4 ms·

A Readable Techcrunch Feed

33 points by hmontazeri 3y ago

hmontazeri 3y ago
When I first started using TechCrunch, I found myself overwhelmed with the cluttered and overloaded user interface, which made it difficult to quickly find the information I was looking for. That's why I decided to create "A Readable TechCrunch Feed," a simplified version of TechCrunch that focuses on delivering the most important news and updates in a clean and easy-to-read format. As I developed the tool, I found myself constantly frustrated with the bloated and cluttered nature of the original TechCrunch site, and I knew that others in the tech community would benefit from a streamlined version that focused solely on the content. Overall, I created this tool out of a desire to improve the user experience for others who share my frustration with the overloaded UI of TechCrunch. By simplifying the site and making it easier to navigate, I hope to help others stay up-to-date on the latest tech news and trends without feeling overwhelmed or bogged down by excessive information.
- bobsoap 3y ago
  This looks like a nice project, but you lose a lot of credibility by having ChatGPT write your comment. This kind of post instantly repels any desire to seriously interact with you in any meaningful way (at least in me). If English is not your first language, I'd simply say so and then run your own text through deepl.com or something if you think you have to. If your grammar is lacking, use whatever tool for that on your own writing. Throwing up generic drivel with triple repetition of key facts that sounds like a madlib question straight out of an online marketing crash course is disrespectful to the reader and detrimental to your credibility. I'm speaking only for myself, of course, and others may disagree. Sorry if this is off-topic.
  - tnzk 3y ago
    You mean the parent is written by ChatGPT? How did you know that? I'm an ESL speaker and feel nothing wrong with the parent (beside being a bit too dense). Curious how natives or more fluent speakers would feel out of it.
    - marc 3y ago
      When you use ChatGPT a lot you start to recognize certain patterns. In this case, there’s 3 paragraphs of text, but there isn’t 3 paragraphs worth of information. So what likely happened is that the OP provided limited context to the AI and asked it to write a 3-paragraph post based on it which it happily obliged to. It feels like GPT-3.5. I think GPT-4 generally does a better job at these types of texts.
      - hackernewds 3y ago
        Now that you said it, I also recognize the pattern. But in a post-chatGPT world is there any solid source of truth that it was - what if OP denies it (which could realistically be true)?
        marc 3y ago
        Ultimately I don't think it matters whether it was written by ChatGPT or not. If it conveys the message the OP is trying to communicate in a readable way, that's all that matters. I think the reason the person above me pointed out it seemed like ChatGPT (as did I), is to inform the OP that it's quite transparent and they shouldn't just take whatever ChatGPT spits out. Of course it's possible that we're wrong and it was manually written. In that case it's useful to realize we live in a post-ChatGPT world and if something _looks_ AI-generated, that by itself is (unfortunately?) a bad attribute now.
    - Brajeshwar 3y ago
      I think a scanner will pop this up as ChatGPT-ed. Recently, I thought I will write along-side ChatGPT -- edit it to my tone, correct the styles to my liking, and the like. Unfortunately, I read after finishing up a few article I co-wrote with ChatGPT and I felt like puking all over. So, I stopped. I will still take inspiration but it feels really fake. Co-incidentally, after looking at most MidJourney pictures, I'm thinking of getting back to my hobby of photography.
    - rjh29 3y ago
      There's a complete lack of slang, the sentences are verbose, generally use more difficult and formal words (ChatGPT would say 'vocabulary' here), and the final "Overall," reads like a student essay rather than a comment. I agree with other posters about the information/word density being low.
  - hmontazeri 3y ago
    Thanks for the reply. You're right, it is written with ChatGPT as you already mentioned ENG isn't my first language. Basically just lazy TBH.
- jmsflknr 3y ago
  Yes, who cares about the ad-dollars that TechCrunch relies on to survive, right? What a great innovation. Do you also have a workaround to use UPS without any charges? How about avoiding a way to pay utility bills?
  - hackernewds 3y ago
    archive.org links are upvoted here all the time. including VPN solutions to skirt copyright laws. this is par for the course?
