7 ms·

Show HN: HN reader that filters out COV-19 and Coronavir articles

52 points by gabrielsroka 7y ago

gabrielsroka 7y ago
I got tired of all the bad news, so I added a filter. It's about 100 lines of JavaScript (a SPA?) that uses the official HN API. It's designed mostly for mobile use. Since I read HN a lot, it keeps track (using localStorage) of which articles I've already seen, so I won't see them again. Source is on GitHub. Feel free to fork, open a PR, etc.
- new_realist 7y ago
  Bad news serves a purpose. Ignore it at your peril.
  - death-by-ppt 7y ago
    I agree, and I read major news sources online to get my recommended daily supply of bad news. I'd prefer to keep HN for fun tech news.
    - kingosticks 7y ago
      Unfortunately the "discussions" /comments on major news outlets are total garbage.
  - jsjddbbwj 7y ago
    "I'm feeling bad, so should feel bad too"
    - beaker52 7y ago
      Actually, it's really important that people get the latest advice, and feeling bad is a good thing when action is required to prevent worsening outbreaks. It's not just about YOU catching it and surviving it -- as we've seen, at peak outbreak, healthcare systems are going to be stretched thin. Routine healthcare suddenly becomes unavailable. As an example, someone who has a heart attack, or a serious car accident, who would usually survive given the appropriate level of treatment, will end up dying because that treatment simply isn't available. And it might not be YOU who contributes to taking up healthcare resources, but it could be anyone YOU pass it on to. So yeah, it is important to know what's going on, and have the seriousness of the situation rammed home. It's not like coronavirus is going to be affecting you for years to come, just this one. Sticking your head in the sand before the main wave of the crisis has even arrived is like avoiding news about an incoming hurricane. I cannot emphasise enough caution - keep your eyes and ears open - and take affirmative steps - for everyone's sake.
      - fwn 7y ago
        > it's really important that people get the latest advice While that's true on an abstract level there really are some important qualifiers for "latest advice". I'm reading Wikipedia articles on the topic (they are updated very frequently) and try to consume content from authorities like the WHO and the Robert Koch Institute (I'm German). There are probably a lot more high quality sources but I feel reasonably informed. I don't think there's any value in consuming a hundred reddit posts curated by engagement and stuffed with half-knowledge and karma-optimized fear comments.
        atoav 7y ago
        If you are German, check out the "NDR Coronavirus-Update" podcast series. They take half an hour every day to talk with Christian Dorsten from the Berliner Charite, who actually developed the Coronavirus tests and seriously knows what he is talking about. This has been the best resource I had found in any language on the topic.
        selimthegrim 7y ago
        I think he was on NPR Science Friday with Ira Flatow too
  - Tepix 7y ago
    Most bad news can be ignored. COVID-19 is a rare exception. News organizations are optimized at bringing you the worst things that happened all over the world every day.
    - _-___________-_ 7y ago
      Are you sure it's an exception?
  - tasubotadas 7y ago
    >Bad news serves a purpose. Yeah - generating pageviews.
- superasn 7y ago
  Also worked on something similar for HN on a weekend. It's called Snapnews, https://www.snapnews.win/ https://www.snapnews.win/. Basically it expires news items after some preset time (when the pie goes to 0 or when you hit the clear all button) and keeps adding new items in the queue. Catch is once the news item expires it's never shown again (tracked using local storage). Only worked on it for a few hours then got bored. Still the site is up because it's running on serverless architecture so it aint costing me anything.
markovbot 7y ago
Both the "Prev" and "Next" buttons seem to show the next page
- gabrielsroka 7y ago
  Yes, you're right. It's an artifact from an old version (it used to work). I left the "Prev" button in because it helps to line up the "Next" button with my thumb (on mobile). Lazy, but ergonomic.
natalyarostova 7y ago
Awesome! I love reading the covid news (I live in Seattle), and this is a cool way to make both parties happy.
aaron695 7y ago
Given SARS-CoV-2 is changing the entire world and directly affecting our lives now and in the future, and we can directly make simple -> complex changes to improve our personal lives with the correct information I think it's ironic HN can't coherently work towards the truth. But it does beg the question, since it can't with SARS-CoV-2, can HN work towards the truth with anything?
- officialjunk 7y ago
  regardless of what you hear, china takes outbreaks very seriously and responds aggressively. the general population in china also takes it very seriously. normal behavior response in china looks like over reaction in the us. please watch this video by 3blue1brown https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kas0tIxDvrg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kas0tIxDvrg china is past its inflection point and we have yet to determine where our inflection point will be. everyone should be changing your behavior now. the fact that sars-cov didn’t get as far in 2002 as sars-cov-2 virus is currently going should be concerning. the us could ignore prior outbreaks because china is aggressive to stop it.
