7 ms·

I don't want to step on these guys' PR, but I do have a similar personal project for anybody who is interested, http://newspaper23.com http://newspaper23.com I

I don't want to step on these guys' PR, but I do have a similar personal project for anybody who is interested, http://newspaper23.com http://newspaper23.com Initially it's just an aggregator that presents commentary in plain text. I plan on adding a summarizer one day. For a personal project, I've been using it daily for over a year, so I know I find a lot of value in this type of thing. As sites try to get more sticky, the signal-to-noise ratio decreases. You spend more time reading a lot of trivial articles that a Facebook friend recommended instead of a few articles that you've scanned yourself. I know Google and FB say social search is the cool thing, but in my experience the only thing it does is increase consumption of mediocre shiny stuff. Much better to pre-qualify sources and then control the depth of your dive. For newspaper23, one of the original ideas was a timer for each day. 30 minutes of scanning and the site would refuse to load until the next day. I'd like to see more of this type of thing -- gearing content consumption to humans instead of site creators and advertisers.

logn 14y ago
Very nice too. But some advice: the titles are way too big and look unprofessional, and the front page needs summaries. Other than that I like it.
- DanielBMarkham 14y ago
  Thanks. I threw it together using the first version of Bootstrap if I recall. I think the titles are actually buttons. Also the UI is buggy. I have to use the back buttons to get back to the main page. Many times it's easier just to reload the site to get to the first page. But it scales nicely out to a tablet. And a phone. Part of the initial appeal for my writing it was to download all of the daily commentary as json to my tablet. Then I could walk around town and such without having to worry about an internet connection. The idea was -- how much real static text do you consume in a day? Can't be more than 100 or so articles. So why not just download the plain text and consume it at your leisure? Another feature I wanted was the ability for people peering over my shoulder to NOT be able to tell what I was consuming. Many times at work or on the train I'd have some time to read commentary, and the last thing I wanted to do was load up a page with a branded look and feel. I wanted the plainest amount of pure text possible. I appreciate the feedback. Although I use it daily, it's not high on my list of priorities. Next up I think I'll double the amount and type of content. Maybe after that I'll go back to the UI for some rework. For me this is more of a personal thing than a business feeler. So even if nobody else in the world likes it, I'm good. :)
MichaelApproved 14y ago
Looks like there are a few of us on HN trying to solve the news consumption problem. My site[1] tries to crowdsource the summaries by encouraging the readers to summarize a story themselves. In the meantime, we create most of the summaries in-house. Newser[2] tried to do the same thing but gave up and just focused on in-house created summaries. Regarding the summary process, it's good to see another group manually summarizing posts as opposed to Summly[3] which tries automate the process. For many reasons already stated in another comment[4], I don't think automation will ever work. Good luck to the guys over at http://toolong-didntread.com http://toolong-didntread.com and http://newspaper23.com http://newspaper23.com. I hope one of us gets some real traction! [1] http://skimthat.com http://skimthat.com [2] http://www.newser.com/ http://www.newser.com/ [3] http://summly.com/ http://summly.com/ [4] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4741855 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4741855 Edit: Another product that tries to summarize news http://cir.ca/ http://cir.ca/
- czzarr 14y ago
  you forgot http://tldr.io http://tldr.io
  - MichaelApproved 14y ago