  - croisillon 3y ago
    yeah, who gonna pay for the horse carriages with all those automobile inventions?
  - kervantas 3y ago
    I can totally understand the OP's frustration with TechCrunch's website, and with cluttered, bloated, obfuscated websites in general which only aim to maximize the time the user spends there by confusing the fuck out of them. This is why I read sites like The Economist (finite number of articles, released weekly) and RSS feeds. So tired of the attention economy.
    - rchaud 3y ago
      Every website has a finite # of articles, provided you visit them a finite number of times.
  - hmontazeri 3y ago
    I have no problems with news sites using ads to make bucks, but the overloaded design makes it hard for me to get what the site is actually about, news!
  - NoMoreNicksLeft 3y ago
    In what Bizarro-world morality am I obligated to care about supporting their business model? When I think about such things at all, my train of thought tends towards pursuing only two ideas: 1. That advertising in general is either the worst outcome in some prisoners' dilemma game theory game, in that it never seems to inform potential customers and business spend inordinately trying to outspend everyone else. 2. That advertising may not actually meet the criteria to be considered speech/expression either in general, or when performed by corporations instead of individuals.
exizt88 3y ago
I'd pay good money for an AdBlock + UI cleaner as a Chrome extension. But I'm pretty sure it'd get nuked very quickly.
amadeuspagel 3y ago
It would be even more readdable if it was just one column.
- vishnuharidas 3y ago
  Totally agree. Scanning horizontally makes it hard on the eyes.
- hmontazeri 3y ago
  It is single column on small screens like phone
thecodeboy 3y ago
This is cool. I like text based news sites like http://text.npr.org http://text.npr.org I feel it makes me more mindful while scrolling. Is there a link to the code?
- hackernewds 3y ago
  would love a reddit version of reputable news sites. a solution besides going to /r/news
gumby 3y ago
RSS feed?
- hmontazeri 3y ago
  yes plus html parsing the content page
wslh 3y ago
I understand that TechCrunch supports RSS: https://techcrunch.com/feed/ https://techcrunch.com/feed/ so it is trivial to move from one format to the other. Is it?
- jacurtis 3y ago
  That was essentially my thoughts. I have had what OP built and I have had it for about 2 decades now. It is called an RSS reader. OP's problem statement is exactly why RSS readers are so amazing. It also means I can aggregate content from all my sites into one place. This tech has been around forever but has fallen out of favor, yet still supported by every major site. Just like how kids now are realizing the fun of film cameras and instant Polaroids as an alternative to digital photography, I keep hoping that a similar renaissance for RSS (or an alternative feed format) comes into vogue again. It really was a superior internet. The benefit of feed readers is that you are just aggregating original content that is still owned by the original owners. In OP's scenario they are violating copyright law with their site by using ChatGPT to read TechCrunch and regurgitate it onto their own site. This is textbook copyright fraud, and for those shouting "fair use", this wouldn't qualify because it is designed as a replacement to the original. After reading OP's site, I have no need for going to Techcrunch, which makes it no longer fair use. If OP was quoting (with citations) and commentating on techcrunch's article then that would be fair use.
marc 3y ago
I love that you wrote it using Cloudflare workers and just kept the default URL. Not everything needs to be a branded product with a custom domain, logo, etc.
- hmontazeri 3y ago
  Yeah, I used hono.dev to write it. So much fun! took me an hour or so...
xept 3y ago
TechCrunch looks surprisingly clean with JavaScript disabled (I use NoScript, so I have to enable JS manually on each site if needed). It's simply text and some images, nothing else.
precursor 3y ago
[flagged]
jacurtis 3y ago
Who's going to tell OP about RSS Feeds? After that I want to hear when OP learns about copyright law. You can't just republish another site's work (especially one that has lots of lawyers) as your own.
- imartin2k 3y ago
  Yep and worth mentioning that TC’s feed is not truncated, unlike many other feeds from sites covering tech. They deserve credit for still delivering full articles via RSS, after all those years and changing owners.
GoodDomainName 3y ago
TCReader.com sounds good for this project. Get it if you could.