- _-___________-_ 7y ago
  The reactions to SARS-CoV-2 are changing the entire world, for sure. So far the virus itself has had little impact.
  - hef19898 7y ago
    There was one epideiologist back during the SARS crisis who compared the spread of panic with the spread of the virus itself. But most people don't get the fine difference between critizicing the reactions, especially the public and media ones, and critizicing the measures taken. The panic itself can do a lot of harm in itself already. As I suck in managing sources, I don't have link to that interview, unfortunately...
fwn 7y ago
I did the same thing (hiding outbreak related content) on reddit with a few uBlock Origin filters: www.reddit.com##div[data-type="link"]:if(a:has-text(Covid-19)) www.reddit.com##article:if(span:has-text(Covid-19)) www.reddit.com##div[data-type="link"]:if(a:has-text(corona)) www.reddit.com##article:if(span:has-text(corona)) www.reddit.com##div[data-type="link"]:if(a:has-text(virus)) www.reddit.com##article:if(span:has-text(virus)) www.reddit.com##div[data-type="link"]:if(a:has-text(Corona)) www.reddit.com##article:if(span:has-text(Corona)) www.reddit.com##div[data-type="link"]:if(a:has-text(Corvid-19)) www.reddit.com##article:if(span:has-text(Corvid-19)) www.reddit.com##div[data-type="link"]:if(a:has-text(COVID-19)) www.reddit.com##article:if(span:has-text(COVID-19)) It's not very elegant but it was very fast to create and it's quite effective. It works on mobile and old reddit; I didn't test it on new reddit yet.
- hawski 7y ago
  It's great, there is no case around it so you can see the gears inside, but now I will be able to add several filters easily for different sites. Thanks. A useful snippet and idea.
samvher 7y ago
I actually got the impression that HN has already been under-weighting those posts. I noticed that often virus submissions are sorted below other submissions with lower scores submitted longer ago.
- altacc 7y ago
  There does seem to be a disparity between the number of posts found via search vs those that reach the front page. I've been quite relieved that HN has, so far, been a relatively calm oasis in an ocean of Covid-19 dominated media. I'm not seeking to put my head in the sand, but I find the constant coverage elsewhere numbing.
- DyslexicAtheist 7y ago
  one of my submissions about the restaurants and service industry yesterday[1] got flagged several times and it puzzled me tbh. Covid19 is being aggressively framed by the political parties and media (across the world not just US) to divide the public into camps of "believers" and "non-believers". How sensitive people get about the topic (of COVID19) is almost frightening because this isn't any more about a pandemic but whether what somebody who has an opinion signals about it. People who believe in the danger are quickly labeled liberals/democrat, or conservative if they don't believe in the danger. This. Is. Nuts! There is a real problem at our door. And it's not chickenshit such as a few people "believing in chemtrails" or that "evolution is a hoax", but whether this virus and the news around it are actually real. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22519125 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22519125
  - mantap 7y ago
    This is only temporary. When the coronavirus starts knocking on your door, everybody is a believer.
    - DyslexicAtheist 7y ago
      it seems we're witnessing a strange situation, where a large part of society is going through the "5 stages of grief" collectively, not all at once but with individuals distributed across the stages.
nonamesleft 7y ago
news.ycombinator.com##tr.athing:has(td.title):has(a:has-text(/(\bcovid\b|covid-2019|corona.virus|coronavirus|sars-cov|\bncov\b)/i)) news.ycombinator.com##tr.athing:has(td.title):has(a:has-text(/(\bcovid\b|covid-2019|corona.virus|coronavirus|sars-cov|\bncov\b)/i)) + tr news.ycombinator.com##tr.athing:has(td.title):has(a:has-text(/(\bcovid\b|covid-2019|corona.virus|coronavirus|sars-cov|\bncov\b)/i)) + tr + tr.spacer In ublock origin is how i have been doing it myself, naturally it isn't perfect.
qwerty456127 7y ago
Just how awesome would it be if one could hide all the news about the COV-2019 on ALL the web sites. And the most popular news at any given time. I don't want to be shown any news about what everybody is talking about already. That's such a pity Atom/RSS feeds are not everywhere any more. It would only take a humble regex to filter a feed.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
antirez 7y ago
This, and how cov19 was represented among HN top posts, shows that the original HN user base composition is now a minority.
buboard 7y ago
Alternatively, you can bury your head in the sand
- philshem 7y ago
  I wonder what ever happened with "The Man Who Knew Too Little" (2018) https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/10/style/the-man-who-knew-too-little.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/10/style/the-man-who-knew-to...
cafebabbe 7y ago
Alas, people in the US will soon learn that denial isn't a good vaccine.
- easytiger 7y ago
  It takes about 20 seconds a day to learn all you need to know about the not-yet-a-pandemic. Do you suggest the entire planet spends much of their day reading pointless or speculative articles?

