7 ms·

How do you browse Hacker News?

22 points by bundie 4y ago

Hey everyone, I'm curious about how you all browse Hacker News. Do you use the website, mobile app, or a desktop client? If you use a desktop client, which one do you prefer and why?

slater 4y ago
Website. Also, there's a way to make polls on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/newpoll https://news.ycombinator.com/newpoll
theGeatZhopa 4y ago
I faved the "new" URL and keep refreshing the site in one if the 50+ tabs on my mobile browser, whenever I feel bored. No app, no client, no whatsever. That's one news site among lots others and not worth setting up a read-flow around. if one's so into news, Bloomberg terminal 24k/y, msy be a proper client. But not for me. Why the question?
ranabuzdar 4y ago
[flagged]
legrande 4y ago
I don't use any third party HN clients made by other people, for privacy reasons. All those clients are neat, but you don't know what they're doing in the background unless you start firing up debuggers. The HN site itself is enough and last time I checked there's no trackers and it even works with JS disabled. I use a mix of my phone and my desktop PC. (Phone for casual surfing of /newest and my desktop for commenting and submitting posts).
algoatecorn 4y ago
Desktop: bookmark Phone: URL shortcut icon on home screen Both are fine. I can't imagine an app would provide much more value, especially with the privacy cost.
brudgers 4y ago
Too much. Sometimes. Good luck. (sent from my iPhone)
hollerith 4y ago
I don't like how the home page at http://news.ycombinator.com/ http://news.ycombinator.com/ sorts by a combination of score and time-since-posting because that means that I end up scanning each entry (story title) over and over. In contrast, if they were sorted strictly by time-since-posting, I would probably quickly be able to tell once my scan of the list reached the part of the list I had already seen. Someone else (many years ago) had the same thought as what I wrote above, motivating him to create http://hckrnews.com/ http://hckrnews.com/, which is mainly what I use to find stories to read. (I also use https://hn.algolia.com/?query=%s&sort=byDate https://hn.algolia.com/?query=%s&sort=byDate to find stories to read.)
- CRConrad 4y ago
  > if they were sorted strictly by time-since-posting Isn't that exactly what you get on the “New” page? https://news.ycombinator.com/newest https://news.ycombinator.com/newest
  - hollerith 4y ago
    That page shows all stories whereas hckrnews.com shows only stories that are or were on HN's front page.
    - CRConrad 4y ago
      Ah. But... If you don't want to trust the front page's ordering of items, then why trust its choice of which to include? Seems a bit weird to me. Or, well, at least arbitrary.
      - hollerith 4y ago
        It has nothing to do with trust.
        CRConrad 4y ago
        OK, so let's use another word: If you're satisfied with letting HN's front-page algorithm select which posts you even get to see, then why not with the much smaller matter of ordering? (But of course it does: You being OK with an algorithm doing something for you is just another way of saying you trust the algo to do it for you.) Anyway, trivial problem: The post IDs in the URLs are monotonally increasing over time. Just sort by ID and the lowest is the oldest, the highest the newest.
seymon 4y ago
Materialistic Android App. Unfortunately it is not anymore in the Google Play Store. It's the best hackernews android app in my opinion. What android app do you use?
- skrblr 4y ago
  Materialistic became buggy for me in terms of UI elements arbitrarily switching to different themes (pixel 5a). I switched to Harmonic and have been very happy with it.
- RealCodingOtaku 4y ago
  You can find it in F-Droid[1], it still has the old version though. And it is not in active development. [1] https://f-droid.org/en/packages/io.github.hidroh.materialistic/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/io.github.hidroh.materialist...
  - DANmode 4y ago
    If the F-Droid version is the old version, the new one must be incredible!
fraXis 4y ago
I use a combination of the following: Browser: 1) news.ycombinator.com 2) daemonology.net/hn-daily 3) hckrnews.com 4) hn.premii.com 5) hn.algolia.com iOS: HACK for Hacker News Reader RSS: hnrss.github.io
tipsytoad 4y ago
Harmonic on android. Best by far from what I can find
- spikyllama 4y ago
  Harmonic is an excellent app.
- artogahr 4y ago
  Commenting this +1 from Harmonic on Android, it's fantastic.
- jonas-w 4y ago
  +1, tried many other apps, but nothing beats harmonic. Only downside is, that it makes hackernews too addicting.
- Snacklive 4y ago
  +1 To this, harmonic is my primary way to browse HN. Great app
nexus7556 4y ago
