This is lovely. Thank you for taking the time and effort to build this!

tomcooks 7y ago

EST! EST!! EST!!! The explanatory video alone is a gem, the fact that this extension is open source is a juicy bonus, the coziness factor is sky-high. From a person that doesn't install any extension ever: great concept, amazing execution, installed right meow. PS: How much money would you need to program a CLI version of this that I could host, and run forever and ever, on a tiny VPS?

Normal_gaussian 7y ago
Are you asking for a CLI interface that you access via SSH, or simply something you can execute and access the web interface for?
- kickscondor 7y ago
  Perhaps I should break out the central library so people can add whatever other interfaces on top of it.
kashyapc 7y ago
What is "EST"? I know it's not the timezone. Given the frantic exclamation marks, probably it is "Everyone Stands Together" (had to look up: "EST + Urban Dictionary").
- jdminhbg 7y ago
  I assume this is the reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Est!_Est!!_Est!!!_di_Montefiascone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Est!_Est!!_Est!!!_di_Montefias... > The unusual name of the wine region dates back to a 12th-century tale of a German bishop traveling to the Vatican for a meeting with the pope. The bishop sent a prelate ahead of him to survey the villages along the route for the best wines. The 'wine scout' had instructions to write 'Est' (Latin for 'There is') on the door or on the wall of the inns he visited when he was particularly impressed with the quality of the wine they served so the bishop following on his trail would have known in advance where to make a stop. At a Montefiascone inn, the prelate was reportedly so overwhelmed with the local wine that he wrote Est! Est!! Est!!! on the door.
  - kashyapc 7y ago
    Ah, thank you for correcting (and also for quoting the relevant bit). That's one hell of an obscure reference. :-) To complete the digression (from the same Wiki): ... the wine often receives mixed opinions with wine experts ... describing in The World Atlas of Wine 'Est! Est!! Est!!!' ... as "usually the dullest white wine with the strangest name in the world."
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

m_fayer 7y ago

That video introducing this project, oh my. Your delivery and what you're saying are just such a pleasure. Totally convinced me to take this for a spin.

lapnitnelav 7y ago
Yeah, that's high quality stuff. Unlike many projects were it's about the what the tool does, this one clearly nails down the why and it's done in such a brilliant way I couldn't stop watching it and be amazed. Outstanding execution there.

SiempreViernes 7y ago

Sounded nice, but I couldn't add a twitter account I wanted to follow because of unspecified network issues, so I'll return to it whenever I come across it again.

kickscondor 7y ago
It might be that you have 'strict tracking' on in Firefox? That's the only issue I know of currently that can cause this.
- SiempreViernes 7y ago
  So all the permission it asks for aren't enough?
  - kickscondor 7y ago
    Yes, strict tracking will still block extensions. I hate the way permissions work with Fraidycat - I shouldn't need access to your website data to do this, for instance - I just need the ability to access URLs without using your credentials. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a permission for that. (Admittedly, I doubt they had something like Fraidycat in mind when designing the web extension API.)

bla3 7y ago

Looks cool, maybe do a real "show hn" post for it?

kickscondor 7y ago
I've thought about that - but have been hesitant until I'm sure it's to a level of quality that I can live with. (The project is only about a month old.)
- dang 7y ago
  Please email us (hn@ycombinator.com) when you're ready, because I'm pretty sure the HN community will find a ton to discuss about this.
  - kickscondor 7y ago
    Ok - I very much appreciate this!

sails 7y ago

Just migrated from Feedly to take it for a spin, thank you for building this.

kickscondor 7y ago
Really? Wow. Did you import OPMLs from Feedly? I hope it went ok...
- sails 7y ago
  Yes, just did an audit, it worked 90%, it seems some categories didn't get imported and just ended up in "Home", but it seems they all came across. It might be something to do with the categories from Feedly with multi-word titles. Will follow up if I figure it out!
  - kickscondor 7y ago
    Ok, great - yes, I imagine multi-word titles are the issue. Thanks for giving this a go!

wayne_skylar 7y ago

This is excellent! I was thinking of making something like this myself (before I knew it already existed) for the exact same reasons.

kickscondor 7y ago
Krikey - I'd be interested to know how close it is to your vision. Thank you for saying so.