    Thanks! I didn't know about that site before and it looks like they have many contributors. I considered doing a bookmarklet like they do but I figured that I would need a critical number of people before it could be realistic to use. In the meantime, I created a list[1] of popular stories from Reddit news sources. Each story links to a special hybrid page that allows you to write a summary on top while you read the story below. [1] http://skimthat.com/unsummarized http://skimthat.com/unsummarized edit: clarification
    - mtrimpe 14y ago
      I read the tldr.io of this TL;DR service first.
      - 14y ago
zio99 14y ago
Once again, not to step on TL;DR, but since most commenting here are saying that curation is not scalable or sustainable, I wanted to present it in this way: Phase 1: The MVP of a news aggregator should be a curated/editorial like traditional media/magazines, etc [1] Phase 2: The second stage should be to have submissions from your readers (on content that interests them). Phase 3: The next would be to have a voting mechanism, and then realizing that articles have different relevance in different communities - which is what prismatic and ypander were aiming to solve. Full Disclosure: I am working on summarizing technology news, and the tagline so far has been "Hacker News on Steroids." Before it gets to that stage, I'm skimming my most favourite feeds from Google Reader. The best mobile wrapper I've found (since I'm targeting mobile as well) has been Feedly, which presents it as more like a magazine. Keep in mind Feedly didn't start out as this 4 years ago. Another project aiming to solve this problem with a bookmarklet (and has a more appt domain name imo is tldr.io) though I personally haven't used it. Summly is another one, but after using it for a while, I found Feedly much better suited to my reading habits. I'd love to team up with others who are working on this problem. My MVP is at http://dinopost.com http://dinopost.com. Drop me a line at aaron at dinopost. [1] Phases based on Casey Accidental's blog post: Online News is Broken: http://caseyaccidental.com/online-news-is-broken/ http://caseyaccidental.com/online-news-is-broken/
- czzarr 14y ago
  hey there, did you know that tldr.io now offers an extension that allows you to read tldrs without leaving the HN frontpage? https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tldr/ohmamcbkcmfalompaelgoepcnbnpiioe https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tldr/ohmamcbkcmfal... full disclosure: i'm one of the cofounders
dsplittgerber 14y ago
Your site is awesome! I've been looking for a way to read without distractions and without having to enter every single article into instapaper. What many people underestimate is that summaries have an inherent problem: bias. No two people are ever going to summarize an article the exact same way - much less so when it comes to politics etc. So before I use a site to read summaries, I have to trust the brand (I trust The Economist, for they mostly differentiate between reporting and editorializing) and I will never ever trust an anonymous bunch of people (the "crowdsourcing" summaries-solution) to accurately summarize without bias. I value as-close-to-objective-reporting-as-possible very highly - judgments I can make my own.
- ams6110 14y ago
  Objective reporting, if it ever existed, is a quaint artifact of history as far as I can tell. Even if explicit opinion or analysis is excluded, the mere selection of which facts to include and exclude is subject to bias of the writer/editors. The only way I can see to get the unbiased facts out of news reporting is to consume a variety of sources.
jonathanjaeger 14y ago
Newspaper23, I have a very hard time adjusting my eyes to that font/typography combo. I simply can't read the titles fast enough to return to the site. Reddit and HackerNews are easier on the eyes (same with OP's link).
drakaal 14y ago
I do want to step on their PR. This is like looking at an RSS feed. Try something like TLDRPlugin.com that actually summarizes content, and works with any web page, not just the few RSS feeds that some guy decided to include.
cjstewart88 14y ago
Well, here's mine: http://www.hackerreads.com/ http://www.hackerreads.com/
naner 14y ago
For what it's worth, the OP's site is much easier to read or skim. I'm guessing it has to do with column width and coloring.