HACK for iOS is the best client I’ve found on iOS. https://apps.apple.com/app/id1464477788 https://apps.apple.com/app/id1464477788 On desktop I use the website but install HNES extension to help with some of the formatting.
- d4rkp4ttern 4y ago
  Indeed this is the best and only way I browse HN. It’s a far better experience than the desktop HN page.
slyall 4y ago
I follow the twitter feed, rarely click on anything but see topics go by and semi-remember them for later (or I sometimes open up the site right-away). 2-3 times a day I go to the site on a desktop browser. Scroll through the first 2-3 pages (logged in, standard view) and open a tab for the story and discussion. Work though these gradually. Occasionally I open the site on my phone but find a pain to use it that way (and I'm not logged in).
dpifke 4y ago
Firefox (desktop and Android) with uBlock Origin list that hides the tee-vee news, blogspam, and off-topic garbage: https://pifke.org/hn.txt https://pifke.org/hn.txt
swipee 4y ago
Desktop: Website iOS: Octal Because everyone else links to their preferred apps: https://apps.apple.com/se/app/octal-for-hacker-news/id1308885491?l=en https://apps.apple.com/se/app/octal-for-hacker-news/id130888...
dredmorbius 4y ago
Web. On desktop, I use my own custom CSS hacks to restyle the site: Dred's HN CSS Madhackery: <https://pastebin.com/gLXiqKyd https://pastebin.com/gLXiqKyd> Dred's HN CSS Madhackery -- Dark Mode: <https://pastebin.com/6PF3dCXH https://pastebin.com/6PF3dCXH> (Those are linked in my HN profile.)
zak-wrench 4y ago
Through materialistic app, it's no longer on google app but can be found on f-droid
precompute 4y ago
Desktop browser with hastily written custom CSS (https://pastebin.com/CEjLKFar https://pastebin.com/CEjLKFar) and the "Dark Reader" add-on.
karmakaze 4y ago
Own web client[0]. Click the date title for yesterday. It was handy having all the SVB stories grouped separately. [0] https://hackerer.news/ https://hackerer.news/
partyguy 4y ago
Currently using the "Glider"¹ client on Android. Pretty happy with it so far. ¹ https://www.f-droid.org/en/packages/nl.viter.glider/ https://www.f-droid.org/en/packages/nl.viter.glider/
web3-is-a-scam 4y ago
I just use safari on my phone
mutant 4y ago
Hacki for Hacker News (Hacki is a simple noiseless Hacker News client that is just enough.) https://f-droid.org/packages/com.jiaqifeng.hacki/ https://f-droid.org/packages/com.jiaqifeng.hacki/ I really enjoy Hacki when mobile
wkat4242 4y ago
Web mainly.. And glider for Android.
schweiber 4y ago
I created this(https://plaihn.vercel.app/ https://plaihn.vercel.app/) for myself specifically for mobile viewing as I wanted something decluttered compared to all the IOS apps that I’ve used before. Not saying they’re any less but I personally wanted something very simple. I wish to create a comment section within that as well in the future.
theowenyoung 4y ago
I use https://hn.buzzing.cc/ https://hn.buzzing.cc/ to browser Hacker News in both Chinese and English.
ThePowerOfFuet 4y ago
I use the Glider app, which runs great on GrapheneOS.
CRConrad 4y ago
Obsessively. HTH!
_piif 4y ago
Glider for Android https://f-droid.org/packages/nl.viter.glider/ https://f-droid.org/packages/nl.viter.glider/
Aperocky 4y ago
Try this terminal client out: https://github.com/Aperocky/hnterminal https://github.com/Aperocky/hnterminal `pip install hnterminal`
gigantino 4y ago
I use my own custom client since I couldn't find anything that satisfied me enough, and the ones that looked nice didn't work without JS. You can find it over at https://hn.gigantino.dev https://hn.gigantino.dev, while the source is at https://github.com/gigantino/hn https://github.com/gigantino/hn
rpastuszak 4y ago
news.ycombinator.com with 150% zoom
mdwalters 4y ago
The website
data_base 4y ago
I use a small Firefox extension I made that displays HN in the sidebar, and offers a keyboard shortcut to toggle it. https://github.com/datastring/firefox-hacker-news-in-sidebar https://github.com/datastring/firefox-hacker-news-in-sidebar
adityamwagh 4y ago
I use Octal, Free with $5.99 for paid features (commenting, etc) Great UI, performant app and the developer is quite active in pushing updates. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/octal-for-hacker-news/id1308885491 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/octal-for-hacker-news/id130888...
- kevviiinn 4y ago
  You have to pay to comment? That's ridiculous. Just make it a paid app
  - anonomousename 4y ago
    I assume the free version is meant to be used as a trial to evaluate the quality of the client. There is a “Share HN Link” option for each comment where you can comment on the webpage. After using it for free for a year or so, I paid because it’s one of my favorite clients on iOS.