33 points by hmontazeri 3y ago

When I first started using TechCrunch, I found myself overwhelmed with the cluttered and overloaded user interface, which made it difficult to quickly find the information I was looking for. That's why I decided to create "A Readable TechCrunch Feed," a simplified version of TechCrunch that focuses on delivering the most important news and updates in a clean and easy-to-read format. As I developed the tool, I found myself constantly frustrated with the bloated and cluttered nature of the original TechCrunch site, and I knew that others in the tech community would benefit from a streamlined version that focused solely on the content. Overall, I created this tool out of a desire to improve the user experience for others who share my frustration with the overloaded UI of TechCrunch. By simplifying the site and making it easier to navigate, I hope to help others stay up-to-date on the latest tech news and trends without feeling overwhelmed or bogged down by excessive information.

bobsoap 3y ago
This looks like a nice project, but you lose a lot of credibility by having ChatGPT write your comment. This kind of post instantly repels any desire to seriously interact with you in any meaningful way (at least in me). If English is not your first language, I'd simply say so and then run your own text through deepl.com or something if you think you have to. If your grammar is lacking, use whatever tool for that on your own writing. Throwing up generic drivel with triple repetition of key facts that sounds like a madlib question straight out of an online marketing crash course is disrespectful to the reader and detrimental to your credibility. I'm speaking only for myself, of course, and others may disagree. Sorry if this is off-topic.
- tnzk 3y ago
  You mean the parent is written by ChatGPT? How did you know that? I'm an ESL speaker and feel nothing wrong with the parent (beside being a bit too dense). Curious how natives or more fluent speakers would feel out of it.
  - marc 3y ago
    When you use ChatGPT a lot you start to recognize certain patterns. In this case, there’s 3 paragraphs of text, but there isn’t 3 paragraphs worth of information. So what likely happened is that the OP provided limited context to the AI and asked it to write a 3-paragraph post based on it which it happily obliged to. It feels like GPT-3.5. I think GPT-4 generally does a better job at these types of texts.
    - hackernewds 3y ago
      Now that you said it, I also recognize the pattern. But in a post-chatGPT world is there any solid source of truth that it was - what if OP denies it (which could realistically be true)?
      - marc 3y ago
        Ultimately I don't think it matters whether it was written by ChatGPT or not. If it conveys the message the OP is trying to communicate in a readable way, that's all that matters. I think the reason the person above me pointed out it seemed like ChatGPT (as did I), is to inform the OP that it's quite transparent and they shouldn't just take whatever ChatGPT spits out. Of course it's possible that we're wrong and it was manually written. In that case it's useful to realize we live in a post-ChatGPT world and if something _looks_ AI-generated, that by itself is (unfortunately?) a bad attribute now.
  - Brajeshwar 3y ago
    I think a scanner will pop this up as ChatGPT-ed. Recently, I thought I will write along-side ChatGPT -- edit it to my tone, correct the styles to my liking, and the like. Unfortunately, I read after finishing up a few article I co-wrote with ChatGPT and I felt like puking all over. So, I stopped. I will still take inspiration but it feels really fake. Co-incidentally, after looking at most MidJourney pictures, I'm thinking of getting back to my hobby of photography.
  - rjh29 3y ago
    There's a complete lack of slang, the sentences are verbose, generally use more difficult and formal words (ChatGPT would say 'vocabulary' here), and the final "Overall," reads like a student essay rather than a comment. I agree with other posters about the information/word density being low.
- hmontazeri 3y ago
  Thanks for the reply. You're right, it is written with ChatGPT as you already mentioned ENG isn't my first language. Basically just lazy TBH.
jmsflknr 3y ago
Yes, who cares about the ad-dollars that TechCrunch relies on to survive, right? What a great innovation. Do you also have a workaround to use UPS without any charges? How about avoiding a way to pay utility bills?
- hackernewds 3y ago
  archive.org links are upvoted here all the time. including VPN solutions to skirt copyright laws. this is par for the course?
- croisillon 3y ago
  yeah, who gonna pay for the horse carriages with all those automobile inventions?
- kervantas 3y ago
  I can totally understand the OP's frustration with TechCrunch's website, and with cluttered, bloated, obfuscated websites in general which only aim to maximize the time the user spends there by confusing the fuck out of them. This is why I read sites like The Economist (finite number of articles, released weekly) and RSS feeds. So tired of the attention economy.
  - rchaud 3y ago
    Every website has a finite # of articles, provided you visit them a finite number of times.
- hmontazeri 3y ago
  I have no problems with news sites using ads to make bucks, but the overloaded design makes it hard for me to get what the site is actually about, news!
- NoMoreNicksLeft 3y ago
  In what Bizarro-world morality am I obligated to care about supporting their business model? When I think about such things at all, my train of thought tends towards pursuing only two ideas: 1. That advertising in general is either the worst outcome in some prisoners' dilemma game theory game, in that it never seems to inform potential customers and business spend inordinately trying to outspend everyone else. 2. That advertising may not actually meet the criteria to be considered speech/expression either in general, or when performed by corporations instead of individuals.