logn 14y ago

Very nice too. But some advice: the titles are way too big and look unprofessional, and the front page needs summaries. Other than that I like it.

DanielBMarkham 14y ago
Thanks. I threw it together using the first version of Bootstrap if I recall. I think the titles are actually buttons. Also the UI is buggy. I have to use the back buttons to get back to the main page. Many times it's easier just to reload the site to get to the first page. But it scales nicely out to a tablet. And a phone. Part of the initial appeal for my writing it was to download all of the daily commentary as json to my tablet. Then I could walk around town and such without having to worry about an internet connection. The idea was -- how much real static text do you consume in a day? Can't be more than 100 or so articles. So why not just download the plain text and consume it at your leisure? Another feature I wanted was the ability for people peering over my shoulder to NOT be able to tell what I was consuming. Many times at work or on the train I'd have some time to read commentary, and the last thing I wanted to do was load up a page with a branded look and feel. I wanted the plainest amount of pure text possible. I appreciate the feedback. Although I use it daily, it's not high on my list of priorities. Next up I think I'll double the amount and type of content. Maybe after that I'll go back to the UI for some rework. For me this is more of a personal thing than a business feeler. So even if nobody else in the world likes it, I'm good. :)

MichaelApproved 14y ago

Looks like there are a few of us on HN trying to solve the news consumption problem. My site[1] tries to crowdsource the summaries by encouraging the readers to summarize a story themselves. In the meantime, we create most of the summaries in-house. Newser[2] tried to do the same thing but gave up and just focused on in-house created summaries. Regarding the summary process, it's good to see another group manually summarizing posts as opposed to Summly[3] which tries automate the process. For many reasons already stated in another comment[4], I don't think automation will ever work. Good luck to the guys over at http://toolong-didntread.com http://toolong-didntread.com and http://newspaper23.com http://newspaper23.com. I hope one of us gets some real traction! [1] http://skimthat.com http://skimthat.com [2] http://www.newser.com/ http://www.newser.com/ [3] http://summly.com/ http://summly.com/ [4] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4741855 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4741855 Edit: Another product that tries to summarize news http://cir.ca/ http://cir.ca/

czzarr 14y ago
you forgot http://tldr.io http://tldr.io
- MichaelApproved 14y ago
  Thanks! I didn't know about that site before and it looks like they have many contributors. I considered doing a bookmarklet like they do but I figured that I would need a critical number of people before it could be realistic to use. In the meantime, I created a list[1] of popular stories from Reddit news sources. Each story links to a special hybrid page that allows you to write a summary on top while you read the story below. [1] http://skimthat.com/unsummarized http://skimthat.com/unsummarized edit: clarification
  - mtrimpe 14y ago
    I read the tldr.io of this TL;DR service first.
    - 14y ago

zio99 14y ago

Once again, not to step on TL;DR, but since most commenting here are saying that curation is not scalable or sustainable, I wanted to present it in this way: Phase 1: The MVP of a news aggregator should be a curated/editorial like traditional media/magazines, etc [1] Phase 2: The second stage should be to have submissions from your readers (on content that interests them). Phase 3: The next would be to have a voting mechanism, and then realizing that articles have different relevance in different communities - which is what prismatic and ypander were aiming to solve. Full Disclosure: I am working on summarizing technology news, and the tagline so far has been "Hacker News on Steroids." Before it gets to that stage, I'm skimming my most favourite feeds from Google Reader. The best mobile wrapper I've found (since I'm targeting mobile as well) has been Feedly, which presents it as more like a magazine. Keep in mind Feedly didn't start out as this 4 years ago. Another project aiming to solve this problem with a bookmarklet (and has a more appt domain name imo is tldr.io) though I personally haven't used it. Summly is another one, but after using it for a while, I found Feedly much better suited to my reading habits. I'd love to team up with others who are working on this problem. My MVP is at http://dinopost.com http://dinopost.com. Drop me a line at aaron at dinopost. [1] Phases based on Casey Accidental's blog post: Online News is Broken: http://caseyaccidental.com/online-news-is-broken/ http://caseyaccidental.com/online-news-is-broken/

czzarr 14y ago
hey there, did you know that tldr.io now offers an extension that allows you to read tldrs without leaving the HN frontpage? https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tldr/ohmamcbkcmfalompaelgoepcnbnpiioe https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/tldr/ohmamcbkcmfal... full disclosure: i'm one of the cofounders

dsplittgerber 14y ago

Your site is awesome! I've been looking for a way to read without distractions and without having to enter every single article into instapaper. What many people underestimate is that summaries have an inherent problem: bias. No two people are ever going to summarize an article the exact same way - much less so when it comes to politics etc. So before I use a site to read summaries, I have to trust the brand (I trust The Economist, for they mostly differentiate between reporting and editorializing) and I will never ever trust an anonymous bunch of people (the "crowdsourcing" summaries-solution) to accurately summarize without bias. I value as-close-to-objective-reporting-as-possible very highly - judgments I can make my own.

ams6110 14y ago
Objective reporting, if it ever existed, is a quaint artifact of history as far as I can tell. Even if explicit opinion or analysis is excluded, the mere selection of which facts to include and exclude is subject to bias of the writer/editors. The only way I can see to get the unbiased facts out of news reporting is to consume a variety of sources.

jonathanjaeger 14y ago

Newspaper23, I have a very hard time adjusting my eyes to that font/typography combo. I simply can't read the titles fast enough to return to the site. Reddit and HackerNews are easier on the eyes (same with OP's link).

drakaal 14y ago

I do want to step on their PR. This is like looking at an RSS feed. Try something like TLDRPlugin.com that actually summarizes content, and works with any web page, not just the few RSS feeds that some guy decided to include.

cjstewart88 14y ago

Well, here's mine: http://www.hackerreads.com/ http://www.hackerreads.com/

naner 14y ago

For what it's worth, the OP's site is much easier to read or skim. I'm guessing it has to do with column width and coloring.