22 points by bundie 4y ago

Hey everyone, I'm curious about how you all browse Hacker News. Do you use the website, mobile app, or a desktop client? If you use a desktop client, which one do you prefer and why?

slater 4y ago

Website. Also, there's a way to make polls on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/newpoll https://news.ycombinator.com/newpoll

theGeatZhopa 4y ago

I faved the "new" URL and keep refreshing the site in one if the 50+ tabs on my mobile browser, whenever I feel bored. No app, no client, no whatsever. That's one news site among lots others and not worth setting up a read-flow around. if one's so into news, Bloomberg terminal 24k/y, msy be a proper client. But not for me. Why the question?

ranabuzdar 4y ago

[flagged]

legrande 4y ago

I don't use any third party HN clients made by other people, for privacy reasons. All those clients are neat, but you don't know what they're doing in the background unless you start firing up debuggers. The HN site itself is enough and last time I checked there's no trackers and it even works with JS disabled. I use a mix of my phone and my desktop PC. (Phone for casual surfing of /newest and my desktop for commenting and submitting posts).

algoatecorn 4y ago

Desktop: bookmark Phone: URL shortcut icon on home screen Both are fine. I can't imagine an app would provide much more value, especially with the privacy cost.

brudgers 4y ago

Too much. Sometimes. Good luck. (sent from my iPhone)

hollerith 4y ago

I don't like how the home page at http://news.ycombinator.com/ http://news.ycombinator.com/ sorts by a combination of score and time-since-posting because that means that I end up scanning each entry (story title) over and over. In contrast, if they were sorted strictly by time-since-posting, I would probably quickly be able to tell once my scan of the list reached the part of the list I had already seen. Someone else (many years ago) had the same thought as what I wrote above, motivating him to create http://hckrnews.com/ http://hckrnews.com/, which is mainly what I use to find stories to read. (I also use https://hn.algolia.com/?query=%s&sort=byDate https://hn.algolia.com/?query=%s&sort=byDate to find stories to read.)

CRConrad 4y ago
> if they were sorted strictly by time-since-posting Isn't that exactly what you get on the “New” page? https://news.ycombinator.com/newest https://news.ycombinator.com/newest
- hollerith 4y ago
  That page shows all stories whereas hckrnews.com shows only stories that are or were on HN's front page.
  - CRConrad 4y ago
    Ah. But... If you don't want to trust the front page's ordering of items, then why trust its choice of which to include? Seems a bit weird to me. Or, well, at least arbitrary.
    - hollerith 4y ago
      It has nothing to do with trust.
      - CRConrad 4y ago
        OK, so let's use another word: If you're satisfied with letting HN's front-page algorithm select which posts you even get to see, then why not with the much smaller matter of ordering? (But of course it does: You being OK with an algorithm doing something for you is just another way of saying you trust the algo to do it for you.) Anyway, trivial problem: The post IDs in the URLs are monotonally increasing over time. Just sort by ID and the lowest is the oldest, the highest the newest.

seymon 4y ago

Materialistic Android App. Unfortunately it is not anymore in the Google Play Store. It's the best hackernews android app in my opinion. What android app do you use?

skrblr 4y ago
Materialistic became buggy for me in terms of UI elements arbitrarily switching to different themes (pixel 5a). I switched to Harmonic and have been very happy with it.
RealCodingOtaku 4y ago
You can find it in F-Droid[1], it still has the old version though. And it is not in active development. [1] https://f-droid.org/en/packages/io.github.hidroh.materialistic/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/io.github.hidroh.materialist...
- DANmode 4y ago
  If the F-Droid version is the old version, the new one must be incredible!

fraXis 4y ago

I use a combination of the following: Browser: 1) news.ycombinator.com 2) daemonology.net/hn-daily 3) hckrnews.com 4) hn.premii.com 5) hn.algolia.com iOS: HACK for Hacker News Reader RSS: hnrss.github.io

tipsytoad 4y ago

Harmonic on android. Best by far from what I can find

spikyllama 4y ago
Harmonic is an excellent app.
artogahr 4y ago
Commenting this +1 from Harmonic on Android, it's fantastic.
jonas-w 4y ago
+1, tried many other apps, but nothing beats harmonic. Only downside is, that it makes hackernews too addicting.
Snacklive 4y ago
+1 To this, harmonic is my primary way to browse HN. Great app

nexus7556 4y ago

HACK for iOS is the best client I’ve found on iOS. https://apps.apple.com/app/id1464477788 https://apps.apple.com/app/id1464477788 On desktop I use the website but install HNES extension to help with some of the formatting.

