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Some commenters here are totally missing the purpose of the "Show HN" section! The main point of adding top-level comments to posts of this type is to provide

Some commenters here are totally missing the purpose of the "Show HN" section! The main point of adding top-level comments to posts of this type is to provide feedback, or more precisely, constructive criticism. This allows the poster to see his product/project/app/site through others' eyes, which greatly helps him improve the product and discover bugs that are not visible at development time. Having comments such as "nice", "good work" or "great app" does not help the developer, in any way, improve the app or see it from another angle (The Mom Test). Also, reading comments that say, "I use the X app instead; it is better, and..." is killing me! Yes, personally, I use Materialistic, Harmonic, and Gilder for Android, and I use HACK and Octal for iPhone, but mentioning them here doesn't add any value except if you propose a killer feature that they already have and you'd like the developer to implement. Anyways, I always salute, encourage, and upvote side projects like this that are related to HackerNews and below are a few critics that might help the developer make the app better: The biggest missing feature here that is already supported in all the other apps I've been using is the in-app browser and the comments' section. Clicking on any story would trigger the external default browser to view the page. Also, trying to access the comments would take you to "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=xyz" which ruins the user experience. The app is missing the "Show HN" and "Ask HN" sections, just to name a few. At any given time, I cannot tell what theme the app is already in because the *themes* list does not have the currently applied theme *highlighted*. Since you've already built some widgets, it would be of great value if you could build another *profile* widget where users can see their *karma* being updated regularly without having to open the app or access the HN website. That was my two cents. Good work so far, especially the "widgets" part. I wish you the best of luck. I apologize to other commenters if I've been rude. For me, that was.. "something needs to be said". Peace!

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ddxv 3y ago
Wow,now that's some great feedback! I especially enjoy the last idea,I never would have thought of a widget for a user profile. As for the in app browser, why is that preferable to the default browser? For example I am logged into HN in my default browser and I thought that would be preferred to inapp? I'll look into this though, as you're likely right for majority preference. As for missing the comments,that is indeed sorely needed. I will be working to add this. Anyways, thanks again for the quality feedback,appreciated.
LVB 3y ago
>Having comments such as "nice", "good work" or "great app" does not help the developer, in any way, Unless, of course, some of those comments lift the author's spirits, leaving them more motivated to improve it? No, I don't want Show HN threads to become a sea of "nice" responses. But as someone who has only occasionally gotten to a point of even posting to Show HN, I'll say I also appreciated the lightweight "great work" type comments.
dang 3y ago
There's definitely room for lightweight positive comments. Those are a natural part of healthy conversation. What we don't want are the shallow dismissal or name-calling kind; not anywhere on HN, but especially not in Show HNs, which have extra rules along those lines (https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html). (We also don't want the kind of thread that fills up with booster comments from friends/fans/users, usually after someone passed a link around. But that's a separate issue.) I agree with you that posting links to alternatives isn't great in a Show HN thread or a startup launch thread, but people are always going to do that - it's how the mind works (associatively). We usually downweight such comments when we see them, which ranks them lower in the thread. But of course there are many we don't see. (Edit: and yeah, you were right - this thread was full of them. Not good.) Applause for substantive feedback! including what you provided the OP here!
- redbell 3y ago
  > and yeah, you were right - this thread was full of them I believe it’s for this reason my comment was downvoted but I really don’t care as long as you and OP found my feedback to be positive!
teo_zero 3y ago
> The biggest missing feature here [...] is the in-app browser and the comments' section. Clicking on any story would trigger the external default browser to view the page. Actually I like it more this way! Triggering my default browser so that I can use all the features I'm accustomed to (including tabs, history, bookmarks etc.) works for me.

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ddxv 3y ago

Wow,now that's some great feedback! I especially enjoy the last idea,I never would have thought of a widget for a user profile. As for the in app browser, why is that preferable to the default browser? For example I am logged into HN in my default browser and I thought that would be preferred to inapp? I'll look into this though, as you're likely right for majority preference. As for missing the comments,that is indeed sorely needed. I will be working to add this. Anyways, thanks again for the quality feedback,appreciated.

LVB 3y ago

>Having comments such as "nice", "good work" or "great app" does not help the developer, in any way, Unless, of course, some of those comments lift the author's spirits, leaving them more motivated to improve it? No, I don't want Show HN threads to become a sea of "nice" responses. But as someone who has only occasionally gotten to a point of even posting to Show HN, I'll say I also appreciated the lightweight "great work" type comments.

dang 3y ago

There's definitely room for lightweight positive comments. Those are a natural part of healthy conversation. What we don't want are the shallow dismissal or name-calling kind; not anywhere on HN, but especially not in Show HNs, which have extra rules along those lines (https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html). (We also don't want the kind of thread that fills up with booster comments from friends/fans/users, usually after someone passed a link around. But that's a separate issue.) I agree with you that posting links to alternatives isn't great in a Show HN thread or a startup launch thread, but people are always going to do that - it's how the mind works (associatively). We usually downweight such comments when we see them, which ranks them lower in the thread. But of course there are many we don't see. (Edit: and yeah, you were right - this thread was full of them. Not good.) Applause for substantive feedback! including what you provided the OP here!

redbell 3y ago
> and yeah, you were right - this thread was full of them I believe it’s for this reason my comment was downvoted but I really don’t care as long as you and OP found my feedback to be positive!

teo_zero 3y ago

> The biggest missing feature here [...] is the in-app browser and the comments' section. Clicking on any story would trigger the external default browser to view the page. Actually I like it more this way! Triggering my default browser so that I can use all the features I'm accustomed to (including tabs, history, bookmarks etc.) works for me.