exizt88 3y ago

I'd pay good money for an AdBlock + UI cleaner as a Chrome extension. But I'm pretty sure it'd get nuked very quickly.

amadeuspagel 3y ago

It would be even more readdable if it was just one column.

vishnuharidas 3y ago
Totally agree. Scanning horizontally makes it hard on the eyes.
hmontazeri 3y ago
It is single column on small screens like phone

thecodeboy 3y ago

This is cool. I like text based news sites like http://text.npr.org http://text.npr.org I feel it makes me more mindful while scrolling. Is there a link to the code?

hackernewds 3y ago
would love a reddit version of reputable news sites. a solution besides going to /r/news

gumby 3y ago

RSS feed?

hmontazeri 3y ago
yes plus html parsing the content page

wslh 3y ago

I understand that TechCrunch supports RSS: https://techcrunch.com/feed/ https://techcrunch.com/feed/ so it is trivial to move from one format to the other. Is it?

jacurtis 3y ago
That was essentially my thoughts. I have had what OP built and I have had it for about 2 decades now. It is called an RSS reader. OP's problem statement is exactly why RSS readers are so amazing. It also means I can aggregate content from all my sites into one place. This tech has been around forever but has fallen out of favor, yet still supported by every major site. Just like how kids now are realizing the fun of film cameras and instant Polaroids as an alternative to digital photography, I keep hoping that a similar renaissance for RSS (or an alternative feed format) comes into vogue again. It really was a superior internet. The benefit of feed readers is that you are just aggregating original content that is still owned by the original owners. In OP's scenario they are violating copyright law with their site by using ChatGPT to read TechCrunch and regurgitate it onto their own site. This is textbook copyright fraud, and for those shouting "fair use", this wouldn't qualify because it is designed as a replacement to the original. After reading OP's site, I have no need for going to Techcrunch, which makes it no longer fair use. If OP was quoting (with citations) and commentating on techcrunch's article then that would be fair use.

marc 3y ago

I love that you wrote it using Cloudflare workers and just kept the default URL. Not everything needs to be a branded product with a custom domain, logo, etc.

hmontazeri 3y ago
Yeah, I used hono.dev to write it. So much fun! took me an hour or so...

xept 3y ago

TechCrunch looks surprisingly clean with JavaScript disabled (I use NoScript, so I have to enable JS manually on each site if needed). It's simply text and some images, nothing else.

precursor 3y ago

[flagged]

jacurtis 3y ago

Who's going to tell OP about RSS Feeds? After that I want to hear when OP learns about copyright law. You can't just republish another site's work (especially one that has lots of lawyers) as your own.

imartin2k 3y ago
Yep and worth mentioning that TC’s feed is not truncated, unlike many other feeds from sites covering tech. They deserve credit for still delivering full articles via RSS, after all those years and changing owners.

GoodDomainName 3y ago

TCReader.com sounds good for this project. Get it if you could.