d4rkp4ttern 4y ago
Indeed this is the best and only way I browse HN. It’s a far better experience than the desktop HN page.

slyall 4y ago

I follow the twitter feed, rarely click on anything but see topics go by and semi-remember them for later (or I sometimes open up the site right-away). 2-3 times a day I go to the site on a desktop browser. Scroll through the first 2-3 pages (logged in, standard view) and open a tab for the story and discussion. Work though these gradually. Occasionally I open the site on my phone but find a pain to use it that way (and I'm not logged in).

dpifke 4y ago

Firefox (desktop and Android) with uBlock Origin list that hides the tee-vee news, blogspam, and off-topic garbage: https://pifke.org/hn.txt https://pifke.org/hn.txt

swipee 4y ago

Desktop: Website iOS: Octal Because everyone else links to their preferred apps: https://apps.apple.com/se/app/octal-for-hacker-news/id1308885491?l=en https://apps.apple.com/se/app/octal-for-hacker-news/id130888...

dredmorbius 4y ago

Web. On desktop, I use my own custom CSS hacks to restyle the site: Dred's HN CSS Madhackery: <https://pastebin.com/gLXiqKyd https://pastebin.com/gLXiqKyd> Dred's HN CSS Madhackery -- Dark Mode: <https://pastebin.com/6PF3dCXH https://pastebin.com/6PF3dCXH> (Those are linked in my HN profile.)

zak-wrench 4y ago

Through materialistic app, it's no longer on google app but can be found on f-droid

precompute 4y ago

Desktop browser with hastily written custom CSS (https://pastebin.com/CEjLKFar https://pastebin.com/CEjLKFar) and the "Dark Reader" add-on.

karmakaze 4y ago

Own web client[0]. Click the date title for yesterday. It was handy having all the SVB stories grouped separately. [0] https://hackerer.news/ https://hackerer.news/

partyguy 4y ago

Currently using the "Glider"¹ client on Android. Pretty happy with it so far. ¹ https://www.f-droid.org/en/packages/nl.viter.glider/ https://www.f-droid.org/en/packages/nl.viter.glider/

web3-is-a-scam 4y ago

I just use safari on my phone

mutant 4y ago

Hacki for Hacker News (Hacki is a simple noiseless Hacker News client that is just enough.) https://f-droid.org/packages/com.jiaqifeng.hacki/ https://f-droid.org/packages/com.jiaqifeng.hacki/ I really enjoy Hacki when mobile

wkat4242 4y ago

Web mainly.. And glider for Android.

schweiber 4y ago

I created this(https://plaihn.vercel.app/ https://plaihn.vercel.app/) for myself specifically for mobile viewing as I wanted something decluttered compared to all the IOS apps that I’ve used before. Not saying they’re any less but I personally wanted something very simple. I wish to create a comment section within that as well in the future.

theowenyoung 4y ago

I use https://hn.buzzing.cc/ https://hn.buzzing.cc/ to browser Hacker News in both Chinese and English.

ThePowerOfFuet 4y ago

I use the Glider app, which runs great on GrapheneOS.

CRConrad 4y ago

Obsessively. HTH!

_piif 4y ago

Glider for Android https://f-droid.org/packages/nl.viter.glider/ https://f-droid.org/packages/nl.viter.glider/

Aperocky 4y ago

Try this terminal client out: https://github.com/Aperocky/hnterminal https://github.com/Aperocky/hnterminal `pip install hnterminal`

gigantino 4y ago

I use my own custom client since I couldn't find anything that satisfied me enough, and the ones that looked nice didn't work without JS. You can find it over at https://hn.gigantino.dev https://hn.gigantino.dev, while the source is at https://github.com/gigantino/hn https://github.com/gigantino/hn

rpastuszak 4y ago

news.ycombinator.com with 150% zoom

mdwalters 4y ago

The website

data_base 4y ago

I use a small Firefox extension I made that displays HN in the sidebar, and offers a keyboard shortcut to toggle it. https://github.com/datastring/firefox-hacker-news-in-sidebar https://github.com/datastring/firefox-hacker-news-in-sidebar

adityamwagh 4y ago

I use Octal, Free with $5.99 for paid features (commenting, etc) Great UI, performant app and the developer is quite active in pushing updates. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/octal-for-hacker-news/id1308885491 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/octal-for-hacker-news/id130888...

kevviiinn 4y ago
You have to pay to comment? That's ridiculous. Just make it a paid app
- anonomousename 4y ago
  I assume the free version is meant to be used as a trial to evaluate the quality of the client. There is a “Share HN Link” option for each comment where you can comment on the webpage. After using it for free for a year or so, I paid because it’s one of my favorite clients on iOS.