rojobuffalo 7y ago

Cool idea and nice video explaining the project! As it's described it seems like I would be able to create one record for a real person and add multiple links if they have more than one URL I want to follow. But it looks like I have to create one "follow" per URL. What are your thoughts about grouping "follows" that belong to the same person? Should the top-level model in the user interface be real people that you want to keep up with or URLs that you want to keep up with?

kickscondor 7y ago
Totally agree. And I do have an issue for this: https://github.com/kickscondor/fraidycat/issues/21 https://github.com/kickscondor/fraidycat/issues/21 Just trying to sort out how to make it work, make it look.

legionof7 7y ago

Whatttttt how did I not know about this? This is great! I'd definitely subscribe to a Patreon or something to support this project.

dnozz 7y ago

Cool looking project.. I like..

mstade 7y ago

Oh wow, this looks just like something I’ve been meaning to build for a while now, but couldn’t find the time. Definitely taking this for a spin. Your intro video is great btw, and I also love your own site, the style is just pure love![0][1] [0]: for anyone interested in looking its at https://www.kickscondor.com/ https://www.kickscondor.com/ [1]: I am not in any way shape or form affiliated with the author, just very impressed!

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

TooSmugToFail 7y ago

Nice, I love it. Love the vibe of that intro video. Tangential question about the video: what's the name of thar movie with Nicolas Cage at 4:17? Thanks!

kickscondor 7y ago
National Treasure 2 :) enjoy

Minenash 7y ago

I saw all the comments about how good the intro video was, and I thought "how could a 'service' intro video be that good" Damn that was amazing though, definitely will try out.

budabudimir 7y ago
Exactly, never thought I'd say this, but true.

mplanchard 7y ago

I just wanted to add my voice to the growing chorus of people saying that the explanatory video is amazing. I shared it with several friends. I love how earnest and straightforward it is, how it’s focused and honest and NOT super slick and bland like every trendy thing in the world right now. I feel the same about the UI. It’s cozy. I will be installing this next time I’m at a computer. I agree with others that I would gladly pay for this, support it on patreon, etc, especially to help pay for the web hosting to make this into e.g. a website I could use on my phone. Thanks for making this!

kickscondor 7y ago
The two of us who work on this project do not feel deserving of this effusive praise. But it is very encouraging to hear. We will try to live up to this!

ComodoHacker 7y ago

>There is no news feed. Rather than showing you a massive inbox of new posts to sort through, you see a list of recently active individuals. No one can noisily take over this page, since every follow has a summary that takes up a mere two lines. Pretty much what Telegram does. Yet people are finding their ways to abuse this approach and "noisily take over" your attention.

friendlybus 7y ago

My older brother developed a more sophisticated version of this idea a decade ago and never released it to the public. You're showing successfully that the old internet 'dashboard' idea still hasn't died yet and I think it's valuable still. The internet's content should be controlled by the individual, not the feeds a big reddit,hn or facebook gives you. Simple good tools like what you provided should be a good step in cultivating an internet garden that can integrate into people's lives in a more orderly fashion.

kickscondor 7y ago
Would love to talk to your brother or hear more about this tool. Fraidycat is definitely quite simple on the surface - which might be an advantage, but I am also curious what 'sophistications' could be brought in.
- friendlybus 7y ago
  Mostly on the design side that fit a high quality mid 2000s perspective. The next step for content aggregation is tiered ranking of qualitative properties of each news piece. I have a few ideas on what might provide that but it is not a fully formed thought yet.
  - kickscondor 7y ago
    Yeah, I'm pushing back hard on algorithms and ranking here. Not sure if that's what you mean. I like that it is a dumb tool that isn't doing any concealed magic. It's absolutely apparent how it ranks things. It's then up to the human to explore and curate and shape from there. However, I do see a place for search. I would love to add search terms like 'Nicholas Cage' and any time his name comes up (or perhaps even a related topic) I can track that.

geolgau 7y ago

What am I doing wrong? I installed the Firefox add-on, addded some RSS feeds then closed the tab. When I opened it again, I got an empty faidycat feed, as if I added nothing.

kickscondor 7y ago
You're in regular Firefox? Are you logged in? If you can work with me here: https://github.com/kickscondor/fraidycat/issues https://github.com/kickscondor/fraidycat/issues I would really appreciate it!

dlhavema 7y ago

I miss the old google home widget board thing. I know google hosted it but it felt very much like a simple dashboard and customizable.

jborichevskiy 7y ago

This is lovely. Thank you for taking the time and effort to build this!