Show HN: HN reader that filters out COV**-19 and Coronavir** articles

52 points by gabrielsroka 7y ago

I got tired of all the bad news, so I added a filter. It's about 100 lines of JavaScript (a SPA?) that uses the official HN API. It's designed mostly for mobile use. Since I read HN a lot, it keeps track (using localStorage) of which articles I've already seen, so I won't see them again. Source is on GitHub. Feel free to fork, open a PR, etc.

new_realist 7y ago
Bad news serves a purpose. Ignore it at your peril.
- death-by-ppt 7y ago
  I agree, and I read major news sources online to get my recommended daily supply of bad news. I'd prefer to keep HN for fun tech news.
  - kingosticks 7y ago
    Unfortunately the "discussions" /comments on major news outlets are total garbage.
- jsjddbbwj 7y ago
  "I'm feeling bad, so should feel bad too"
  - beaker52 7y ago
    Actually, it's really important that people get the latest advice, and feeling bad is a good thing when action is required to prevent worsening outbreaks. It's not just about YOU catching it and surviving it -- as we've seen, at peak outbreak, healthcare systems are going to be stretched thin. Routine healthcare suddenly becomes unavailable. As an example, someone who has a heart attack, or a serious car accident, who would usually survive given the appropriate level of treatment, will end up dying because that treatment simply isn't available. And it might not be YOU who contributes to taking up healthcare resources, but it could be anyone YOU pass it on to. So yeah, it is important to know what's going on, and have the seriousness of the situation rammed home. It's not like coronavirus is going to be affecting you for years to come, just this one. Sticking your head in the sand before the main wave of the crisis has even arrived is like avoiding news about an incoming hurricane. I cannot emphasise enough caution - keep your eyes and ears open - and take affirmative steps - for everyone's sake.
    - fwn 7y ago
      > it's really important that people get the latest advice While that's true on an abstract level there really are some important qualifiers for "latest advice". I'm reading Wikipedia articles on the topic (they are updated very frequently) and try to consume content from authorities like the WHO and the Robert Koch Institute (I'm German). There are probably a lot more high quality sources but I feel reasonably informed. I don't think there's any value in consuming a hundred reddit posts curated by engagement and stuffed with half-knowledge and karma-optimized fear comments.
      - atoav 7y ago
        If you are German, check out the "NDR Coronavirus-Update" podcast series. They take half an hour every day to talk with Christian Dorsten from the Berliner Charite, who actually developed the Coronavirus tests and seriously knows what he is talking about. This has been the best resource I had found in any language on the topic.
        selimthegrim 7y ago
        I think he was on NPR Science Friday with Ira Flatow too
- Tepix 7y ago
  Most bad news can be ignored. COVID-19 is a rare exception. News organizations are optimized at bringing you the worst things that happened all over the world every day.
  - _-___________-_ 7y ago
    Are you sure it's an exception?
- tasubotadas 7y ago
  >Bad news serves a purpose. Yeah - generating pageviews.
superasn 7y ago
Also worked on something similar for HN on a weekend. It's called Snapnews, https://www.snapnews.win/ https://www.snapnews.win/. Basically it expires news items after some preset time (when the pie goes to 0 or when you hit the clear all button) and keeps adding new items in the queue. Catch is once the news item expires it's never shown again (tracked using local storage). Only worked on it for a few hours then got bored. Still the site is up because it's running on serverless architecture so it aint costing me anything.

markovbot 7y ago

Both the "Prev" and "Next" buttons seem to show the next page

gabrielsroka 7y ago
Yes, you're right. It's an artifact from an old version (it used to work). I left the "Prev" button in because it helps to line up the "Next" button with my thumb (on mobile). Lazy, but ergonomic.

natalyarostova 7y ago

Awesome! I love reading the covid news (I live in Seattle), and this is a cool way to make both parties happy.

aaron695 7y ago

Given SARS-CoV-2 is changing the entire world and directly affecting our lives now and in the future, and we can directly make simple -> complex changes to improve our personal lives with the correct information I think it's ironic HN can't coherently work towards the truth. But it does beg the question, since it can't with SARS-CoV-2, can HN work towards the truth with anything?

officialjunk 7y ago
regardless of what you hear, china takes outbreaks very seriously and responds aggressively. the general population in china also takes it very seriously. normal behavior response in china looks like over reaction in the us. please watch this video by 3blue1brown https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kas0tIxDvrg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kas0tIxDvrg china is past its inflection point and we have yet to determine where our inflection point will be. everyone should be changing your behavior now. the fact that sars-cov didn’t get as far in 2002 as sars-cov-2 virus is currently going should be concerning. the us could ignore prior outbreaks because china is aggressive to stop it.
_-___________-_ 7y ago
The reactions to SARS-CoV-2 are changing the entire world, for sure. So far the virus itself has had little impact.
- hef19898 7y ago
  There was one epideiologist back during the SARS crisis who compared the spread of panic with the spread of the virus itself. But most people don't get the fine difference between critizicing the reactions, especially the public and media ones, and critizicing the measures taken. The panic itself can do a lot of harm in itself already. As I suck in managing sources, I don't have link to that interview, unfortunately...

fwn 7y ago

I did the same thing (hiding outbreak related content) on reddit with a few uBlock Origin filters: www.reddit.com##div[data-type="link"]:if(a:has-text(Covid-19)) www.reddit.com##article:if(span:has-text(Covid-19)) www.reddit.com##div[data-type="link"]:if(a:has-text(corona)) www.reddit.com##article:if(span:has-text(corona)) www.reddit.com##div[data-type="link"]:if(a:has-text(virus)) www.reddit.com##article:if(span:has-text(virus)) www.reddit.com##div[data-type="link"]:if(a:has-text(Corona)) www.reddit.com##article:if(span:has-text(Corona)) www.reddit.com##div[data-type="link"]:if(a:has-text(Corvid-19)) www.reddit.com##article:if(span:has-text(Corvid-19)) www.reddit.com##div[data-type="link"]:if(a:has-text(COVID-19)) www.reddit.com##article:if(span:has-text(COVID-19)) It's not very elegant but it was very fast to create and it's quite effective. It works on mobile and old reddit; I didn't test it on new reddit yet.

hawski 7y ago
It's great, there is no case around it so you can see the gears inside, but now I will be able to add several filters easily for different sites. Thanks. A useful snippet and idea.

samvher 7y ago

I actually got the impression that HN has already been under-weighting those posts. I noticed that often virus submissions are sorted below other submissions with lower scores submitted longer ago.

altacc 7y ago
There does seem to be a disparity between the number of posts found via search vs those that reach the front page. I've been quite relieved that HN has, so far, been a relatively calm oasis in an ocean of Covid-19 dominated media. I'm not seeking to put my head in the sand, but I find the constant coverage elsewhere numbing.
DyslexicAtheist 7y ago
one of my submissions about the restaurants and service industry yesterday[1] got flagged several times and it puzzled me tbh. Covid19 is being aggressively framed by the political parties and media (across the world not just US) to divide the public into camps of "believers" and "non-believers". How sensitive people get about the topic (of COVID19) is almost frightening because this isn't any more about a pandemic but whether what somebody who has an opinion signals about it. People who believe in the danger are quickly labeled liberals/democrat, or conservative if they don't believe in the danger. This. Is. Nuts! There is a real problem at our door. And it's not chickenshit such as a few people "believing in chemtrails" or that "evolution is a hoax", but whether this virus and the news around it are actually real. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22519125 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22519125
- mantap 7y ago
  This is only temporary. When the coronavirus starts knocking on your door, everybody is a believer.
  - DyslexicAtheist 7y ago
    it seems we're witnessing a strange situation, where a large part of society is going through the "5 stages of grief" collectively, not all at once but with individuals distributed across the stages.

nonamesleft 7y ago

qwerty456127 7y ago

Just how awesome would it be if one could hide all the news about the COV-2019 on ALL the web sites. And the most popular news at any given time. I don't want to be shown any news about what everybody is talking about already. That's such a pity Atom/RSS feeds are not everywhere any more. It would only take a humble regex to filter a feed.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

antirez 7y ago

This, and how cov19 was represented among HN top posts, shows that the original HN user base composition is now a minority.

buboard 7y ago

Alternatively, you can bury your head in the sand

philshem 7y ago
I wonder what ever happened with "The Man Who Knew Too Little" (2018) https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/10/style/the-man-who-knew-too-little.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/10/style/the-man-who-knew-to...

cafebabbe 7y ago

Alas, people in the US will soon learn that denial isn't a good vaccine.

easytiger 7y ago
It takes about 20 seconds a day to learn all you need to know about the not-yet-a-pandemic. Do you suggest the entire planet spends much of their day reading pointless or speculative articles?